title: Emergencies Act

text: On April 25, 2022, Trudeau appointed Justice Paul Rouleau as commissioner of an inquiry into the invocation of the "Emergencies Act". The inquiry is independent of the parliamentary review committee. By law, the inquiry must complete its report and submit it to Parliament by February 20, 2023. The inquiry was scheduled initially to start on September 19 and run until October 28. Due to Justice Rouleau undergoing surgery, the inquiry was delayed, and the public hearings ran from October 13 to December 2.


title: Emergencies Act

text: A government press release said it is hoped investigations will "prevent these events from happening again". Conservatives said the investigations are too focused on the actions of protesters and their fundraising, and not on justifying the use of the "Emergencies Act" or determining whether it was appropriate for it to have been invoked.


title: Polar regions of Earth

text: The polar regions, also called the frigid zones or polar zones, of Earth are the regions of the planet that surround its geographical poles (the North and South Poles), lying within the polar circles. These high latitudes are dominated by floating sea ice covering much of the Arctic Ocean in the north, and by the Antarctic ice sheet on the continent of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean in the south.


title: Polar regions of Earth

text: The Arctic has various definitions, including the region north of the Arctic Circle (currently Epoch 2010 at 66°33'44" N), or just the region north of 60° north latitude, or the region from the North Pole north to the timberline. The Antarctic is usually defined simply as south of 60° south latitude, or the continent of Antarctica. The 1959 Antarctic Treaty uses the former definition.


title: Polar regions of Earth

text: The two polar regions are distinguished from the other two climatic and biometric belts of Earth, a tropics belt near the equator, and two middle latitude regions located between the tropics and "polar regions".


title: Polar regions of Earth

text: Polar regions receive less intense solar radiation than the other parts of Earth because the Sun's energy arrives at an oblique angle, spreading over a larger area, being less concentrated, and also travels a longer distance through the Earth's atmosphere in which it may be absorbed, scattered or reflected, which is the same thing that causes winters to be colder than the rest of the year except in tropical regions.


title: Polar regions of Earth

text: The axial tilt of the Earth has the most effect on climate of the polar regions due to its latitude. However, since the polar regions are the farthest from the equator, they receive the weakest solar radiation and are therefore generally frigid year round due to the earth's axial tilt of 23.5° not being enough to create a high maximum midday declination to sufficiently compensate the Sun's rays for the high latitude even in summer, except for relatively brief periods in peripheral areas near the polar circles. The large amount of ice and snow also reflects and weakens of what weak sunlight the polar regions receive further, contributing to the cold. Polar regions are characterized by extremely cold temperatures, heavy glaciation wherever there is sufficient precipitation to form permanent ice, short and still cold summers, and extreme variations in daylight hours, with twenty-four hours of daylight in summer, and complete darkness at mid-winter.


title: Polar regions of Earth

text: There are many settlements in Earth's north polar region. Countries with claims to Arctic regions are: the United States (Alaska), Canada (Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut), Denmark (Greenland), Norway, Finland, Sweden, Iceland, and Russia. Arctic circumpolar populations, though small, often share more in common with each other than with other populations within their national boundaries. As such, the northern polar region is diverse in human settlements and cultures.


title: Polar regions of Earth

text: The southern polar region has no permanent human habitation as of now. McMurdo Station is the largest research station in Antarctica, run by the United States. Other notable stations include Palmer Station and Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station (United States), Esperanza Base and Marambio Base (Argentina), Scott Base (New Zealand), and Vostok Station (Russia).


title: Polar regions of Earth

text: While there are no indigenous human cultures, there is a complex ecosystem, especially along Antarctica's coastal zones. Coastal upwelling provides abundant nutrients which feeds krill, a type of marine Crustacea, which in turn feeds a complex of living creatures from penguins to blue whales.


title: Cuckoo clock

text: A cuckoo clock is, typically, a pendulum clock that strikes the hours with a sound like a common cuckoo call and has an automated cuckoo bird that moves with each note. Some move their wings and open and close their beaks while leaning forwards, whereas others have only the bird's body leaning forward. The mechanism to produce the cuckoo call has been in use since the middle of the 18th century and has remained almost without variation.


title: Cuckoo clock

text: It is unknown who invented the cuckoo clock and where the first one was made. It is thought that much of its development and evolution was made in the Black Forest area in southwestern Germany (in the modern state of Baden-Württemberg), the region where the cuckoo clock was popularized and from where it was exported to the rest of the world, becoming world-famous from the mid-1850s on. Today, the cuckoo clock is one of the favourite souvenirs of travellers in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. It has become a cultural icon of Germany.


title: Cuckoo clock

text: The design of a cuckoo clock is now conventional. Many are made in the "traditional style", which are made to hang on a wall. The classical or traditional type includes two subgroups; the carved ones, whose wooden cases are decorated with leaves, animals, etc., and a second one with cases in the shape of a chalet. They have an automaton of a bird that appears through a small trap door when the clock strikes. The cuckoo bird is activated by the clock movement as the clock strikes by means of an arm that is triggered on the hour and half hour.


title: Cuckoo clock

text: There are two kinds of movements: one-day (30-hour) and eight-day clockworks. Some have musical devices, and play a tune on a Swiss music box after striking the hours and half-hours. Usually the melody sounds only at full hours in eight-day clocks and both at full and half hours in the one-day timepieces. Musical cuckoo clocks frequently have other automata which move when the music box plays. Today's cuckoo clocks are almost always weight driven. The weights are made of cast iron usually in a pine cone shape and the "cuckoo" sound is created by two tiny gedackt pipes in the clock, with bellows attached to their tops. The clock's movement activates the bellows to send a puff of air into each pipe alternately when the timekeeper strikes.


title: Cuckoo clock

text: Since the 1970s, quartz battery-powered cuckoo clocks have become available. As with their mechanical counterparts, the cuckoo bird emerges from its enclosure and moves up and down, but often on the quartz timepieces it also flaps its wings and open its beak while it sings. Just before the call, and in case it has a door, the single or double door opens and the bird emerges as usual, but only on the full hour, and they do not have a gong wire chime. The movement of the cuckoo in such clocks is regulated by an electromagnet that pulses on and off, attracting a weight, that acts as a fulcrum, connected to the tail of the plastic cuckoo, thus moving the bird up and down in its enclosure.


title: Cuckoo clock

text: In quartz cuckoos, different systems have been used to produce the bird's call; the usual bellows, a digital recording of a real cuckoo in the wild (with a corresponding echo accompanied by the sound of a waterfall and other birds in the background) or a recording of the bird's call only. In musical versions, the hourly chime is followed by the replay of one of twelve popular melodies (one for each hour). Some musical quartz clocks in the chalet style also reproduce many of the popular automata found on mechanical musical clocks, such as beer drinkers, wood-choppers, and jumping deer.


title: Cuckoo clock

text: Uniquely, quartz cuckoo clocks often include a sensor, so that when the lights are turned off at night they automatically silence the hourly chime. Others are pre-programmed not to strike between a set of pre-determined hours. Whether this is controlled by a light sensor or pre-programmed, the function is referred to as a "night silence" feature. On quartz wall clocks in the traditional style, the weights are conventionally cast in the shape of pine cones made of plastic rather than iron. The pendulum bob is often another carved leaf. Here, the weights and pendulum are purely ornamental as the clock is driven by battery power.


title: Cuckoo clock

text: In 1629, many decades before clockmaking was established in the Black Forest, an Augsburg merchant by the name of Philipp Hainhofer (1578–1647) penned one of the first known descriptions of a modern cuckoo clock. In Dresden, he visited the Kunstkammer (Cabinet of curiosities) of Prince Elector August von Sachsen. One of the rooms contained a chiming clock with a moving bird, a cuckoo announcing every quarter of an hour, which he briefly described as: "A beautiful chiming clock, inside a cuckoo, indicating the quarter hours with its beak and call, the hours with its flapping wings and pour sugar from its tail" (translated from the German). Hainhofer does not describe what this clock may have looked like and who built it. This piece is no longer part of the Dresden Green Vault collection, but appears in a 1619 inventory book as: "In addition, there is also a new entry. 1 Clock with a cuckoo that yells. It stands on a black pedestal made of ebony on the barber's chest" (translated from the German).


title: Cuckoo clock

text: The Dresden timepiece should not have been unique, because the mechanical cuckoo was considered part of the known mechanical arts in the 17th century. In a widely known handbook on music, "Musurgia Universalis" (1650), the scholar Athanasius Kircher describes a mechanical organ with several automated figures, including a mechanical cuckoo. This book contains the first documented description—in words and pictures—of how a mechanical cuckoo works. Kircher did not invent the cuckoo mechanism, because this book, like his other works, is a compilation of known facts into a handbook for reference purposes. The engraving clearly shows all the elements of a mechanical cuckoo. The bird automatically opens its beak and moves both its wings and tail. Simultaneously, there is heard the whistle—call of the cuckoo, created by two organ pipes, tuned to a minor or major third. There is only one fundamental difference from the Black Forest-type cuckoo mechanism: The functions of Kircher's bird are not governed by a count wheel in a strike train, but a pinned program barrel synchronizes the movements and sounds of the bird.


title: Cuckoo clock

text: On the other hand, in 1669 Domenico Martinelli, in his handbook on elementary clocks "Horologi Elementari", suggests using the call of the cuckoo to indicate the hours. Starting at that time the mechanism of the cuckoo clock was known. Any mechanic or clockmaker, who could read Latin or Italian, knew after reading the books that it was feasible to have the cuckoo announce the hours.


title: Cuckoo clock

text: Subsequently, cuckoo clocks appeared in regions that had not been known for their clockmaking. For instance, the "Historische Nachrichten" (1713), an anonymous publication generally attributed to Court Preacher Bartholomäus Holzfuss, mentions a musical clock in the Oranienburg palace in Berlin. This clock, originating in West Prussia, played eight church hymns and had a cuckoo that announced the quarter hours. Unfortunately this clock, like the one mentioned by Hainhofer in 1629, can no longer be traced today.


title: Cuckoo clock

text: It is not clear who built the first cuckoo clocks in the Black Forest, but there is unanimity that the unusual clock with the bird call very quickly conquered the region. By the middle of the 18th century, several small clockmaking shops between Neustadt and Sankt Georgen were making cuckoo clocks out of wood and shields decorated with paper. After a journey through south-west Germany in 1762, Count Giuseppe Garampi, Prefect of the Vatican Archives, remarked: "In this region large quantities of wooden movement clocks are made, and even if they were not completely unknown earlier, they have now been perfected, and one has started to equip them with the cuckoo's call."


title: Cuckoo clock

text: It is hard to judge how large the proportion of cuckoo clocks was among the total production of early days Black Forest clocks. Based on the proportion of pieces surviving to the present, it must have been a small fraction of the total production. Especially 18th century cuckoo clocks, in which all the parts of the movement, including gears, were made of wood. They are extremely rare, Wilhelm Schneider was only able to list a dozen of pieces with wooden movements in his book "Frühe Kuckucksuhren (Early Cuckoo Clocks)" (2008). The cuckoo clock remained a niche product until the middle of the 19th century, made by a few specialized workshops.


title: Cuckoo clock

text: Regarding its murky origins, there are two main fables from the first two chroniclers of Black Forest horology which tell contradicting stories about it: The first is from Father Franz Steyrer, written in his "Geschichte der Schwarzwälder Uhrmacherkunst (History of the Art of Clockmaking in the Black Forest)" in 1796. He describes a meeting, happened around 1742, between two clock peddlers ("Uhrenträger", literally "clock carriers", who carried the dials and movements on their backs displayed on huge backpacks), Joseph Ganther from Neukirch (Furtwangen) and Joseph Kammerer from Furtwangen, who met a travelling Bohemian merchant who sold wooden cuckoo clocks. When they returned home, they brought with them this novelty, since it had caught their eyes, and show it to Michael Dilger from Neukirch and Matthäus Hummel from Glashütte, who were very pleased with it and began to copy it. Its popularity grew in the region and more and more clockmakers started making them. With regard to this chronicle, the historian Adolf Kistner claimed in his book "Die Schwarzwälder Uhr (The Black Forest Clock)", published in 1927, that there is not any Bohemian cuckoo clock in existence to verify the thesis that such a clock was used as a sample to copy and produce Black Forest cuckoo clocks. Bohemia had no fundamental clockmaking industry during that period.


title: Cuckoo clock

text: The second story is related by another priest, Markus Fidelis Jäck, in a passage extracted from his report "Darstellungen aus der Industrie und des Verkehrs aus dem Schwarzwald (Descriptions of the Industry and Transport of the Black Forest)", (1810) said as follows: "The cuckoo clock was invented (in the early 1730s) by a clock-master [Franz Anton Ketterer] from Schönwald. This craftsman adorned a clock with a moving bird that announced the hour with the cuckoo-call. The clock-master got the idea of how to make the cuckoo-call from the bellows of a church organ". Unfortunately, neither Steyrer nor Jäck quote any sources for their claims, making them unverifiable.


title: Cuckoo clock

text: As time went on, the second version became the more popular, and is the one generally related today, though evidence suggests its inaccuracy. This type of clock is much older than clockmaking in the Black Forest. As early as 1650, the mechanical cuckoo was part of the reference book knowledge recorded in handbooks. It took nearly a century for the cuckoo clock to find its way to the Black Forest, where for many decades it remained a tiny niche product.


title: Cuckoo clock

text: In addition, R. Dorer pointed out in 1948 that Franz Anton Ketterer (1734–1806) could not have been the inventor of the cuckoo clock in 1730, because he had not yet been born. This statement was corroborated by Gerd Bender in the most recent edition of the first volume of his work "Die Uhrenmacher des hohen Schwarzwaldes und ihre Werke (The Clockmakers of the High Black Forest and their Works)" (1998) in which he wrote that the cuckoo clock was not native to the Black Forest and also stated that: "There are no traces of the first production line of cuckoo clocks made by Ketterer". Schaaf, in "Schwarzwalduhren (Black Forest Clocks)" (1995), provides his own research which leads to the earliest cuckoos having been built in the Franconia and Lower Bavaria area, in the southeast of Germany, (forming nowadays the northern two-thirds of the Free State of Bavaria), in the direction of Bohemia (nowadays the main region of the Czech Republic), which he notes, lends credence to the Steyrer version.


title: Cuckoo clock

text: Although the idea of placing an automaton cuckoo bird in a clock to announce the passing of time did not originate in the Black Forest, the cuckoo clock as it is known today (in its traditional form decorated with wood carvings) comes from this region located in southwest Germany. The Black Forest people who created the cuckoo clock industry developed it, and still come up with new designs and technical improvements.


title: Cuckoo clock

text: Even though the functionality of the cuckoo mechanism has remained basically unchanged, the appearance has changed as case designs and clock movements evolved in the region. Around 1800, the first lacquered shield clocks appeared, the so-called "Lackschilduhr" ("lacquered shield clock"), characterized by having a painted flat square wooden face behind which all the clockwork was attached. On top of the square was usually a semicircle of highly decorated painted wood which contained the door for the cuckoo. These usually depicted floral motifs, like roses, and often had a painted column, on either side of the chapter ring, others were decorated with fruits as well. Some pieces also bore the names of the bride and bridegroom on the dial, which were normally painted by women. There was no cabinet surrounding the clockwork in this model. This design was the most prevalent during the first half of the 19th century.


title: Cuckoo clock

text: By the middle of the 19th century, Black Foresters began to experiment with a variety of forms. In the 1840s, the Beha company had already been selling "Biedermeier" style table cuckoo clocks. Up until now, clocks had mainly been manufactured with a large shield hiding the movement behind, without a case surrounding it. Now, for the first time, timepieces with a real case were produced in large numbers. These clocks with their simple geometric shapes, some with small columns on both sides of the dial for decoration, are reminiscent of the art of the "Biedermeier" period. Such pieces were built between 1840 and the 1890s - and sometimes a cuckoo was included in these simple ""Biedermeier" clocks". Some models had also a painting of a person or animal with moving eyes.


title: Cuckoo clock

text: Towards the middle of the 19th century until the 1880s, picture frame cuckoo clocks also became available. As the name suggests, these wall timepieces consisted of a picture frame, usually with a typical Black Forest scene painted on a wooden background or a sheet metal, lithography and screen-printing were other techniques used. Other common themes depicted were; hunting, love, family, death, birth, mythology, military and Christian religious scenes. Works by painters such as Johann Baptist Laule (1817–1895) and Carl Heine (1842–1882) were used to decorate the fronts of this and other types of clocks. The painting was almost always protected by a glass and some models displayed a person or an animal with blinking or flirty eyes as well, being operated by a simple mechanism worked by means of the pendulum swinging. The cuckoo normally took part in the scene painted, and would pop out in 3D, as usual, to announce the hour.


title: Cuckoo clock

text: Another type of picture frame clock ("Rahmenuhr") produced in the region from the middle of the 19th century, was based on a Viennese model from around 1830. The front of these timepieces was decorated with a serially stamped brass plate. The brass was given a gold-coloured surface by polishing it or treating it with nitric acid. Some of these pieces, which were produced in large numbers up until the 1880s, were also available with a cuckoo mechanism.


title: Cuckoo clock

text: As for house-shaped cases, in the 1870s the Beha company marketed table and wall models of considerable size, so-called "Herrenhäusle" ("House of Lords", a manor house or mansion), whose detailed wooden cases replicated attic windows from where the cuckoo pop out, a shingle roof with chimney, rain gutters and downpipes, etc.


title: Cuckoo clock

text: On the other hand, from the 1860s until the early 20th century, cases were manufactured in a wide variety of styles such as; Neoclassical or Georgian (certain pieces also displayed a painting), neo-Gothic, neo-Renaissance, neo-Baroque, Art Nouveau, etc., becoming a suitable decorative object for the bourgeois home. These timepieces are less common than the popular ones looking like gatekeeper-houses ("Bahnhäusle" style clocks) and they could be mantel, wall or bracket clocks.


title: Cuckoo clock

text: However, the popular house-shaped "Bahnhäusleuhr" ("railway-house clock") virtually forced the discontinuation of other styles within a few decades.


title: Cuckoo clock

text: In September 1850, the first director of the Grand Duchy of Baden Clockmakers School in Furtwangen, Robert Gerwig, launched a public competition to submit designs for modern clockcases, which would allow homemade products to attain a professional appearance.


title: Cuckoo clock

text: Friedrich Eisenlohr (1805–1854), who as an architect had been responsible for creating the buildings along the then new and first Badenese Rhine valley railway, submitted the most far-reaching design. Eisenlohr enhanced the facade of a standard railroad-guard's residence, as he had built many of them, with a clock dial. His "Wallclock with shield decorated by ivy vines", (in reality the ornament were grapevines and not ivy) as it is referred to in a surviving, handwritten report from the Clockmakers School from 1851 or 1852, became the prototype of today's popular souvenir cuckoo clocks.


title: Cuckoo clock

text: Eisenlohr was also up-to-date stylistically. He was inspired by local images; rather than copying them slavishly, he modified them. Contrary to most present-day cuckoo clocks, his case features light, unstained wood and were decorated with symmetrical, flat fretwork ornaments. His idea became an instant hit, because the modern design of the "Bahnhäusle" clock appealed to the decorating tastes of the growing bourgeoisie and thereby tapped into new and growing markets.


title: Cuckoo clock

text: While the Clockmakers School was satisfied to have Eisenlohr's clock case sketches, they were not fully realized in their original form. Eisenlohr had proposed a wooden facade; Gerwig preferred a painted metal front combined with an enamel dial. But despite intensive campaigns by the Clockmakers School, sheet metal fronts decorated with oil paintings (or coloured lithographs) never became a major market segment because of the high cost and labour-intensive process, hence they were only produced (from the 1850s until around 1880), whether wall or mantel versions.


title: Cuckoo clock

text: Characteristically, the makers of the first "Bahnhäusle" clocks deviated from Eisenlohr's sketch in only one way: they left out the cuckoo mechanism. Unlike today, the design with the little house was not synonymous with a cuckoo clock in the first years after 1850. This is another indication that at that time cuckoo clocks could not have been an important market segment.


title: Cuckoo clock

text: Only in December 1854, Johann Baptist Beha, the best known maker of cuckoo clocks of his time, sold two of them, with oil paintings on their fronts, to the Furtwangen clock dealer Gordian Hettich, which were described as "Bahnhöfle Uhren" ("railway station clocks"). More than a year later, on 20 January 1856, another respected Furtwangen-based cuckoo clockmaker, Theodor Ketterer, sold one to Joseph Ruff in Glasgow.


title: Cuckoo clock

text: Concurrently with Beha and Ketterer, other Black Forest clockmakers must have started to equip "Bahnhäusle" clocks with cuckoo mechanisms to satisfy the rapidly growing demand for this type of clock. Starting in the mid-1850s there was a real boom in this market. For example, numerous exhibitors at the trade exhibition in Villingen in 1858 offered cuckoo clocks in the "Bahnhäuschenkasten" or "Bahnwartshaus".


title: Cuckoo clock

text: By 1862, Johann Baptist Beha started to enhance his richly decorated "Bahnhäusle" clocks with hands carved from bone and weights cast in the shape of fir cones. Even today this combination of elements is characteristic for cuckoo clocks, although the hands are usually made of wood or plastic, white celluloid was employed in the past too. As for the weights, there was during this second half of the 19th century, a few models which featured weights cast in the shape of a Gnome and other curious forms.


title: Cuckoo clock

text: Thanks to Eisenlohr's design, the cuckoo clock became one of the most successful Black Forest products within a few years. In a report on the exhibition of local products at the 1873 Vienna World's Fair, Karl Schott, the then head of the "Furtwanger Landesgewerbehalle" (Furtwangen State Trade Hall), wrote "that today the cuckoo clock is one of the most sought-after clocks in the Black Forest". At the time of the Vienna exhibition, cuckoo clocks were not only sold on the German domestic market, but in many regions of the world. The main export countries in Europe were Switzerland, England, Russia and the Ottoman Empire. Schott also named overseas sales in his 1873 report: North America, Mexico, South America, Australia, India, Japan, China and even the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii).


title: Cuckoo clock

text: By 1860, the "Bahnhäusle" style had started to develop away from its original, "severe" graphic form, and evolved toward the well-known case with three-dimensional woodcarvings, like the "Jagdstück" ("hunt piece", design created in Furtwangen in 1861), a cuckoo clock with a carved oak foliage and hunting motives, such as trophy animals, guns and powder pouches. Only ten years after its invention by Friedrich Eisenlohr, all variations of the house-theme had reached maturity. "Bahnhäusle" timepieces and its variations were also available as a mantel clock, but not as many compared to the wall version.


title: Cuckoo clock

text: These ornate timepieces were not made by one clockmaker only, otherwise such a complex product could not have been produced at acceptable prices. There were numerous specialists who assisted the clockmakers. In 1873, Karl Schott reported on the division of labour at the Vienna Exhibition: "The birds are mostly carved and painted by women. The pipes are made by a pipe maker. In addition to a number of master craftsmen, there are also a number of large companies involved in the manufacture of cuckoo clocks, and the cuckoo clock maker rarely makes them himself. Rather, he obtains the movements, reworks them with precision, attaches the bellows and pipes and thus puts the finished movement in the case."


title: Cuckoo clock

text: The division of labour meant that different clockmakers purchased completely identical parts from the same suppliers. Therefore, small components in particular, such as hands or dials, showed a tendency towards standardization. But it also happened from time to time that movements from different manufacturers were found in cases that looked the same on the outside, simply because they came from the same case maker.


title: Cuckoo clock

text: The basic cuckoo clock of today is the railway-house ("Bahnhäusle") form, still with its rich ornamentation, and these are known under the name of "carved", "classic" or "traditional"; which display carved leaves, birds, deer heads ("Jagdstück" design), other animals, etc. The richly decorated "Bahnhäusle" clocks have become a symbol of the Black Forest that is instantly understood anywhere in the world.


title: Cuckoo clock

text: The cuckoo clock became successful and world-famous after Friedrich Eisenlohr contributed the "Bahnhäusle" design to the 1850 competition at the Furtwangen Clockmakers School.


title: Cuckoo clock

text: The chalet style cuckoo clock, whose case reproduce to scale a traditional farmhouse, originated in Switzerland in the 19th century. The miniature Swiss chalets date back to the beginnings of artistic wood carving in Brienz, in the early 19th century. The Brienzerware chalet became a popular souvenir, allowing tourists to take home an explicit reminder of a quintessential Swiss structure, though some were rather grand in scale, measuring three or more feet across. Many of these chalets, crafted in different sizes, doubled as music boxes, jewellery boxes, decorative objects, timepieces, etc. Some of those table clocks had also the added feature of a cuckoo bird or the tandem composed of a cuckoo and quail.


title: Cuckoo clock

text: Eventually, Black Forest makers incorporated the chalet style to their production in the early 20th century, and still remains a popular choice, along with the carved ones, among buyers of this cult item. Cases are usually made after the traditional farmhouses of different regions, such as the Black Forest, Swiss Alps, Emmental, Bavaria and Tyrol. They often have a musical movement, as well as moving figurines and some other elements.


title: Cuckoo clock

text: Contrary to popular belief, Switzerland is not the birthplace of the cuckoo clock. In the English-speaking world, cuckoo clocks are sufficiently identified with Switzerland that the 1949 film "The Third Man" has an oft-quoted speech (and it even had antecedents) in which the villainous Harry Lime mockingly says that "in Switzerland they had brotherly love, five hundred years of democracy and peace. And what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."


title: Cuckoo clock

text: Apart from the Black Forest, the cuckoo clock was also made in England in the 18th century. It seems that very few of these London timepieces were produced, an indication that in those days, before the worldwide popularization of the cuckoo clock from the second half of the 19th century, there was not a high demand for them.


title: Cuckoo clock

text: There is at least one example, intended for the Spanish market. It is a circa 1785 George III bracket clock, eight-day time, three-fusee, verge escapement, which announces the quarters on eight bells and gives the hours on a deep toned cuckoo, pull quarter repeat on command. The two pipes and bellows for the bird's sound are located at the base of the case, below the movement. Those pipes are placed horizontally, the same position seen in early Black Forest cuckoos. Both the dial and the elaborately engraved back plate, read: "Higgs y / Diego Evans / Londres".


title: Cuckoo clock

text: Robert Higgs and his son Peter were in partnership together as Robert and Peter Higgs, and later, between 1780 and 1785 with James Evans, who sometimes styled himself in Spanish as Diego Evans. They traded musical and other complex clocks, many for the Spanish market.


title: Cuckoo clock

text: In the mid-20th century, Camerer, Cuss & Co., London, a retailer of Black Forest clocks, etc., produced a few different models in the shape of a half-timbered Tudor style house. The bird was cast aluminum with movable beak and fixed wings and the weights were cylindrical, rather than pine-cone shaped. They were featured in a Pathé News newsreel in 1950.


title: Cuckoo clock

text: According to author Terence Camerer Cuss, the company hoped to produced them in large quantities, but due to the high manufacturing cost, only fifty were made between 1949 and 1951. One of them, marked "01", was presented by the maker to the then Prince Charles in 1949 and is part of the Royal Collection.


title: Cuckoo clock

text: Cuckoo clocks have been imported to the US by German immigrants for a long time, especially in the 19th century. There are two well-known cuckoo clock manufacturers in the USA: The New England Cuckoo Clock Company was founded in 1958 by W. Kenneth Sessions Jr. and operated in Bristol, Connecticut. The design of the models is clearly American. The clocks were made with Hubert Herr clockworks that were imported from Triberg. The printed and colored paper dials of the clocks are unmistakable, as is the early American design. The clocks were designed by Nils Magnus Tornquist. A kit watch was also offered.


title: Cuckoo clock

text: The second is the American Cuckoo Clock Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which originated in the 1890s and imported German clocks. Eventually, the company switched to importing clockworks only and building cuckoo clocks in the USA.


title: Cuckoo clock

text: In the 1940s and 50s cuckoo clocks were made in Portugal by Fábrica Nacional de Relógios A Boa Reguladora, Reguladora from 1953, in Vila Nova de Famalicão. Their models were in the Black Forest traditional style, with wood carved animals and leaves, and they could be spring-driven or weight-driven. Since its early years, the Portuguese clockmaking company was a fully integrated enterprise, making its own cases and movements (until 1995).


title: Cuckoo clock

text: In Brazil, they were manufactured between the 1940s and the 1970s, marketed under different brand names such as Astro, Rei, H and Inrebra, the last two by INREBRA (Indústria de Relógios do Brasil Ltda.), São Paulo. Same as the Portuguese cuckoos, they were inspired by Black Forest models, with wood carvings or cases in the shape of a chalet.


title: Cuckoo clock

text: From the early 1950s until the 1990s, cuckoo clocks were made in the former Soviet Union by the Serdobsk Clock Factory, which were sold under the trademark "Маяк" (transliterated as Majak) from 1963. They produced a range of models with a distinctive style; a colourful front painted with floral and vegetal motifs, spruce branches in relief, Russian motifs, basic decoration or any, a deer head on top, etc. One model in particular, composed of a bird on top and five wine leaves was directly based on a Black Forest one.


title: Cuckoo clock

text: In Japan, its production began in 1949. Those early timepieces, in the Black Forest style, were marketed under the trademark Poppo by Tezuka Clock Co., Ltd., Tokyo, and usually had stamped "Made in Occupied Japan" on plate and dial. This term was used in items produced in the country between late 1945 and early 1952, after World War II.


title: Cuckoo clock

text: In China and South Korea, cuckoo clocks also began to be manufactured in the second half of the 20th century.


title: Cuckoo clock

text: The early 21st century has seen a revitalization of the iconic timepiece with designs, materials, technologies, shapes and colours never seen before in cuckoo clock manufacturing. These timekeepers are distinguished by its functional, schematic and minimalist aesthetic.


title: Cuckoo clock

text: Although simplified designs with simple, clear lines had already been produced in the 20th century, the real boom of seeing the cuckoo clock as a designer item, where the creativity and talent of designers are freely expressed and where the only limit seems to be imagination, was initiated in the 2000s (the first examples dating back to the 1990s), particularly in Italy, Germany and Japan.


title: Cuckoo clock

text: There are a wide variety of models, many of them avant-garde creations made of different materials and geometric shapes, such as rhombuses, squares, cubes, circles, rectangles, etc. Without carving, these clocks are usually flat and smooth. Some are painted in a single colour while others are polychromes with abstract or figurative paintings, others include text and phrases, etc. About the clockwork, there are quartz, mechanical and sometimes, digital.


title: Cuckoo clock

text: In Europe, museums that display collections are the Cuckooland Museum in the UK with more than 700 clocks, the Deutsches Uhrenmuseum and Dorf- und Uhrenmuseum Gütenbach in Germany.


title: Cuckoo clock

text: One of the biggest private collections in the United States that is open to the public is located in Minneapolis. It contains more than 300 cuckoo clocks.


title: Army of Lovers

text: Army of Lovers is a Swedish dance-pop group which formed in 1987 and had a number of hits in Europe throughout the 1990s. Some of their biggest successes include the song "Crucified", which was a big hit in Europe, charting 31 weeks in the Eurochart and peaking at number 14 in 1992. It remains their best-known song internationally. Their second international hit, "Obsession", charted 32 weeks and peaked at number 29.


title: Army of Lovers

text: The name of the band alludes to the documentary film "Army of Lovers or Revolt of the Perverts" by German gay rights activist Rosa von Praunheim, the title of which in turn alludes to the Sacred Band of Thebes.


title: Army of Lovers

text: The founding members, who had all worked together in a band called Barbie, were Alexander Bard, Jean-Pierre Barda, and Camilla Henemark (aka La Camilla).


title: Army of Lovers

text: Army of Lovers had many top 10 hits on the Eurochart, the biggest being "Crucified", which was one of the biggest-selling European singles of 1991. Their total album sales were seven million copies worldwide.


title: Army of Lovers

text: The band became famous for their outlandish visual appearance (many of their costumes were created by Camilla Thulin), and their high camp music videos directed by Fredrik Boklund.


title: Army of Lovers

text: While Alexander Bard was the brain behind the band, Jean-Pierre Barda was the lead vocalist on hits such as "Crucified" and "Israelism". Bard and Barda were the only two band members who were present throughout all of the band's various line-ups. When La Camilla left in 1991, she was replaced by Michaela de la Cour. In 1992, Dominika Peczynski joined, making the band a four-piece. In 1995, De la Cour left and Henemark returned.


title: Army of Lovers

text: Although both "Obsession" and "Ride the Bullet" reached the top spot of the European charts, the group's presence in the US and the UK was limited to club chart successes (though "Crucified" reached the Top 40 in the UK Singles Chart in February 1992).


title: Army of Lovers

text: While they focused on experimenting with various club sounds and samples on their first album, "Disco Extravaganza" (later re-issued as "Army of Lovers" in the US), the artists released a proper pop/dance album with "Massive Luxury Overdose". The record spawned their biggest hits ("Crucified", "Ride the Bullet", and "Obsession") and managed to sell 250,000 copies in Germany alone. "Massive Luxury Overdose" was later re-issued for the US market, featuring a new cover and four brand new tracks. Their fourth album, "The Gods of Earth and Heaven", was never released in the US. The first single from the album, "Israelism", received radio airplay in several European countries and topped the charts in Israel despite being subject to criticism. Their fifth album, "Glory, Glamour and Gold" (1994), was supported by a club tour across Germany, where the band promoted same-sex marriage. In 1995, Army of Lovers released their first best-of compilation entitled "Les Greatest Hits", which included three new songs. One year later, it was re-released with one additional new song called "King Midas", which replaced "Stand up for Myself". It was written by Jonas Berggren from Ace of Base.


title: Army of Lovers

text: By this point, they had released five studio albums, made over twenty music videos, and become successful across Eastern Europe before Bard disbanded the group to concentrate on his new group Vacuum in 1996.


title: Army of Lovers

text: Army of Lovers reformed briefly in 2001 to celebrate the 10th anniversary since their breakthrough with the release of another best-of compilation called "Le Grand Docu-Soap". The compilation contained three covers, including "Let the Sunshine In" and "Hands Up".


title: Army of Lovers

text: Two members of Army of Lovers (La Camilla and Dominika) reunited in June 2011 and appeared as guest vocalists on "Don't Try to Steal My Limelight", a single by Swedish drag artist and blogger Miss Inga. The three later formed the band Happy Hoes and released "We Rule the World", followed by a Christmas song entitled "Happy Ho Ho Ho". Happy Hoes performed at Pride 2012. Army of Lovers reformed with Alexander Bard, Camilla Henemark, and Jean-Pierre Barda in late 2012 to enter the Melodifestivalen 2013 with the song "Rockin' the Ride", in hopes of representing Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 in Malmö. Their entry did not reach the finals of the Melodifestivalen. Just a few days after their performance, Bard explained to the press that Camilla Henemark had been kicked out once again and that Dominika Peczynski had returned. This was followed by a public fight between Bard and Peczynski against Henemark.


title: Army of Lovers

text: A new best-of compilation, with four new songs, called "Big Battle of Egos", was announced for release on 27 March 2013, to be followed by a single and video called "Signed on My Tattoo", a duet between Army of Lovers and Alexander Bard with his other pop group Gravitonas.


title: Army of Lovers

text: In June 2013, an EP called "Scandinavian Crime" was released, which included re-recorded versions of "Rockin' The Ride" and "Tragedy", originally from their CD "Big Battle of Egos". These new versions featured new vocals by Dominika Peczynski and Jean-Pierre Barda, replacing the parts originally sung by Camilla Henemark. On 1 July 2013, the video for "Crucified 2013" premiered on Expressen TV. The song was a revamped version of the band's breakthrough hit from 1991 and was chosen as the official anthem for Copenhagen Pride 2013. Versions with bridge vocals by both Peczynski and Henemark exist.


title: Army of Lovers

text: The band still does live performances on special occasions; Alexander Bard officially retired from the music business in 2015.


title: Army of Lovers

text: A new documentary, "Army of Lovers in the Holy Land", premiered in September 2018 at Haifa International Film Festival in Israel.


title: Demetrius Shipp Jr.

text: Demetrius Shipp Jr. (born November 20, 1988) is an American actor. He portrayed rapper and actor Tupac Shakur in the 2017 biopic "All Eyez on Me", as well as gang leader Tyrone Moore in "All American".


title: Demetrius Shipp Jr.

text: Shipp was cast in the role of Tupac in 2011, after a friend suggested he audition given his strong resemblance to the legendary hip-hop artist. Shipp remarked in an interview that he "never aspired to act." Principal photography did not begin until 2015, and the film was released in June 2017. Shipp's father worked with Tupac Shakur on the 1996 album "" on the song "Toss It Up".


title: I Wanna Hear Your Song

text: I Wanna Hear Your Song () is a 2019 South Korean television series starring Yeon Woo-jin, Kim Se-jeong, Song Jae-rim and Park Ji-yeon. It aired on KBS2 from August 5 to September 24, 2019.


title: I Wanna Hear Your Song

text: Hong Yi-young witnessed a murder but she cannot remember anything about what happened. With the help of Jang Yoon, she tries to recover her memories from that day.


title: Fantasian

text: Fantasian is a 2021 role-playing video game developed and published by Mistwalker for iOS devices through the Apple Arcade service. It was produced and written by Hironobu Sakaguchi with music by Nobuo Uematsu, who are best known as the original creators and pioneers behind the "Final Fantasy" series. The game is split into two parts, with the first released worldwide on April 2, 2021, and the second part released on August 13, 2021.


title: Fantasian

text: The game's plot revolves around Leo, a young man who becomes amnesiac after entering an alternate universe known as the Machine Realm. Various characters join him in his quest to recover his memory and discover who he is, while also confronting the mysterious Vam the Malevolent along the way.


title: Fantasian

text: Exploring the world of "Fantasian" involves players tapping on a location, which Leo will then navigate his way to. As the player navigates the world, random encounters occur where the player must fight a small group of enemies. During these battles, the game changes to a turn-based RPG. When in combat, the player controls a small party, where during the player's turn, the player can deal physical damage to a single enemy, use items to aid themselves or cure status ailments, or use skills that require magic points such as offensive magic attacks or attacks that hit multiple enemies. When playing on a mobile device, players can swipe on the screen with their finger to select multiple targets to attack. Characters earn experience points after battles that automatically increase their stats when a character "levels up," and a skill tree is accessible towards the end of the first part of the game.


title: Fantasian

text: Equipment can be purchased from various stores or obtained by treasure chests scattered throughout the world to increase a character's attack or defence stat. The game features checkpoints and save points that save the player's progress.


title: Fantasian

text: A unique element to "Fantasian" is the "Dimengeon" system which allows players to skip battles against previously encountered enemies. When the "Dimengeon" system is enabled, players do not fight enemies immediately – instead, the enemies are placed into the "Dimengeon", thus allowing players to explore the game's world without interruption. However, the "Dimengeon" can only hold a certain amount of enemies, and once this capacity has been exceeded, the player is forced to fight all of the enemies they have accumulated at once. Various enhancements are available during these "Dimengeon" battles, such as increased attack power or the ability to steal a turn from an enemy, to help the player fight the large amount of enemies.


title: Fantasian

text: The game does not contain any microtransactions, a feature of games available through Apple Arcade. The game also has mouse and keyboard support and can be played with controllers such as the DualShock 4.


title: Fantasian

text: "Fantasian" began development in 2018. It was first announced during Apple's introductory video of Apple Arcade on March 25, 2019. The game was developed by Mistwalker, a studio founded by Sakaguchi in 2004. The game was first conceived after Sakaguchi had met with some Apple employees, who were fans of both "Final Fantasy" and Uematsu's work. After spending some time conceptualizing on possible ideas, Sakaguchi's team wondered if it would be possible to create a game for Apple. The game was created with the Unity game engine.


title: Fantasian

text: Conceptually, Sakaguchi felt inspired to go "back to [his] roots" after replaying "Final Fantasy VI" in 2018 with some of his former colleagues who had worked on the game. Prior to this, the producer had spent time working on mobile games like "Party Wave" and "Blade Guardian", with his last narrative role-playing game being 2011's "The Last Story" for the Wii. With "Fantasian", Sakaguchi wanted to work on something that emulated the Japanese role-playing games (JRPG) of the past, stating that it was a style that he enjoyed and that "old styles can be great in their own right". He also acknowledged that potentially, "Fantasian" could be his last project due to his age.


title: Fantasian

text: Visually, "Fantasian" uses hand-crafted dioramas, a concept decided upon at the beginning of its development. A miniatures hobbyist, Sakaguchi had previously used hand-crafted elements in the mobile strategy game "Terra Wars", and wanted to explore the concept further in a traditional RPG. Unlike the pre-rendered levels from earlier "Final Fantasy" games, "Fantasian" used drones equipped with 3D scanning technology to digitally recreate miniature sets built by hand. Over 150 dioramas were created this way. The dioramas were created by veterans of Japan's "Tokusatsu" industry, including one created by Akira Toriyama of "Dragon Ball" fame. This process was laborious, and required longer conceptual planning times since the development team could not go back and change things in a 3D modelling program. Despite saying that a game "with a diorama [development] pipeline probably shouldn't exist", Sakaguchi noted that this process was necessary in order to get the appearance he wanted, saying that it offers a "unique handmade touch that cannot be replicated." Due to the challenge of modifying the dioramas, gameplay and story elements were changed to match them instead of the other way around. Sakaguchi developed the Dimengeon system because he felt that random encounter battles would interrupt players' peaceful exploration of the diorama environment.


title: Fantasian

text: "Fantasian" is composed of two parts, with the first part taking 20 to 30 hours to complete, while the second completes the story with an additional 40 to 60 hours of content. The first part was released worldwide on April 2, 2021. The second part was released on August 12.


title: Fantasian

text: The game's music was composed by Nobuo Uematsu. Uematsu had previously worked on other Mistwalker titles, and for "Fantasian", he composed 60 tracks for its soundtrack and considers "Fantasian"s music as the best soundtrack he has ever made. Alluding to health issues, Uematsu noted that like Sakaguchi, the "Fantasian" soundtrack could be his last complete soundtrack.


title: Fantasian

text: "Fantasian"'s soundtrack consists of a fusion of baroque-style music with synthesizers. Wanting to break free of conventional music found in the JRPG genre, Uematsu experimented with elements like dissonance and ethnic instruments. Some of the music features improvisations, which the composer had never used in his video game soundtracks prior to "Fantasian". Over the period of a year, he spent 13 hours per day composing music for the game. The soundtrack became available for streaming through Apple Music in July 2021.


title: Fantasian

text: "Fantasian" received "generally favorable reviews" according to Metacritic. Particular praise was given to the "Dimengeon" system, the diorama sets, the soundtrack, and the gameplay during battles, while criticism centered around the game's story being a typical JRPG story, navigating the world being somewhat cumbersome via the touch controls, and the game's graphics being subpar when playing the game on higher-resolution devices such as through macOS.


title: Mission Viejo, California

text: Mission Viejo ( ; corruption of "Misión Vieja", Spanish for "Old Mission") is a commuter city in the Saddleback Valley in Orange County, California, United States. Mission Viejo is considered one of the largest master-planned communities ever built under a single project in the United States and is rivaled only by Highlands Ranch in size. Its population as of 2020 was 93,653.


title: Mission Viejo, California

text: Mission Viejo is suburban in nature and culture, and consists of residential properties, offices and businesses. The city is noted for its tree-lined neighborhoods, receiving recognition from the National Arbor Day Foundation. The city's name is a reference to Rancho Mission Viejo, a large Spanish land grant from which the community was founded.


title: Mission Viejo, California

text: Rancho Mission Viejo was purchased by Don Juan Forster, an English-born Mexican ranchero. During the Mexican–American War, Forster provided fresh horses to United States military forces which were used on the march of San Diego to invade Los Angeles.


title: Mission Viejo, California

text: Mission Viejo was a hilly region primarily used as cattle and sheep grazing land, since it was of little use to farmers. This city was one of the last regions of Orange County to be urbanized due to its geologic complexity. In 1960, early developers dismissed most of the land in Mission Viejo as simply "undevelopable".


title: Mission Viejo, California

text: Donald Bren, an urban planner who later became the president of the Irvine Company, drafted a master plan which placed roads in the valleys and houses on the hills, and contoured to the geography of the area. The plan worked, and by 1980 much of the city of Mission Viejo was completed. During the late 1970s and the 1980s, houses in Mission Viejo were in such high demand that housing tracts often sold out before construction even began on them. The houses and shopping centers in the city are almost uniformly designed in a Spanish mission style, with "adobe"-like stucco walls and barrel-tile roofs. Many point to Mission Viejo as the first and largest manifestation of Bren's obsession with Spanish architecture. Bren's company was also the creator of the developments in Irvine and Newport Beach. The company expanded its operations and went on to build the Lakes project in Tempe, Arizona, Mission Viejo Aurora in Colorado and was the initial master planner of Highlands Ranch, both in the Denver Metropolitan area.


title: Mission Viejo, California

text: The seal of the city of Mission Viejo was designed and drawn by Carl Glassford, an artist and former resident of the city.


title: Mission Viejo, California

text: According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and (2.12%) is water. A significant portion of the surface water is held in Lake Mission Viejo, an artificial lake stretching approximately one mile from Olympiad Road to Alicia Parkway along Marguerite Parkway.


title: Mission Viejo, California

text: Mission Viejo is located southeast of Los Angeles, and northwest of San Diego. It is bordered by Lake Forest on the northwest, Trabuco Canyon on the northeast, Rancho Santa Margarita and Ladera Ranch on the east, San Juan Capistrano on the south, and Laguna Niguel and Laguna Hills on the west.


title: Mission Viejo, California

text: Mission Viejo enjoys a borderline semi-arid/Mediterranean climate (Köppen climate classification "BSh/Csa"), with mild temperatures and plentiful sunshine year-round. Rainfall totals, which average around annually are focused primarily in the months from November to March. Summer is very dry and virtually rainless. Due to the city's proximity to the ocean, nighttime and morning clouds are fairly common, especially in May and June, a weather phenomenon commonly known as June Gloom or May Gray.


title: Mission Viejo, California

text: Like most of Southern California, the city is prone to dry Santa Ana winds, bringing hot air from inland and punctuating the normally mild temperatures with noticeable jumps. For example, temperatures have reached highs of and above throughout many months of the year, occasionally into autumn. From 2012 to 2016, California experienced the worst drought in a century. In 2016, California experienced more rainfall than expected and ended most of the drought. Orange County was the last to have drought restrictions lifted.


title: Mission Viejo, California

text: The 2020 United States Census reported that Mission Viejo had a population of 93,653. The racial makeup of Mission Viejo was 67,617 (72.2%) White (62.1% Non-Hispanic White), 1,030 (1.1%) African American, 281 (0.3%) Native American, 13,018 (13.9%) Asian, 94 (0.1%) Pacific Islander, and 7,961 (8.5%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 17,326 persons (18.5%).


title: Mission Viejo, California

text: There were 5,057 (5.4%) persons under the age of 5, 18,824 (20.3%) persons under the age of 18, and 19,948 (21.3%) persons over the age of 65. In the census, 47,295 (50.5%) of people were female while 46,358 (45.5%) were male.


title: Mission Viejo, California

text: The 2010 United States Census reported that Mission Viejo had a population of 93,305. The population density was . The racial makeup of Mission Viejo was 74,493 (79.8%) White (68.9% Non-Hispanic White), 1,210 (1.3%) African American, 379 (0.4%) Native American, 8,462 (9.1%) Asian, 153 (0.2%) Pacific Islander, 4,332 (4.6%) from other races, and 4,276 (4.6%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 15,877 persons (17.0%).


title: Mission Viejo, California

text: The Census reported that 92,363 people (99.0% of the population) lived in households, 859 (0.9%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 83 (0.1%) were institutionalized.


title: Mission Viejo, California

text: There were 33,208 households, out of which 11,767 (35.4%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 20,792 (62.6%) were opposite-sex married couples living together, 2,967 (8.9%) had a female householder with no husband present, 1,306 (3.9%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 1,211 (3.6%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 225 (0.7%) same-sex married couples or partnerships. 6,314 households (19.0%) were made up of individuals, and 2,949 (8.9%) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.78. There were 25,065 families (75.5% of all households); the average family size was 3.18.


title: Mission Viejo, California

text: The population was spread out, with 21,270 people (22.8%) under the age of 18, 7,852 people (8.4%) aged 18 to 24, 21,648 people (23.2%) aged 25 to 44, 29,003 people (31.1%) aged 45 to 64, and 13,532 people (14.5%) who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 42.2 years. For every 100 females, there were 95.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.2 males.


title: Mission Viejo, California

text: There were 34,228 housing units at an average density of , of which 25,859 (77.9%) were owner-occupied, and 7,349 (22.1%) were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 0.9%; the rental vacancy rate was 4.9%. 72,390 people (77.6% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 19,973 people (21.4%) lived in rental housing units.


title: Mission Viejo, California

text: According to the 2010 United States Census, Mission Viejo had a median household income of $96,088, with 5.3% of the population living below the federal poverty line.


title: Mission Viejo, California

text: The Mission Viejo-Lake Forest-San Clemente urban area (which also includes the cities of Aliso Viejo, Dana Point, Laguna Beach, Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel, Laguna Woods, Rancho Santa Margarita and San Juan Capistrano) had a population of 583,681 at the 2010 Census.


title: Mission Viejo, California

text: At the 2000 census, there were 93,102 people, 32,449 households and 25,212 families residing in the city. The population density was 4,990.1 inhabitants per square mile (1,926.4/km). There were 32,986 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 79.7% white, 1.6% African American, 0.4% Native American, 8.3% Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 6.2% from other races, and 3.7% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 15.9% of the population. There were 32,449 households, out of which 39.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 66.1% were married couples living together, 8.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 22.3% were non-families. 17.3% of all households were made up of individuals, and 6.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.84 and the average family size was 3.22.


title: Mission Viejo, California

text: Age distribution was 27.1% under the age of 18, 6.6% from 18 to 24, 30.5% from 25 to 44, 24.9% from 45 to 64, and 10.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females, there were 95.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.7 males.


title: Mission Viejo, California

text: According to a 2008 estimate, the median household income was $93,330, and the median family income was $113,439. Males had a median income of $74,703 versus $53,196 for females. The per capita income for the city was $41,459. 1.9% of families and 4.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 5.1% of those under age 18 and 6% of those age 65 or over.


title: Mission Viejo, California

text: According to the city's 2021 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in the city were:


title: Mission Viejo, California

text: Marie Callender's has its corporate headquarters in the Marie Callender's Corporate Support Center in Mission Viejo.


title: Mission Viejo, California

text: The Shops at Mission Viejo and the Kaleidoscope Center serve as the city's two main shopping, dining and entertainment centers. Both cater to an upper middle class customer demographic and feature family-oriented facilities and services.


title: Mission Viejo, California

text: Mission Viejo also hosts a number of athletic events such as 5K runs and triathlons throughout the year. The city holds a variety of annually recurring events to celebrate holidays including a street fair and fireworks for Independence Day and public decorations and interactive activities for children during the winter holiday season featuring representation for multiple popular religions.


title: Mission Viejo, California

text: Mission Viejo has a major youth athletic facility, Mission Viejo Youth Athletic Park. The park consists of eight baseball fields and five soccer fields. It is host to Little League District 68, AYSO Region 84, and four competitive soccer clubs: Pateadores Soccer Club, Mission Viejo Soccer Club, West Coast Futbol Club, and Saddleback United Soccer Club.


title: Mission Viejo, California

text: The Mission Viejo Nadadores Swimming and Mission Viejo Nadadores Diving Team won a string of national championships and produced a number of Olympians and world record holders in the 1970s and 1980s. Olympians included Shirley Babashoff, Brian Goodell, Larson Jenson, Maryanne Graham, Nicole Kramer, Casy Converse, Marcia Morey, Dara Torres, and Greg Louganis.


title: Mission Viejo, California

text: Mission Viejo hosted the Road Cycling Events during the 1984 Summer Olympics held in Los Angeles. The old O'Neill Road was renamed Olympiad Rd. in honor of the Olympic events in 1984. In 2004, in honor of the 20th anniversary of the 1984 Olympics Cycling Road Race, the City of Mission Viejo dedicated a permanent start/finish line and historic markers which are installed on Olympiad Road near the entrance to Lake Mission Viejo.


title: Mission Viejo, California

text: There is also a soccer facility, now used by the town's youth soccer program, that was used as a training field by the United States men's national soccer team before and during the 1994 FIFA World Cup, hosted by the United States.


title: Mission Viejo, California

text: The Saddleback College ballpark hosted the Mission Viejo Vigilantes minor league baseball team of the Western Baseball League from 1996 to 2001. Now the ballpark has a semi-pro collegiate team, the Orange County Fire.


title: Mission Viejo, California

text: Mission Viejo is also the hometown of NFL quarterback Mark Sanchez, Minnesota Twins pitcher Phil Hughes, and Chicago White Sox first baseman Adam LaRoche, former Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Don August, Boston Red Sox outfielder Allen Craig, Top Shot Season 4 Champion Chris Cheng, and PBA Tour Champion Scott Norton.


title: Mission Viejo, California

text: Mission Viejo has numerous recreational areas, such as the Norman P. Murray Community and Senior Center. The city has about two parks per square mile, and three golf courses. At the center of the city is a man-made lake, Lake Mission Viejo, accessible to a private association of Mission Viejo residents, with custom waterfront homes, condominiums, boat and paddle board rentals, fishing, and swim beaches. Lake Mission Viejo also holds events such as music concerts and movie screenings, usually complimentary for members and typically during the summer season.


title: Mission Viejo, California

text: Of the 58,677 registered voters in the city, 24,639 (42.0%) are Republicans, 16,477 (28.1%) are Democrats, 15,002 (25.6%) have no party preference, and the remaining are registered with a minor party.


title: Mission Viejo, California

text: Mission Viejo is a general law city, which operates under a council-manager form of government. The Mission Viejo City Council consists of five members elected at-large to staggered four-year terms. Each year, the City Council elects a Mayor and a Mayor Pro Tem amongst themselves to serve for one calendar year. The Mayor, who has equal legislative power with fellow members of the City Council, serves as the ceremonial leader of the city and as the presiding officer of the bi-weekly City Council meetings.


title: Mission Viejo, California

text: The current members of the city council are Mayor Brian Goodell, Mayor Pro Tempore Patricia "Trish" Kelley, Wendy Bucknum, Bob Ruesch, and Cynthia Vasquez.


title: Mission Viejo, California

text: In county government, Mission Viejo is located in the 3rd District, currently represented by Donald P. Wagner.


title: Mission Viejo, California

text: In the California State Legislature, Mission Viejo is in (will be 38th District at the November 8, 2022 Election), and in .


title: Mission Viejo, California

text: Federally, Mission Viejo is located in California's 40th congressional district, which has a Cook PVI of D+31 and is represented by Republican Young Kim.


title: Mission Viejo, California

text: Mission Viejo is served by two school districts, the Capistrano Unified School District and Saddleback Valley Unified School District. Capistrano Unified serves the eastern, northeastern, and southern portions of the city with eight schools. As of 2006, all high school students in the Capistrano Unified portion of Mission Viejo attend Capistrano Valley High School. Students from western Mission Viejo (north of Oso Parkway and west of Marguerite until Alicia Parkway) attend Saddleback Valley's Mission Viejo High School. Far northern Mission Viejo attends Saddleback Valley's Trabuco Hills High School, though most of that school has students from Rancho Santa Margarita and Lake Forest. A few residents attend Tesoro High School in Las Flores or the private Santa Margarita Catholic High School in Rancho Santa Margarita.


title: Mission Viejo, California

text: Silverado High School, Mira Monte High School, and Pathfinder are continuation and adult schools within the city. Silverado High School provides a day school environment while Mira Monte, which shares the same campus, is strictly independent study.


title: Mission Viejo, California

text: Saddleback College, near The Shops at Mission Viejo and Capistrano Valley High School, is a large community college in the southern half of the city. In addition, the University of California, Irvine, Chapman University, Soka University of America, and California State University, Fullerton (Irvine Campus), are nearby in adjacent cities.


title: Mission Viejo, California

text: La Tierra Elementary shut down in June 2009 due to budget cuts. It was chosen due to its small size and minimal student body. The school will remain closed until further notice. Mission Viejo residents refer to La Tierra as "The Little School with a Big Heart". Students there are reassigned to Del Cerro Elementary.


title: Mission Viejo, California

text: O'Neill Elementary, the city's first elementary school, closed in June 2009 also due to budget cuts in SVUSD. Students in the Deane Home community surrounding the school will be moved to nearby De Portola Elementary. Students living in the homes north of the lake will be moved to Melinda Heights Elementary in Rancho Santa Margarita.


title: Mission Viejo, California

text: The Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) operates the 82, 85, 86, 89, and 91 bus routes in Laguna Niguel. The City of Mission Viejo operated MV Shuttle route 182. The 85 and 182 bus lines provides connecting service to the Metrolink train station.


title: Mission Viejo, California

text: The Laguna Niguel/Mission Viejo station near I-5 in Laguna Niguel is served by the Orange County Line and Inland Empire-Orange County Line of Metrolink commuter rail, providing service to points in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego Counties. The Amtrak Pacific Surfliner served Laguna Niguel from 2007 to 2012, but has since ceased to stop here. Amtrak continues to serve the nearby Irvine and San Juan Capistrano stations.


title: Mission Viejo, California

text: Interstate 5 travels within Mission Viejo's city limits and has five interchanges within the city: Avery Parkway, Crown Valley Parkway, Oso Parkway, La Paz Road, and Alicia Parkway.


title: Mission Viejo, California

text: Mission Hospital is the largest hospital in south Orange County and serves as the area's regional trauma center. It also offers one of two Children's Hospital of Orange County locations providing care for children.


title: Hugh Griffith

text: Hugh Emrys Griffith (30 May 1912 – 14 May 1980) was a Welsh film, stage, and television actor. He is best remembered for his role in the film "Ben-Hur" (1959), which earned him critical acclaim and an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Some of his other notable credits include "Exodus" (1960), "Mutiny on the Bounty" (1962), "Tom Jones" (1963), and "Oliver!" (1968).


title: Hugh Griffith

text: Griffith was born in Marian-glas, Anglesey, Wales, the youngest son of Mary and William Griffith. He was educated at Llangefni County School and attempted to gain entrance to university, but failed the English examination. He was then urged to make a career in banking, becoming a bank clerk and transferring to London to be closer to acting opportunities.


title: Hugh Griffith

text: Just as he was making progress and gained admission to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, he had to suspend his plans in order to join the British Army, serving for six years with the Royal Welch Fusiliers in India and the Burma Campaign during the Second World War. He resumed his acting career in 1946.


title: Hugh Griffith

text: Between 1946 and 1976, Griffith won acclaim for many stage roles, in particular for his portrayals of Falstaff, Lear and Prospero. Griffith performed on both sides of the Atlantic, taking leading roles in London, New York City and Stratford. In 1952, he starred in the Broadway adaption of "Legend of Lovers", alongside fellow Welsh actor Richard Burton.


title: Hugh Griffith

text: In 1958, he was back in New York, this time taking a lead role in the opening production of "Look Homeward, Angel", alongside Anthony Perkins. Both he and Perkins were nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play.


title: Hugh Griffith

text: Griffith began his film career in British films during the late 1940s, and by the 1950s was also working in Hollywood. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in "Ben-Hur" (1959), and was nominated for his performance in "Tom Jones" (1963). In 1968, he appeared as the magistrate in "Oliver!". His later career was often blighted by his chronic alcoholism.


title: Hugh Griffith

text: He played the funeral director Caradog Lloyd-Evans in the 1978 comedy "Grand Slam". While visibly unwell at the time of shooting (years of alcohol abuse had clearly taken their toll), Griffith's portrayal received widespread acclaim and helped the movie attain cult status.


title: Hugh Griffith

text: On television, he had major roles in "Quatermass II" (1955), a miniseries adaptation of A. J. Cronin's "The Citadel" (1960) and "Clochemerle" (1972).


title: Hugh Griffith

text: Griffith, after being unwell for about a year, died in 1980 at his home in Kensington, London, two weeks before his 68th birthday.


title: Neutral-density filter

text: In photography and optics, a neutral-density filter, or ND filter, is a filter that reduces or modifies the intensity of all wavelengths, or colors, of light equally, giving no changes in hue of color rendition. It can be a colorless (clear) or grey filter, and is denoted by Wratten number 96. The purpose of a standard photographic neutral-density filter is to reduce the amount of light entering the lens. Doing so allows the photographer to select combinations of aperture, exposure time and sensor sensitivity that would otherwise produce overexposed pictures. This is done to achieve effects such as a shallower depth of field or motion blur of a subject in a wider range of situations and atmospheric conditions.


title: Neutral-density filter

text: For example, one might wish to photograph a waterfall at a slow shutter speed to create a deliberate motion-blur effect. The photographer might determine that to obtain the desired effect, a shutter speed of ten seconds was needed. On a very bright day, there might be so much light that even at minimal film speed and a minimal aperture, the ten-second shutter speed would let in too much light, and the photo would be overexposed. In this situation, applying an appropriate neutral-density filter is the equivalent of stopping down one or more additional stops, allowing the slower shutter speed and the desired motion-blur effect.


title: Neutral-density filter

text: For an ND filter with optical density "d", the fraction of the optical power transmitted through the filter can be calculated as


title: Neutral-density filter

text: The use of an ND filter allows the photographer to use a larger aperture that is at or below the diffraction limit, which varies depending on the size of the sensory medium (film or digital) and for many cameras is between "f"/8 and "f"/11, with smaller sensory medium sizes needing larger-sized apertures, and larger ones able to use smaller apertures. ND filters can also be used to reduce the depth of field of an image (by allowing the use of a larger aperture) where otherwise not possible due to a maximal shutter speed limit.


title: Neutral-density filter

text: Instead of reducing the aperture to limit light, the photographer can add a ND filter to limit light, and can then set the shutter speed according to the particular motion desired (blur of water movement, for example) and the aperture set as needed (small aperture for maximal sharpness or large aperture for narrow depth of field (subject in focus and background out of focus)). Using a digital camera, the photographer can see the image right away and choose the best ND filter to use for the scene being captured by first knowing the best aperture to use for maximal sharpness desired. The shutter speed would be selected by finding the desired blur from subject movement. The camera would be set up for these in manual mode, and then the overall exposure adjusted darker by adjusting either aperture or shutter speed, noting the number of stops needed to bring the exposure to that which is desired. That offset would then be the amount of stops needed in the ND filter to use for that scene.


title: Neutral-density filter

text: Neutral-density filters are used to control exposure with photographic catadioptric lenses, since the use of a traditional iris diaphragm increases the ratio of the central obstruction found in those systems, leading to poor performance.


title: Neutral-density filter

text: ND filters find applications in several high-precision laser experiments because the power of a laser cannot be adjusted without changing other properties of the laser light (e.g. collimation of the beam). Moreover, most lasers have a minimal power setting at which they can be operated. To achieve the desired light attenuation, one or more neutral-density filters can be placed in the path of the beam.


title: Neutral-density filter

text: Large telescopes can cause the Moon and planets to become too bright and lose contrast. A neutral-density filter can increase the contrast and cut down the brightness, making these objects easier to view.


title: Neutral-density filter

text: A graduated ND filter is similar, except that the intensity varies across the surface of the filter. This is useful when one region of the image is bright and the rest is not, as in a picture of a sunset.


title: Neutral-density filter

text: The transition area, or edge, is available in different variations (soft, hard, attenuator). The most common is a soft edge and provides a smooth transition from the ND side and the clear side. Hard-edge filters have a sharp transition from ND to clear, and the attenuator edge changes gradually over most of the filter, so the transition is less noticeable.


title: Neutral-density filter

text: Another type of ND filter configuration is the "ND-filter wheel". It consists of two perforated glass disks that have progressively denser coating applied around the perforation on the face of each disk. When the two disks are counter-rotated in front of each other, they gradually and evenly go from 100% transmission to 0% transmission. These are used on catadioptric telescopes mentioned above and in any system that is required to work at 100% of its aperture (usually because the system is required to work at its maximal angular resolution).


title: Neutral-density filter

text: In practice, ND filters are not perfect, as they do not reduce the intensity of all wavelengths equally. This can sometimes create color casts in recorded images, particularly with inexpensive filters. More significantly, most ND filters are only specified over the visible region of the spectrum and do not proportionally block all wavelengths of ultraviolet or infrared radiation. This can be dangerous if using ND filters to view sources (such as the Sun or white-hot metal or glass), which emit intense invisible radiation, since the eye may be damaged even though the source does not look bright when viewed through the filter. Special filters must be used if such sources are to be safely viewed.


title: Neutral-density filter

text: An inexpensive, homemade alternative to professional ND filters can be made from a piece of welder's glass. Depending on the rating of the welder's glass, this can have the effect of a 10-stop filter.


title: Neutral-density filter

text: The main disadvantage of neutral-density filters is that different situations might require a range of different filters. This can become an expensive proposition, especially if using screw filters with different lens filter sizes, which would require carrying a set for each diameter of lens carried (although inexpensive step-up rings can eliminate this requirement). To counter this problem, some manufacturers have created variable ND filters. These can work by placing two polarizing filters together, at least one of which can rotate. The rear polarizing filter cuts out light in one plane. As the front element is rotated, it cuts out an increasing amount of the remaining light, the closer the front filters comes to being perpendicular to the rear filter. By using this technique, the amount of light reaching the sensor can be varied with almost infinite control.


title: Neutral-density filter

text: The advantage of this approach is reduced bulk and expenses, but one drawback is a loss of image quality caused by both using two elements together and by combining two polarizing filters.


title: Neutral-density filter

text: To create ethereal looking landscapes and seascapes with extremely blurred water or other motion, the use of multiple stacked ND filters might be required. This has, as in the case of variable NDs, the effect of reducing image quality. To counter this, some manufacturers have produced high-quality extreme ND filters. Typically these are rated at a 10-stop reduction, allowing very slow shutter speeds even in relatively bright conditions.


title: Neutral-density filter

text: In photography, ND filters are quantified by their optical density or equivalently their f-stop reduction. In microscopy, the transmittance value is sometimes used. In astronomy, the fractional transmittance is sometimes used (eclipses).


title: Christine Lambrecht

text: Christine Lambrecht (born 19 June 1965) is a German lawyer and politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who has been serving as the Federal Minister of Defence in the government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz since December 2021.


title: Christine Lambrecht

text: In the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel, Lambrecht previously served as Minister of Justice and Consumer Protection (2019–2021), Minister for Family Affairs (2021) and as one of two Parliamentary State Secretaries at the Federal Ministry of Finance (2018– 2019). Prior to that, she held various roles within the SPD parliamentary group, including as a deputy leader and Chief Whip.


title: Christine Lambrecht

text: Lambrecht attended the Albertus-Magnus-Gymnasium in Viernheim, in the German state of Hessen and in 1984 she passed her Abitur. After this she studied law at the Universities of Mannheim and Mainz, where she graduated in 1992 and completed an internship at State Court in Darmstadt.


title: Christine Lambrecht

text: Lambrecht joined the SPD in 1982 and was a member of the Viernheim City Council from 1985 till 2001, of which she was the chair in the years 1997 till 2001. Additionally she was a member of the Bergstraße County Council from 1989 until 1997.


title: Christine Lambrecht

text: Lambrecht first became a Member of the Bundestag in the 1998 elections. From 1998 until 2002 she was the member for Bergstraße, however, she lost against her CDU challenger in the 2002 federal election and has subsequently always been elected via the SPD Hessian state list. In parliament, she has served on the Committee on Legal Affairs, the Committee on Sports and on the Council of Elders, which sets the agenda for the parliamentary sessions. Lambrecht was seen as being on the left wing of the SPD parliamentary group.


title: Christine Lambrecht

text: From 2002 until 2005 and from 2013 until 2017, Lambrecht served on the parliamentary body in charge of appointing judges to the Highest Courts of Justice, namely the Federal Court of Justice (BGH), the Federal Administrative Court (BVerwG), the Federal Fiscal Court (BFH), the Federal Labour Court (BAG), and the Federal Social Court (BSG).


title: Christine Lambrecht

text: Following the 2009 elections, Lambrecht became her parliamentary group's spokesperson on legal affairs. In 2011, she was elected as a deputy leader of the SPD parliamentary group, under the leadership of chairman Frank-Walter Steinmeier. She was a deputy leader of the group till her election as Chief Whip of the SPD Parliamentary Group after the 2013 federal election. In the ensuing negotiations to form a third coalition government under Chancellor Angela Merkel, she was part of the SPD delegation in the working group on internal and legal affairs, led by Hans-Peter Friedrich and Thomas Oppermann.


title: Christine Lambrecht

text: In the negotiations to form Merkel’s fourth coalition government following the 2017 federal elections, Lambrecht was part of the working group on financial policies and taxes, led by Peter Altmaier, Andreas Scheuer and Olaf Scholz. In Merkel's fourth cabinet, she joined the federal government as one of two Parliamentary State Secretaries serving under Finance Minister Olaf Scholz.


title: Christine Lambrecht

text: On 19 June 2019 it was announced that Lambrecht would succeed justice minister Katarina Barley on the 1 July 2019, after the latter moved to Brussels to serve in the European Parliament.


title: Christine Lambrecht

text: During Lambrecht's time in office, German authorities fined Facebook 2 million euros for under-reporting complaints about illegal content on its social media platform in breach of the country’s law on internet transparency. In December 2019, she proposed a law requiring internet service providers like Gmail or WhatsApp to handover personal data including passwords upon request.


title: Christine Lambrecht

text: In response to the burning of an Israeli flag at a demonstration in 2017, Lambrecht led efforts in 2020 to make the destruction of foreign state flags, including that of the European Union, and the denigration of national anthems punishable by a fine and up to three years in prison.


title: Christine Lambrecht

text: In September 2020, Lambrecht announced that she would not stand in the 2021 federal elections but instead resign from active politics by the end of the parliamentary term.


title: Christine Lambrecht

text: In May 2021, Lambrecht additionally took on the portfolio of the Federal Minister for Family Affairs, Women, and Youth, after Franziska Giffey resigned in reaction to her plagiarism affair.


title: Christine Lambrecht

text: Lambrecht was named Federal Minister of Defence in the cabinet of Olaf Scholz, taking office on 8 December 2021.


title: Christine Lambrecht

text: Early in her tenure, Lambrecht oversaw efforts in 2022 to send up to 350 more German troops to Lithuania, reinforcing a German-led NATO Enhanced Forward Presence combat unit deployed there to deter a Russian attack. Also under her leadership, the ministry announced plans to purchase 35 Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II fighter jets to replace its Panavia Tornado and to buy 60 Boeing CH-47 Chinook heavy transport helicopters worth around 5 billion euros ($5.40 billion).


title: Christine Lambrecht

text: In March 2022, Lambrecht was openly criticized by Mykhailo Podolyak, Adviser to the Ukrainian President, for openly saying that "NATO won't intervene in the Russo-Ukrainian War". Mr. Podolyak stated that each such statement encourages the Russian massacre in Ukraine.


title: Christine Lambrecht

text: In response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Germany delivered aid and weapons to Ukraine. Taken from the German Bundeswehr this included 3,000 Panzerfaust 3 anti-tank weapons, 500 Stinger anti-aircraft missile systems, over 2,000 9K32 Strela-2 anti-aircraft missile systems, 100 MG 3 machine guns, 16 million rounds of ammunitions, 23,000 combat helmets, 1,300 bullet-proof vests, night vision devices, 500,000 military food rations, 14 armored cars and other systems. In October 2022, Lambrecht visited Odesa to meet with Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov, in her first visit to the country since the invasion.


title: Christine Lambrecht

text: By April 2022, Lambrecht announced that the German army's stocks are depleted and additional deliveries have to come from the arms manufacturers directly.


title: Christine Lambrecht

text: In May 2022, Lambrecht led negotiations with fellow cabinet members Christian Lindner and Annalena Baerbock as well as Mathias Middelberg on securing a two-thirds majority in parliament needed to change Germany’s constitution to allow for a credit-based special defense fund of 100 billion euros ($107.35 billion).


title: Christine Lambrecht

text: In August 2022, Lambrecht sent 13 military aircraft to join the Exercise Pitch Black in Australia, the German Air Force’s largest peacetime deployment, underlining Germany’s increased focus on the Indo-Pacific amid rising tensions with China in the region.


title: Takanori Nishikawa

text: Nishikawa debuted as TMR with the release of his first single in May 1996. Later that year, his third single was used as the third ending song for the anime series "Rurouni Kenshin", further expanding his fan base. He also contributed six songs to the "Mobile Suit Gundam SEED" franchise – three for "Gundam SEED" and three for "Gundam SEED Destiny". Nishikawa has guest starred as a minor character in each of those anime series that featured his songs. In 2010, his single "Save the One, Save the All" was used as the ending theme song for the movie "". Several of Nishikawa's songs, such as "Crosswise" and "Flags", have been used by Capcom's "Sengoku Basara" video game series and media franchise.


title: Takanori Nishikawa

text: T.M.Revolution was the first artist to be signed to Tofu Records, a record label (affiliated with Sony Music Japan) promoting Japanese artists in North America. Tofu released three of his most recent studio albums: "coordinate" (2003), "Seventh Heaven" (2004), and "vertical infinity" (2005). Nishikawa made his North American live debut at Otakon, a large anime convention in 2003. He has also performed at Pacific Media Expo in 2004 and at the New York Comic Con in 2008. Nishikawa revisited his 2003 US performance at the Asian culture convention Otakon by performing at Otakon's 20th Anniversary on August 10, 2013.


title: Takanori Nishikawa

text: Nishikawa was born to a government worker (father, Yasuhiro) and a dental hygienist (mother, Kazuko) in Hikone, Shiga and moved to Yasu, Shiga. He attended as a child. Nishikawa was close to his grandfather (a retired policeman), whom he visited every day after school, since his parents were always working. Under the encouragement of his grandfather, Takanori studied kendo until age ten, when his grandfather died due to illness.


title: Takanori Nishikawa

text: Nishikawa also attended and . While in junior high, Takanori began to consider a career in music. He dropped out of high school and left Shiga to pursue his dream.


title: Takanori Nishikawa

text: Nishikawa joined the visual kei rock band Luis-Mary in 1990 as the vocalist. His band nickname and his appearance at the time would eventually become the inspiration for Nishikawa's character in "Gundam SEED Destiny" (Heine Westenfluss). Luis-Mary released three singles; "Rainy Blue", "Whisper(In Your Eyes)" and "Drive Me Mad". The band broke up in 1993.


title: Takanori Nishikawa

text: In 1995, Daisuke Asakura signed on with Nishikawa under the FunHouse label, now owned by BMG Japan. They released one single, "Black or White?", under the name Daisuke Asakura expd. Takanori Nishikawa. This song was rerecorded in 1997 and also rearranged in 2000 as TMR's twelfth single ("Black or White? version 3"). The original “Black or White?” song also appears as the third track on TMR's first album "Makes Revolution" (1996). Nishikawa participated in a mini three-band event in November 1995. His fan club, turbo, was established shortly afterwards, in December 1995. In early 1996, Nishikawa made several radio appearances announcing the debut of his solo project. On March 22, 1996, the project was given the name T.M.Revolution, with Asakura named as TMR's producer.


title: Takanori Nishikawa

text: "Dokusai -monopolize-" was released on May 13, 1996 under the Antinos Records label. It reached #28 on the Oricon charts. Nishikawa's performance on NHK's music variety show "Pop Jam" (which he would, later in his career, cohost for eleven months) helped boost sales, eventually selling out all first press copies of the single. His second single, was released two months later, followed by the release of TMR's first album "Makes Revolution" another month later.


title: Takanori Nishikawa

text: "Heart of Sword: Yoake Mae" was released in November 1996 and was used as the third ending song for "Rurouni Kenshin". It later replaced "The Fourth Avenue Cafe" (by rock band L'Arc-en-Ciel) as the fourth ending song, due to drug charges laid against a now former member of that band. "Heart of Sword: Yoake Mae" became a fan favourite that sold 360,000 copies and reached #16 on the Oricon charts. Nishikawa's second album, "restoration LEVEL➝3" [sometimes called ] was released in February 1997, which reached #5 on the Oricon charts.


title: Takanori Nishikawa

text: Nishikawa released three singles, "Level 4", "High Pressure", and "White Breath", in 1997. "High Pressure" became TMR's breakthrough single, selling 800,000 copies. "White Breath" sold over one million copies and became the first TMR single to reach #1 on the Oricon charts. Nishikawa performed "White Breath" on the 48th edition of "Kōhaku Uta Gassen", an annual music show televised by NHK. Less than a month later, his third album "triple joker" was released and went on to sell two million copies. , the first track from "triple joker", was recut as a single in February 1998 and it was used in a Yamaha JOG commercial. Nishikawa's three albums were also released in other parts of Asia, and he visited Taiwan in April 1998 to promote "triple joker". "Hot Limit", released in June 1998, sold 900,000 copies and became Nishikawa's second #1 single. Nishikawa also performed at the 49th edition of "Kōhaku Uta Gassen". His fourth album, "the force", was released in March 1999 and featured album mixes of the four singles ("Hot Limit", "Thunderbird", "Burnin' X'mas", "Wild Rush") that followed "Aoi Hekireki". Shortly after "the force" was released, Nishikawa performed two concerts at Tokyo Dome to a total audience of 100,000.


title: Takanori Nishikawa

text: In 1999, Nishikawa announced the end of T.M.Revolution. He and Daisuke Asakura went on to form The End of Genesis T.M.R. evolution Turbo Type D (or TMR-e, for short). The name implied it was an "evolution" of TMR. Asakura also appeared in their music videos and performed alongside Nishikawa. Three singles were released under that name, all in 1999: , , and . Their only album, "Suite Season", was released in February 2000. Nishikawa and Asakura started becoming more distant from each other, and Nishikawa reverted to his original stage name in April 2000.


title: Takanori Nishikawa

text: "BLACK OR WHITE? version 3", a self-cover, was released in April 2000. It was used as a professional baseball theme song on Nippon Television. Two other singles ["HEAT CAPACITY" and ], a remix album ("DISCORdanza: Try My Remix ~Single Collections~"), and studio album ("progress"; TMR's fifth) were also released in 2000.


title: Takanori Nishikawa

text: "Boarding" was released in February 2001. The title track of the single was used as a theme song to a drama called . Nishikawa started self-producing, with the release of his sixteenth single ("Out of Orbit ~Triple ZERO~") one year later. (Asakura continued to compose music for TMR.) His compilation album "B☆E☆S☆T" was released the next month. Epic Records Japan purchased Antinos Records that year, and all albums on the Antinos catalogue were re-released under the Epic label on July 1, 2002. "Thunderbird" inspired anime director Mitsuo Fukuda to ask Nishikawa to perform the first opening song for "Gundam SEED" ("Invoke"). "Invoke", released in September 2002, sold 250,000 copies and reached #2 on the Oricon charts. Nishikawa also voice acted as Miguel Aiman early in that series and narrated a recap episode of "Gundam SEED".


title: Takanori Nishikawa

text: "Coordinate", his sixth original album, was released in March 2003. The cover was a closeup of the customized orange GINN that Nishikawa's "Gundam SEED" character piloted. (Orange is Nishikawa's favourite colour.) , an album track from "coordinate", was used as an insert song to "Gundam SEED". The album mix of "THUNDERBIRD", originally from "the force", was also included on this album. Later that year, Nishikawa became the first artist to be signed under Tofu Records, and "coordinate" was the first album released by Tofu. The Tofu release of "coordinate" also included "HEART OF SWORD ~"Yoake Mae"~" as a bonus track. Nishikawa made his debut North American performance at Otakon in August 2003, to a massive audience who filled both the ballroom and overflow room (an exhibition hall) of the Baltimore Convention Center to their entirety.


title: Takanori Nishikawa

text: Nishikawa released his eighteenth single, , in February 2004. (Albireo is a bright star from the constellation Cygnus.) "Albireo" was used in a music variety show on Nippon Television called "AX MUSIC-TV", where it was #49 on the show's "power play" list. "SEVENTH HEAVEN", his aptly named seventh album, was released in March 2004. Tofu Records released "SEVENTH HEAVEN" a few weeks later and Nishikawa performed at Pacific Media Expo in May 2004. “Zips”, a track from "SEVENTH HEAVEN", was used as an insert song for the first "" movie. "Wheel of Fortune" was used as a Formula Nippon theme song on Fuji Television.


title: Takanori Nishikawa

text: Nishikawa was asked to sing the ending theme song of the Japanese theatrical release of "Spider-Man 2" ("Web of Night"), because of his performance at PMX 2004 and his relations at Sony Music Japan. "Web of Night", released in late July 2004, also included a rearrangement of "Tears Macerate Reason" (originally from "Seventh Heaven") and an English version of the song (translated by Lynne Hobday). Nishikawa shot the "Web of Night" PV in both languages. He also attended the world premiere of "Spider-Man 2" wearing a traditional Japanese kimono. was used as the first opening song of "Gundam SEED Destiny", which premiered in October 2004. The release of the "ignited" single was the first TMR single to reach #1 on the Oricon charts since 1998, becoming the 900th #1 single in the Oricon chart. It was #53 on the 2004 Oricon Top 100 Singles chart, having sold 161,324 copies. Nishikawa also voice acted as Heine Westenfluss for several episodes of "Gundam SEED Destiny". His character was directly modelled after Nishikawa himself, as opposed to Miguel Aiman of "SEED". Heine's hairstyle resembled Nishikawa's Luis-Mary hairstyle, and his name was a play on Nishikawa's pseudonym with that band (Haine). [Heine's first name is written as in katakana.] The surnames of both Nishikawa and Westenfluss mean "west river" in Japanese (西川) and German (Westenfluß), respectively. "Ignited"'s title is closely similar to the mobile suit (GOUF Ignited) that Nishikawa's "GSD" character piloted.


title: Takanori Nishikawa

text: "Vertical infinity" was released on January 26, 2005 by Epic and exactly six months later by Tofu Records. The infinity symbol (∞), when facing vertically or turned sideways, looks like the number 8. That is also the number of original studio albums Nishikawa has released to date as T.M.Revolution. "vertical infinity" included album mixes of "Web of Night" (both Japanese and English versions) and "ignited". It also included two English-language tracks, "Bring It On" (written by Nishikawa) and "Chase / The Thrill" (written by Hobday). "Chase / The Thrill" was used as the Japanese theme song of the X Games. "vertical infinity" marked a significant change in T.M.Revolution's musical style, as only half of the album was arranged by Daisuke Asakura, while Nishikawa arranged or co-arranged the other tracks.