title: Situs inversus

text: An uncommon form of situs inversus is isolated levocardia, in which the position of the heart is not mirrored alongside the other organs. Isolated levocardia carries a risk of heart defects, and so patients with the condition may require surgery to correct them.


title: Situs inversus

text: In rarer cases such as situs ambiguus or heterotaxy, situs cannot be determined. In these patients, the liver may be midline, the spleen absent or multiple, and the bowel malrotated. Often, structures are duplicated or absent altogether. This is more likely to cause medical problems than situs inversus totalis.


title: Situs inversus

text: In the absence of congenital heart defects, individuals with situs inversus are homeostatically normal, and can live standard healthy lives, without any complications related to their medical condition. There is a 5–10% prevalence of congenital heart disease in individuals with situs inversus totalis, most commonly transposition of the great vessels. The incidence of congenital heart disease is 95% in situs inversus with levocardia.


title: Situs inversus

text: Many people with situs inversus totalis are unaware of their unusual anatomy until they seek medical attention for an unrelated condition, such as a rib fracture or a bout of appendicitis. The condition may also be discovered during the administration of certain medicines or during tests such as a barium meal or enema. The reversal of the organs may then lead to some confusion, as many signs and symptoms will be on the atypical side. For example, if an individual with situs inversus develops appendicitis, they will present to the physician with lower left abdominal pain, since that is where their appendix lies. Thus, in the event of a medical problem, the knowledge that the individual has situs inversus can expedite diagnosis. People with this rare condition should inform their doctors before an examination, so the doctor can redirect their search for heart sounds and other signs. Wearing a medical identification tag can help inform health care providers in the event the person is unable to communicate.


title: Situs inversus

text: Situs inversus also complicates organ transplantation operations as donor organs will more likely come from situs solitus (normal) donors. As hearts and livers are chiral, geometric problems arise placing an organ into a cavity shaped in the mirror image. For example, a person who requires a heart transplant needs all their great vessels reattached to the donor heart. However, the orientation of these vessels in a person with situs inversus is reversed, necessitating steps so that the blood vessels join properly.


title: Situs inversus

text: Situs inversus is generally an autosomal recessive genetic condition, although it can be X-linked or found in identical "mirror image" twins.


title: Situs inversus

text: About 25% of individuals with situs inversus have an underlying condition known as primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD). PCD is a dysfunction of the cilia that occurs during early embryonic development. Normally functioning cilia determine the position of the internal organs during early development, and so embryos with PCD have a 50% chance of developing situs inversus. If they do, they are said to have Kartagener syndrome, characterized by the triad of situs inversus, chronic sinusitis, and bronchiectasis. Cilia are also responsible for clearing mucus from the lung, and the dysfunction causes increased susceptibility to lung infections. Kartagener syndrome can also manifest with male infertility as functional cilia are required for proper sperm flagella function.


title: Situs inversus

text: The condition affects all major structures within the thorax and abdomen. Generally, the organs are simply transposed through the sagittal plane. The heart is located on the right side of the thorax, the stomach and spleen on the right side of the abdomen and the liver and gall bladder on the left side. The heart's normal right atrium occurs on the left, and the left atrium is on the right. The lung anatomy is reversed and the left lung has three lobes while the right lung has two lobes. The intestines and other internal structures are also reversed from the normal, and the blood vessels, nerves, and lymphatics are also transposed.


title: Situs inversus

text: If the heart is swapped to the right side of the thorax, it is known as "situs inversus with dextrocardia" or "situs inversus totalis". If the heart remains on the normal left side of the thorax, a much rarer condition (1 in 2,000,000 of the general population), it is known as "situs inversus with levocardia" or "situs inversus incompletus".


title: Situs inversus

text: Situs inversus of the optic disc may occur unilaterally or bilaterally, associated with reduced binocularity and stereoacuity resembling monofixation syndrome. It is characterized by emergence of the retinal vessels in an anomalous direction (from the nasal rather than the temporal aspect) with dysversion (tilt) of the optic disc.


title: Situs inversus

text: Situs inversus does not appear to significantly affect rates of handedness. Based on a 2004 study documenting situs inversus in individuals with primary ciliary dyskinesia, the proportion of right-handedness among those with situs inversus did not differ significantly from that of those with situs solitus.


title: Situs inversus

text: Diagnosis of situs inversus can be made using imaging techniques such as x-ray, ultrasound, CT scan, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).


title: Situs inversus

text: Any potential treatment for situs inversus would involve a complete and highly invasive surgical rearrangement of the internal viscera of the patient. Such a procedure is unnecessary, given that situs inversus rarely causes any additional symptoms. No treatment, medical or surgical, is prescribed for situs inversus patients, with medical professionals instead treating any other symptoms the patient may have with awareness of the unique anatomy of the patient.


title: Situs inversus

text: Situs inversus is very rare, affecting 0.01% of the population. This is equivalent to 1 in 10,000 people.


title: Situs inversus

text: Dextrocardia (the heart being located on the right side of the thorax) was seen and drawn by Leonardo da Vinci, and then recognised by Marco Aurelio Severino in 1643. Situs inversus was first described more than a century later by Matthew Baillie.


title: Situs inversus

text: The term "situs inversus" is a short form of the Latin phrase "situs inversus viscerum", meaning "inverted position of the internal organs".


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: Kung Fu is an American action-adventure martial arts Western drama television series starring David Carradine. The series follows the adventures of Kwai Chang Caine, a Shaolin monk who travels through the American Old West, armed only with his spiritual training and his skill in martial arts, as he seeks Danny Caine, his half-brother.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: Many of the aphorisms used in the series are adapted from or derived directly from the "Tao Te Ching", a book of ancient Taoist philosophy attributed to the sage Lao-tzu.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: Kwai Chang Caine (David Carradine) is the orphaned son of an American man, Thomas Henry Caine (Bill Fletcher), and a Chinese woman, Kwai Lin, born in mid-19th-century China. After his maternal grandfather's death he is accepted for training at a Shaolin Monastery, where he grows up to become a Shaolin priest and martial arts expert.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: In the pilot episode, Caine's beloved mentor and elder, Master Po, is murdered by the Emperor's nephew; outraged, Caine retaliates by killing the nephew. With a price on his head, Caine flees China to the western United States, where he seeks to find his family roots, and ultimately, his half-brother, Danny Caine. A recent tombstone dated 1874 in a season 3 episode places the stories approximately between 1871 and 1875.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: Although it is his intention to avoid notice, Caine's training and sense of social responsibility repeatedly force him out into the open, to fight for justice or protect the underdog. After each such encounter he must move on, both to avoid capture and prevent harm from coming to those he has helped. Searching for his family, he meets a preacher (played by real-life father John Carradine) and his mute sidekick Sunny Jim (played by real-life brother Robert Carradine), then his grandfather (played by Dean Jagger).


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: Flashbacks are often used to recall specific lessons from Caine's childhood training in the monastery from his teachers, the blind Master Po (Keye Luke) and Master Chen Ming Kan (Philip Ahn). In those flashbacks, Master Po advises his young student "patience, Grasshopper", a nickname given from a playful lesson he taught to Caine as a child about being aware of the world around him, including the grasshopper that happened to be at his feet at that moment.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: During four episodes of the third and final season ("Barbary House", "Flight to Orion", "The Brothers Caine", and "Full Circle"), Caine finds his brother Danny (Tim McIntire) and his nephew Zeke (John Blyth Barrymore).


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: This list comprises a selection of actors billed in the opening credits, and some actors whose characters were decisive in the episode plot's development or who later became widely recognized for other productions. Among them there are nominees and winners of Academy Awards, Emmy, Golden Globe, Tony, and other film and theater awards. At the minute 6:39 of the "Kung Fu" DVD documentary "The Tao of Caine: Production and Beyond", Herbie J. Pilato says: "One of the great things about "Kung Fu" is that it had this incredible A-list of guest stars. You know, there were stars then, and they became stars later (...) So, it was a breeding ground for A-1 talent and it was also just surrounded by A-1 talent, I mean, in front of and behind the scenes. They didn't settle for less." Jerry Thorpe added: "People wanted to do the show because it was unique, it's as simple as that. Yes, it was fairly easy to cast people that normally wouldn't do a series television."


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: This list does not reflect the full extent of Asian American actors' participation, since most of them were billed in the series' closing credits. It can be noticed that a group of Asian actors appeared repeatedly in the series. According to John Furia Jr. in a May 1973 interview, this happened because "one of the problems we're faced with is that Oriental actors did not have much opportunity to act in TV or movies before, and so there is no great pool to draw from. So far, availability of martial artists for the training and fighting scenes has been good." Asian actors who returned often to the series were mostly members of the East West Players, brought to the series by Guy Lee, who would take charge of Bessie Loo's Talent Agency when she retired.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: David Chow acted as the technical and kung fu advisor, and guest-starred in the Pilot as the Little Monk, Caine's enemy at the climactic fight scene. His technical role was later undertaken by Kam Yuen, who guest-starred as Lin Wu in the s1e3 episode "Blood Brother" and as Wong Ti in the s3e1-2 episodes "Blood of the Dragon". Part of Chow's job was to add or eliminate fight scenes from the script, "settle differences of opinion" regarding their technical aspects among the martial artists participating in them, and make the scenes believable.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: "Kung Fu" was created by Ed Spielman and Howard Friedlander, directed and produced by Jerry Thorpe, and developed by Herman Miller, who was also a writer for, and co-producer of, the series. (For the series concept's history, see Bruce Lee's involvement)


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: Spielman-Friedlander's 160 page movie script was transformed by Jerry Thorpe and writer Herman Miller into a 90-minute TV movie (with commercial breaks, so it actually amounted to about 75 minutes of screen time). "Since the rule of thumb on a script is that one page equals one minute, the script was literally cut in half."


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: Directed by Jerry Thorpe, it was broadcast on February 22, 1972 (just after the meeting of President Nixon with Chairman Mao), and rerun the following Summer, to great acclaim: "(...) ABC and Warner Brothers were deluged with letters, telephone calls and telegrams, all praising the show." ABC ordered just four more segments and placed them in what was called the "death row," the Saturday night slot opposite "All in the Family", on a monthly basis. Herman Miller developed the pilot into a series by writing the first three episodes, by including in the plotline Caine's search for his missing brother, and by giving it a style to which following writers could adhere. After a very positive reception to the first three segments, in November 1972 the network contracted for 12 more episodes, dropped "Alias Smith and Jones" and placed "Kung Fu" in the Thursday night slot at 9 p.m. The resultant good ratings led to the series' renovation for a second season.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: The series' story editor was John Furia Jr. At the time a freelance writer for TV and movies who also worked in production, he had declined offers as story editor before until Jerry Thorpe approached him with "Kung Fu." He had seen the pilot and was fascinated by it, so he accepted. The series didn't have a stable team of writers, but freelance writers pitched their stories to the production; they were told not to include temple scenes. It was John Furia's job to write them and make them relevant to the episode's plot, based on the research material the production had collected.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: Furia's job also included "to maintain and preserve historical accuracy in each script. To complicate matters, there is no single historical source on kung-fu upon which he can rely. He must make extensive research into various sources before he can render a story to be within the realms of truth. Furthermore, because the story involves an ethnic group, and the tempers of our time do not tolerate ignorance and bigotry, he must not only make sure that the historical information regarding the group is accurate, but that these people are presented with dignity and respect."


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: Questioned about whether having a half-Caucasian as a student at the Shaolin Temple (which did not accept foreigners) was historically accurate, John Furia Jr. declared: "There is, of course, a certain amount of dramatic license involved in producing a show of this nature. As for David Carradine playing the part of a half-American half-Chinese, I can honestly say that we haven't found anyone, before or since the series began, who can play the part better. One of the reasons for the success of the series is Carradine's portrayal of Caine." As for the hiring of Asian actors for the secondary roles, he said: "It not only adds authenticity, it's only proper that it should be so. Our series, I believe, hires more Orientals than any series on TV."


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: The series aired on ABC from October 1972 to April 1975 for a total of 63 episodes. The series became one of the most popular television programs of the early 1970s, receiving widespread critical acclaim and commercial success upon its release.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: On the week ending May 6, 1973, "Kung Fu" became the No.1 show on US television, drawing a regular audience of viewers. Around the same time, Bruce Lee's Hollywood debut "Enter the Dragon" was being completed. It was part of what became known as the "chopsocky" or "kung fu craze" after Hong Kong martial arts films such as "Five Fingers of Death" ("King Boxer") and Bruce Lee's "Fists of Fury" ("The Big Boss") topped the US box office in early 1973.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: In its first season, 1972-1973, "Kung Fu"’s pilot was first aired as an "ABC Tuesday Movie of the Week", which placed it in the range of the top 20 programs of the season, as determined by Nielsen Media Research. After the pilot's rerun in the summer, during the fall season, three more episodes were aired once a month on Saturday nights alternating with "Alias Smith and Jones", against "All in the Family" and "Bridget Loves Bernie", which were among the top 10 programs of that season. The other 12 episodes ran on Thursday nights, when they ranked among the 30 first-rated shows and tied in ratings with "The ABC Monday Night Movie" and "The F.B.I." during the winter season, losing in ratings to "Ironside", which was at the same time slot during the fall and summer seasons.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: In its second season, 1973-1974, it ran on Thursday nights, when it remained among the 30 first rated shows, together with "CBS Thursday Night Movie", which was at the same time slot, and tied in ratings with "The Carol Burnett Show", which ran on Saturday nights.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: In its third and final season, 1974-1975, "Kung Fu"’s time slot changed three times, and it lost its place among the 30 first-rated shows. In the fall, it was moved to Saturdays night at 9 p.m., against CBS' "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and "The Bob Newhart Show", sitcoms rated in the top 20 of the season. Between the fall and winter seasons, it ran on Fridays at 8 p.m., which placed it against NBC's sitcoms "Sanford and Son" and "Chico and the Man", both rated in the top 10 of the season. Then in winter, "Kung Fu"’s time slot changed to Saturdays at 8 p.m., which placed it against CBS's "All in the Family", "The Jeffersons" (sitcoms rated in the season's top 10), and NBC's "Emergency!", a series rated in the top 30 of that season, all of which were at the same time slot.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: Contrary to some misconceptions, "Kung Fu" was not canceled. The series ended due to a combination of factors, among which the documentary "The Tao of Caine" cites the lead actor's burnout, changes in the writing and shooting that altered some of the most appreciated characteristics of the show, and above all the changes in the time slot, which led to the audience's decline. However, the most important factor was David Carradine's decision to leave.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: It has been said that Carradine left the show after sustaining several injuries that made it impossible for him to continue. While injuries were a feature of his career, Carradine's decision to quit "Kung Fu" was influenced by the bad publicity that a drug-related incident attracted on him and which affected the ratings of the series, what Radames Pera described as sabotage. Carradine himself acknowledged that it had been detrimental to audience ratings.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: From a broader point of view, Carradine's decision stemmed from the fact that he, from the beginning, hadn't wanted to commit long-term to a series or stay in it for an extended period, due to his foremost interest in pursuing a career in filmmaking, which he said led him to avoid signing a regular contract that would have bound him for five years. At any rate, Carradine's warning to the production team that the third season was going to be his last one allowed the writers to plan the final episodes so that all of the remaining story arcs regarding Caine and his brother could be brought to a satisfying end. In his commentary to the episode "Full Circle", Carradine regretted his decision to leave, because of how that had affected the series' crew.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: This series was internationally broadcast in its original run, later distributed in DVD format, has been re-broadcast in cable channels specialized on vintage TV shows like TCM Latin America, and it is also available for streaming.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: The series was filmed at the Warner Bros. Studios, Burbank (Laramie Street, the Backlot, and several stages), Old Tucson Studios, and on locations like Vasquez Rocks, the 20th Century Fox Ranch (Malibu Creek State Park), and the sand dunes in the Yuma Desert for the opening and closing credits.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: The Shaolin Monastery which appeared in flashbacks was originally a set used for the 1967 film "Camelot". It was inexpensively and effectively converted for the setting in China, by the Academy Award nominee Eugène Lourié as art director; the set decorator was the Academy Award nominee Ralph S. Hurst.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: Even if "Camelot" won an Academy Award for its art direction and set decoration, the expensive castle (made with wooden beams, wooden frame structures, and building timber covered with faux stone siding) was criticized for its unspecific style placed in a landscape evidently Californian, which resulted in that castle being the last attempt for a studio to construct a large scale set that represented a foreign location. By November 1971, when Jerry Thorpe asked Eugène Lourié to design the art for "Kung Fu", the castle was derelict to the point that Lourié believed that it still stood only because the cost of demolishing it would be prohibitive.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: Working with the reduced budget of a TV production was a challenge, but Lourié had learned in France how to work with little money for sets. He was both interested and intrigued by the story, as the action moved back and forth between the Wild West's present and the memories of the Shaolin temple. Lourié decided to emphasize that contrast visually. The practical need for making the project monetarily viable meant style compromises.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: With that in mind, the castle's nonspecific architectural style was perfect to give it a Chinese look for Western eyes, by adding characteristic roofs, a front wall with a massive wood-carved door, and brick walls with ceramic-grilled windows, while its terraces and stairs were fit for the stagings of the kung fu training sequences. For the temple's interiors, Lourié opted for showing only a portion of the set and let the viewers complete it in their minds. He decided on a church-like appearance, with a Buddhist mural on the back wall, multileveled wooden candleholders and burning candles between columns, a constant haze, and the projection of strong rays of light as if coming through high church windows.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: That visual conception made it unnecessary to build long and high stone walls for those sets, especially because the studio offered "Kung Fu" a large stage on which there was a standing set of the big hall from "Camelot". That presented the advantage of ready-made stone walls if the side wings of the temple were to appear in a take. The scenes among the flickering candles would become a signature of the series. For other Chinese sets, he used carved wooden partitions to enhance plain walls, or giant sculptured lions to give simple gardens an aura of grandeur.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: For the railroad camp location, a place close to Hollywood was needed, so the well-known Vasquez Rocks were chosen. As for the Western scenes, the old western streets on the Warners lot were easily adaptable to the series' multiple requirements. Lourié's solution of the temple and the other sets both in budgetary and visual terms was key in getting the go-ahead for the movie pilot from the production department, and for the subsequent series.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: In his memoir, Eugène Lourié praises Jerry Thorpe's vision, courage and inventiveness to undertake the "Kung Fu" project with a reduced TV budget. At the minute 4:32 of the documentary "The Tao of Caine", Jerry Thorpe says about him: "The art director, Eugène Lourié, his talents were unending. He converted a medieval castle that had been built for "Camelot" on the backlot into an AD 2nd to 3rd century Shaolin monastery, for a buck and a quarter. He cannibalized every scene dock in the industry. It was amazing to watch."


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: The Camelot Castle, already converted into a Shaolin temple and with some additions, became a main set for the 1973 musical "Lost Horizon" during its 1972 April to June shooting period.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: From late 1972 to early 1975, it became again a Shaolin temple while the "Kung Fu" episodes were in production, with the Emmy Award winner Antony Mondello and John Lamphear as set decorators.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: When visiting the backlot in 1980, Lourié was sorry to find out that a large part of the western streets had been bulldozed. As for the imposing castle/temple/lamasery, it lasted for a few more years until it was torn down and substituted by a parking lot and the Bridge offices building (1994).


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: The series used slow-motion effects for the action sequences, which Warner Brothers had previously utilized in the 1969 Sam Peckinpah film "The Wild Bunch" and were also subsequently utilized for the action sequences in the science-fiction series "The Six Million Dollar Man".


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: The music for the opening and closing titles, as well as the incidental music, was composed by Jim Helms.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: The series associate producer (later producer) Alex Beaton selected him after listening to several composer demos when the pilot was in development. Helms, a guitarist and arranger, scored the pilot with a team of only eleven musicians. The result was mostly atmospheric instead of melodic, with a koto as the predominant instrument. This score did not include "Caine's Theme," which was added when the series began airing in 1972, in the opening and closing titles. That signature theme had two unusual characteristics: through the first season it was revised and re-recorded several times, and the sound palette comprised about 19 musicians per session only. Even if half of them were string players, woodwinds, keyboard, and percussion were always more prominent.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: The flute themes were performed by Sheridon Stokes on alto recorder, since the type of bamboo flute featured in the series wasn't chromatic and was deemed impractical for scoring purposes. The constant presence of a harpsichord played by Mike Lang helped to set the series in the 19th century. The percussion instruments included a waterphone, Chinese tom-toms, Chinese opera bells, woodblocks, and antique Chinese "Dharma bells" (Asian nested bells). The percussionist Emil Richards collected over 90 of them and used them often for microtonal glisses. Everything resulted in an Eastern-Western combination that was unique in American television. Variety referred to Helms' work as "especially interesting… sensitive… a decided asset."


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: Given the success of "Kung Fu"’s first season, Warner Bros. Records released internationally in December 1973 a "concept album" of dialogue and music from the show, based on the pilot and the first nine episodes; "Caine's Theme" was also released as a single. The record used an expanded 45-piece orchestra for the musical selections and a group of eight musicians for the incidental music underscoring dialogue taken from the Shaolin temple sequences. The LP was re-released in CD format in 2010, accompanied by the Man in the Wilderness movie soundtrack.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: "Caine's Theme" (with different arrangements) was included in the TV and film music compilations by Jack Hawkins his Orchestra and Singers (UK, 1974), Jack Parnell and his Orchestra (UK, 1975), and The Film Studio Orchestra (Japan, 1976).


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: In her memoirs, Bruce Lee's widow, Linda Lee Cadwell, asserts that Lee created the concept for the series, which was then stolen by Warner Bros.: "Even before this [Longstreet], Warner Brothers had suddenly caught on to the fact that kung fu itself had captured the public's imagination and decided to launch a TV series," she writes. "Bruce himself had been working on the idea of a Shaolin priest, a master of kung fu, who would roam America and find himself involved in various exploits. The studio contacted him and he was soon deeply involved. He gave them numerous ideas, many of which were eventually incorporated in the resulting TV success, Kung Fu, starring actor David Carradine." (Linda Lee, The Man Only I Knew, pp. 130– 31.). There is circumstantial evidence for this in a that Bruce Lee gave on "The Pierre Berton Show". In the interview, Lee stated that he had developed a concept for a television series called "The Warrior", meant to star himself, about a martial artist in the American Old West (the same concept as "Kung Fu", which aired the following year), but that he was having trouble pitching it to Warner Brothers and Paramount.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: In the interview, Pierre Berton commented, "There's a pretty good chance that you'll get a TV series in the States called 'The Warrior', in it, where you use what, the Martial Arts in Western setting?"


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: Lee responded, "That was the original idea, ...both of them [Warner and Paramount], I think, they want me to be in a modernized type of a thing, and they think that the Western type of thing is out. Whereas I want to do the Western. Because, you see, how else can you justify all of the punching and kicking and violence, except in the period of the West?"


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: Later in the interview, Berton asked Lee about "the problems that you face as a Chinese hero in an American series. Have people come up in the industry and said 'well, we don't know how the audience are going to take a non-American'?"


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: Lee replied, "Well, such question has been raised, in fact, it is being discussed. That is why "The Warrior" is probably not going to be on." Lee adds, "They think that business-wise it is a risk. I don't blame them. If the situation were reversed, and an American star were to come to Hong Kong, and I was the man with the money, I would have my own concerns as to whether the acceptance would be there."


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: However, Bruce Lee was undoubtedly considered for the starring role, and David Carradine himself in a 1989 interview and in his book "Spirit of Shaolin", said that Bruce Lee was passed over for the role. It is alleged that an unnamed ABC executive said "You can't make a star out of a five-foot-six Chinese actor."


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: According to biographer Matthew Polly, Bruce Lee did not invent the "Kung Fu" TV series. Ed Spielman created the character of Kwai Chang Caine, and the movie treatment Spielman wrote with Howard Friedlander in 1969 was the origin of the pilot and subsequent series.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: Spielman first wrote a treatment about a samurai who travels to China and learns kung fu. Around 1967, he gave it to his partner Howard Friedlander, who suggested turning it into a Western; Spielman then decided to make the leading character into a half-American, half-Chinese Shaolin monk. In 1969 the William Morris agent Peter Lampack put the treatment into the knowledge of Fred Weintraub, at the time an executive at Warner Brothers and later the producer of "Enter the Dragon": "As a New York-based production executive at Warner Bros. Pictures, it was my job to develop projects to appeal to the youth market. From the mountain of potential projects sent to me weekly, I unearthed a treatment for a feature length film by a couple of writers named Ed Spielman and Howard Friedlander called "The Way of the Tiger, The Sign of the Dragon". It was an intriguing East-meets-Western tale of a young Shaolin monk from China roaming the American West of the 1800s, righting wrongs with pacifist, Eastern philosophy. And if that failed, kicking serious cowboy butt with nothing but his hands and feet. I liked the idea and gave the boys something like $3,800 to write a screenplay. At about that time, Warner Bros. made the decision to change their base of operations and moved me from New York to Hollywood." He received the finished script on April 30, 1970. Later through his friend Sy Weintraub (no relation), Weintraub met Bruce Lee and considering him ideal for the part tried to put the script into development with him as the leading actor, but was rejected. According to Howard Friedlander, the film was to be filmed in Durango, Mexico, for the Western scenes, and Taiwan for the Chinese scenes. Its budget had been calculated as $18 million (over $124 million in 2022 dollars). Friedlander blamed the arrival of Richard D. Zanuck and David Brown as senior executives at Warners Bros. for the cancellation of the movie project, because "the general consensus was that the public would not be willing to accept a Chinese hero."


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: While Bruce Lee was in Thailand filming "The Big Boss", Weintraub brought the script to Tom Kuhn, head of the Warner Bros. TV division, who liked it. Warner Bros. and ABC announced their TV deal for "Kung Fu" on July 22, 1971, and started pre-production (including casting). The air date was scheduled for February 22, 1972, with production starting on December 15, 1971. Bruce Lee, having arrived back from Thailand, auditioned for the part of Caine, but the studio was reluctant to hire a Chinese actor, having concerns with his accent, his intense personality, considered not suitable to portray a quiet, serene character, and also because he was "too authentic."


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: In early October 1971, a month before Warner Brothers officially designated David Carradine for the role of Caine, Warner Brothers executive Ted Ashley, who saw Bruce Lee's potential and didn't want to lose him to Paramount, offered him an exclusive development deal to create his own TV program, which included an advance of "$25,000 (or $152,000 in 2017 dollars) - enough money to pay off most of his mortgage." Bruce Lee presented a treatment describing a show called "Ah Sahm", which he later retitled "The Warrior". Bruce Lee did not sign Ashley's deal, preferring to see how "The Big Boss" performed in theaters. When the movie was a smashing success, he abandoned his plans to be a TV star and instead focused on the big screen.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: Most of the controversy lies in the notion that the series' idea was "stolen" from Bruce Lee, but also in the fact that he wasn't cast for the leading role, and that decision had racial connotations. The "steal" conspiracy theory has become widespread, both in academia as in the media, even internationally.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: The casting for the leading role when the project was still a feature film had considered (among others) James Coburn, who was preferred by Ed Spielman. When the script became an ABC Movie of the Week, the casting process considered (among others) Bruce Lee, Mako, and George Takei. After having "sought every Asian in Hollywood, because you didn't have to be super bright to know what was coming," and found none that could carry the series, they turned to the American side of the character and began auditioning white actors, including William Smith and John Saxon. Just two weeks before the pilot's filming started, David Carradine obtained the role at his second audition.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: At the time, George Takei and the Association of Asian Pacific American Artists (AAPAA) filed a formal complaint for unfair hiring practices. They wanted an Asian actor in the leading role and a Chinese historical advisor; only the second demand was conceded. The Asian acting community was displeased, but with so few opportunities for Asian actors it was better to have a show that would be a source of work for them in secondary roles than not having it at all. James Hong (who was the AAPAA's president), said: "As the show went on, we realized it was a great source of employment for the Asian acting community."


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: The series has been considered a commentary on race relations in the 70s, both for its casting as for the depiction of discrimination against minorities. It is noteworthy that race issues also affected the casting of secondary characters whereas gender inequality showed in their stories.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: France Nuyen and Nancy Kwan, both Eurasian, played Chinese characters, the first one accepting being given in marriage as payment for service her husband was hired to perform (s3e3), the other one preferring to be a concubine to the Emperor rather than the wife of the warlord who had raped her, who was played by Stefan Gierasch, wearing prosthetic makeup (s2e22-23). Barbara Hershey appeared as a Eurasian woman who flees forced marriage to a warlord played by Khigh Dhiegh (born Kenneth Dickerson), and is denied admission to the Shaolin temple as a student because "You are female - You are also of mixed blood" (s3e10-11). On the other hand, American women are sometimes portrayed as dependant or even unable to survive without men (s1e14, s2e16, s3e4), but also as independent individuals, like entrepreneurs (s3e23), landowners (s2e14, s3e1-2), ranchers (s2e12, s3e3) or craftswomen (s1e3), according to the feminist currents of the time. Notably, Asian women are portrayed that way on occasion (s1e5, s1e8), and not just in stereotypical or subservient roles.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: Given that the series' action happens mostly in the 19th century California, black people appear as important characters in just a few episodes (s1e13, s2e1, s2e16, s3e18, s3e24), as at the time they were a small portion of the state's population, yet all of the episodes have to do with them facing discrimination. Interestingly, when the consequences of the American Civil War are mentioned, they are in the context of defeat and vengeance (s1e4, s2e3, s3e24), not of the abolition of slavery.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: Regarding Native Americans, as it was usual at the time, they are mostly portrayed by non-Native actors, usually from the Hispanic community and also by Whites (s2e6), whereas the Hispanics themselves appear mostly when Caine visits towns in New Mexico or Mexico (s2e3, s2e4, s3e14), even if at the time there was an important Hispanic presence in the state. The portrayal of Native Americans varies from the stereotypical faceless villains (s1e1, s1e2), to objects of persecution and discrimination (s2e5, s3e5) to a co-leading character in the s1e15 episode "The Ancient Warrior," the only one with a Native actor billed in the opening credits, which precisely deals with the extermination of a whole tribe. The absence of Native actors and the cultural misrepresentation issue wasn't unique to this series nor to its time; it has led the National Congress of American Indians to pass a resolution on the subject as recently as 2017.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: East Asian, or rather Chinese portrayal in the series remains a problematic subject. Academic studies tend to mention the show in the context of discrimination against Asians in American society and entertainment.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: Professor Jun Xing (Chun Hsing in Library of Congress' cataloging) states that segregating actors by roles seems reasonable when ethnic characters are cast, but there is a double standard in which Asians cannot play roles designated as White, whereas Caucasian actors cross into ones representing every other race, showing that in movies American people is not every color, but Black and White. Also, as there is an East/West dichotomy, Asians are not seen as Americans. With that in mind, to maintain the double standard, "Eurasian characters have become Hollywood's favorite creations. These mixed-race characters obviously allow white actors and actresses, with minimum makeup, to steal major roles from Asians." And puts "Kung Fu" as the "best example" of that, noting Bruce Lee's involvement.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: Professor Hye Seung Chung exemplifies Asian representation in American film and television, and the roles Asian actors were allowed to play, with the case of Philip Ahn, who, being the son of a Korean national hero, spent his career playing minor and secondary characters, usually Japanese and Chinese. On page 31, she compares a letter from an admirer of Ahn's work as Master Kan with playwright Frank Chin's attack on the series in a 1974 The New York Times article, when he states that apes' roles in movies had evolved better than Chinese images in media. Even if Professor Chung states on page 177 that ""Kung Fu" was a groundbreaking series produced by Warner Bros. that intermixed the martial arts genre with Wild West iconography, expanding the syntax of the television western to accommodate "foreign" elements at the scenographic and narrative levels," her analysis decries the way the Kan character is depicted as "emasculated," stereotyped in various ways, and she mentions that Bruce Lee was not cast in the leading role.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: Also, the series itself lacks historical and cultural accuracy in this matter. Through the episodes, the writers made mistakes regarding the order of Chinese names, and about who was the Emperor in China at the series' time period. When Japanese elements appear, they are unlikely to be known or happen at the said time: in s3e12, the boy Caine watches a Noh performance in a mandarin's mansion, when Japan was still an isolationist country. In s2e2, among three Japanese characters, there is a woman who has been married to an Englishman for over 15 years, when British subjects had been allowed to reside in Japan only since 1862–1863; also Caine knows well what a ninja is, just ten years after Japan's opening to international relations. Most importantly, the series' Shaolin priests teach Taoist and Confucian philosophy, whereas the actual Shaolin monks are Buddhist. However, the absence of allusions to Joseon Korea is correct, as immigrants from that kingdom arrived in America after 1884.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: Another issue that has come under the scrutiny of academia and the media, which is not exclusive to this series, is the fact that Asian actors of several nationalities and ethnicities appeared in the "Kung Fu" main or guest cast playing Chinese characters, "interchangeably". Professor Chung on page 16-17 exemplifies this situation that Asian actors in the American entertainment industry face with the careers of two "Kung Fu" cast members, Philip Ahn (Korean) and Richard Loo (Hawaii-born Chinese American) who so often played Japanese villains in war movies that international magazine articles about them confused their pictures: "This confusion speaks to the interchangeability of Asian actors, regardless of nationality and ethnicity, which was fostered by an industry insensitive to the diversities and differences within the same racial group." In an early article about the series, both actors are referred to and they call their characters "Orientals". Professors Kent. An Ono and Vincent N. Pham call that perceived interchangeability "implicit yellowface". It is a problem that, together with whitewashing has continued into present times and is noticed internationally.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: Regarding this "interchangeability" issue, given the historic period in which "Kung Fu" is set, Koreans couldn't have appeared, and Japanese perhaps shouldn't have, as in the 1870s' America there were just 55 Japanese immigrants registered. Yet in the episode s2e2 it is established through dialogue, costume, and cultural details that the Japanese are not the same as Chinese, and they are played by actors of Japanese ancestry.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: That guy is me,' Spielman says. 'That Caine character is me in a way, just like Siegel and Shuster did Superman. He was always Eurasian; he always didn't fit in. So, according to its creator, it was not a maneuver that would make it fit for a White actor, even if his first choice for the role had been James Coburn. Regarding the casting process, the production team says they did try to cast an Asian actor but none was adequate for the role, including Bruce Lee. John Furia Jr. asserted that "the concept of the series was a man who was not involved, a man who avoided action at almost any cost, a very quiet, seemingly passive man." Tom Kuhn, besides claiming that Lee's speech was hard to understand, said: "It did occur to me that this part was rather cerebral, a guy who only fights when he's absolutely cornered." Even Fred Weintraub, who had lobbied for Lee since the beginning, noted that they needed an actor "to portray the sense of quiet serenity that Caine possessed, a quality that driven and intense Bruce was not known for." Still, both Kuhn and Weintraub admitted that "the powers that be" were unwilling to hire an Asian actor per se.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: Academic studies about Asian representation in American entertainment claim that the casting of the leading role and even the portrayal of the Chinese characters by Asian actors followed generalized discriminatory patterns. Put in a historical context in which White actors were free to play Asian, Eurasian and other ethnicities' roles, whereas Asian, Eurasian and mixed-race actors played the stereotypical Asian roles left but never White roles, anti-miscegenation laws had been repealed just in 1967, the Hays Code finally abandoned in 1968, and whitewashing has continued into the 21st century, their authors simply can't believe that the casting of a White actor for a Eurasian role in 1971 could have had any other cause than inveterate racism, much less when Bruce Lee was involved.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: The media continues to list this show as racist, not for its contents but because future star Bruce Lee wasn't cast in a role that perhaps wasn't suited for him, as an actor, in November–December 1971, and because of the rooted belief that the idea for the series was "stolen" from him.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: In consequence, the new show takes the name of the original one while completely separating itself from it, instead of continuing its story or attempting to build upon its legacy, claiming with good reason that their aim is improving Asian community's representation and visibility.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: Interestingly, in the s1e3 episode "Blood Brother," Kwai Chang Caine pleads for his compatriots to do that, as a matter of life and death.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: Placed in a turning point of the history of American society and television, being the last show in American television with a leading character in yellowface, obscures what the show did accomplish.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: In a time when Asian actors were largely ignored, and usually played minor and openly stereotypical roles, "Kung Fu" was exceptional for consistently presenting them as not stereotypical characters and for being a steady job source for Asian actors, which was acknowledged by members of the cast and the AAPAA's president James Hong. The episodes s3e8, s3e10-11, s3e15 and s3e22, set in China, had a mostly Asian American cast. Also, the show was clear in denouncing anti-Chinese racism, including hate crimes (s1e3), and pointed at historical events ignored in popular culture, like the Page Act of 1875 that basically forbade the immigration of East Asian women (s1e8), or the harsh labor conditions of the Chinese immigrants who built the Transcontinental railroad (Pilot, s3e9). Despite its historical inaccuracies, the series' dialogue was greatly based on Chinese philosophy, which gave viewers an introduction to its spiritual values, and its dramatic appeal made it the recipient of international accolades.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: In their pages, Rotten Tomatoes calls the series "influential", and Metacritic in describing it says: "A man of peace, though trained to defend himself, Caine always made an attempt to address situations in a way that was morally acceptable to his beliefs, and to resolve them through [the] least violent means possible. His journey is not only one across the frontier of America but one through the light and dark areas of the soul as well."


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: In a May 1973 Black Belt magazine interview with John Furia Jr., the author Jon Shirota speaks about the critical response in these terms: "Even the TV critics, customarily very reserved and cautious with their appraisals, acclaimed the show [the first segment] as one of the year's best. (...) One critic wrote that the success of "Kung-Fu" may be attributed to the very thing the producers were afraid of: the public's not knowing what the series was about. 'Actually,' said the critic, 'it adds a certain amount of unpredictability and suspense to the plot. It is unlike most of the western heroes whose faces are like the book you've already read.' Another critic said that a story like "Kung-Fu" could never have been made into a movie 10 years ago because no one would have cared about a bunch of coolies. 'It is only now,' he quipped, 'that we are giving true credit to history.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: On November 14, 2017, Warner Home Video re-released all three seasons, as well as the complete series set on DVD in Region 1.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: The extras include audio commentary by David Carradine on four episodes of the series (s2e1 "The Well", s2e14 "A Dream Within a Dream", s3e2 "Blood of the Dragon - 2", s3e21 "Full Circle"), "Zen & Now: A Dinner With David Carradine And Friends" (Guests: Hal Sparks, Sifu Rob Moses, Vivica A. Fox, Kam Yuen, Cynthia Rothrock, Radames Pera, Michael Madsen), two documentaries on the series' development and production ("From Grasshopper to Caine: the Making of Kung Fu", "The Tao of Caine: Production and Beyond"), and "David Carradine's Shaolin Diary", a visit to China's Shaolin Monastery and the Great Wall.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: The series is also available online on Amazon Prime Video and iTunes (including Pilot), and on Google TV.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: In "" (1986) Caine (played by Carradine) is forced to fight his hitherto unknown son, Chung Wang (played by Brandon Lee). Herbie Pilato in "The Kung Fu Book of Caine" (page 157) also comments that Bruce Lee's son, Brandon Lee, was involved in sequels related to the series:


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: The late Brandon Lee, son of Bruce Lee, played Caine's son, Chung Wang. Toward the end of the film, Chung Wang asks Caine if he is his father. The question seems somewhat ironic since—in real life—Brandon's father was a contender for the role of Caine in the series. After Bruce Lee lost the part to Carradine, he went back to Hong Kong, where he made "The Big Boss", the film that began his legendary career in martial arts movies.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: In "" (1987), the story moves to the present day and centers on the story of Kwai Chang "Johnny" Caine (Brandon Lee), who is the great-great-grandson of Kwai Chang Caine, and the difficult relationship he has with his father, also named Kwai Chang (David Darlow). In an attempt to connect with his son, Caine Sr. takes him to Silver Creek, a ghost town, the place where their ancestor spent his last years. They talk about how Caine arrived there, became the "wise man of the town", and how he passed away.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: ""So I guess he died here, right?""""That's the strange thing. One evening in his garden his heart failed him. His wife went to fetch the doctor. When she returned, Kwai Chang was gone.""""Where did he go?""""No one really knows.""


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: As Johnny has involved himself with an operation of burglary and arms trafficking, the perfectionist father and the rebellious son need to put their differences aside to fight the criminals and save Johnny from prison.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: Two decades after the first series ended, a second, related series titled "" running in syndication followed the adventures of Kwai Chang Caine's grandson, also named Kwai Chang Caine. It again starred Carradine, this time as the grandson of the original Caine, and introduced Chris Potter as his son. Caine's mentor was played by Kim Chan as Lo Si (The Ancient) / Ping Hai. The second series ran for four years, from 1993 to 1997.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: In June 2006, Ed Spielman and Howard Friedlander announced that a feature film (which would serve as a prequel to the original "Kung Fu" series and take place in China) was in development. In September 2007, it was announced that Max Makowski would direct the movie and that he planned to make the film edgier than the original television series. Actor-director Bill Paxton was in talks to direct the adaptation of the TV series. On April 11, 2014, "The Hollywood Reporter" reported that Baz Luhrmann was in talks to direct the film, and if the deal was made, Luhrmann was to rewrite the film's script. On January 21, 2020, 87North Productions announced development of a contemporary feature film version of the series with creator Spielman and Stephen L'Hereaux producing through his Solipsist Film company and David Leitch directing.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: In September 2017, it was reported that Greg Berlanti and Wendy Mericle were developing a female-led reboot of the series for Fox. In November 2019, it was announced that the reboot had moved to The CW, which is home to the majority of the Arrowverse shows, all of which are produced by Berlanti. The series received a pilot order by the network in January 2020.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: The series is written by Christina M. Kim and Martin Gero and sees a quarter-life crisis causing a young Chinese-American woman named Nicky, played by Olivia Liang, to drop out of college and take up residence in an isolated monastery in China. When she returns to find her hometown overrun with crime and corruption, she uses her martial arts skills and Shaolin values to protect her community and bring criminals to justice, all while searching for the assassin who killed her Shaolin mentor and now is targeting her.


title: Kung Fu (1972 TV series)

text: In January and February 2020, Deadline reported the casting of Liang as Nicky; Tzi Ma and Kheng Hua Tan as Jin Chen and Mei-Li, her restaurateur parents whose secrets threaten to destroy their lives; Jon Prasida as Ryan Chen, a quick-witted medical student and Nicky's younger brother; Shannon Dang as Althea Chen, Nicky's larger-than-life older sister who is newly engaged and on her way to planning her dream Chinese wedding; and Eddie Liu as Henry Chu, a martial arts instructor and Chinese art history buff who has instant chemistry with Nicky. In March 2020, Gavin Stenhouse was cast as Evan Hartley, a highly successful Assistant District Attorney who still has a soft spot for his first love, Nicky; and Gwendoline Yeo was cast as Zhilan, a cryptic woman with deep criminal ties and a mysterious connection to the Shaolin monastery where Nicky trained in kung fu.


title: Steven Weber

text: Steven Robert Weber (born March 4, 1961) is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for his role as Brian Hackett on the television series "Wings" which aired from April 1990 to May 1997 on NBC, as Sam Blue in "Once and Again", and Jack Torrance in the TV miniseries adaptation of Stephen King's "The Shining". He had a recurring role on "iZombie" as Vaughn du Clark. He played Mayor Douglas Hamilton on "" in a recurring role, and as Sergeant First Class Dennis Worcester in "Hamburger Hill" (1987).


title: Steven Weber

text: Weber was born in Queens, New York. His mother, Fran (née Frankel), was a nightclub singer, and his father, Stuart Weber, was a nightclub performer and manager of Borscht Belt comedians. Weber embraces his Jewish heritage despite not having received a formal religious education. Weber graduated from Manhattan's High School of Performing Arts (1979) and the State University of New York at Purchase.


title: Steven Weber

text: Weber started appearing in TV commercials in the third grade. After leaving college, he became a member of the Mirror Repertory Company and appeared opposite legendary actress Geraldine Page and Mason Adams in "Paradise Lost" before winning a role as Julianne Moore's ill-tempered and ill-fated boyfriend on the CBS daytime drama "As the World Turns" in 1985–1986. He appeared in several motion pictures and TV mini-series, such as "The Flamingo Kid", "Hamburger Hill", and the acclaimed "The Kennedys of Massachusetts" (as the young John F. Kennedy).


title: Steven Weber

text: His best-known role is as Brian Hackett, a skirt-chasing airplane pilot on the sitcom "Wings". Several years later, Weber starred in his own short-lived half-hour comedy "Cursed" (later renamed "The Weber Show"), joined the cast of ABC's "Once and Again" as the tortured artist Sam Blue, and starred the next year in the acclaimed show "The D.A.", also for ABC. Weber also had lead roles in the 1990s hit movies "Single White Female" and "Jeffrey".


title: Steven Weber

text: Weber first appeared on Broadway in Tom Stoppard's "The Real Thing" and in 2001-2002 took over for Matthew Broderick as Leo Bloom in the Broadway production of "The Producers". In 2005, he appeared alongside Kevin Spacey in London at the Old Vic's production of "National Anthems". Weber also wrote and produced 2003's "Clubland", a Showtime movie in which he and Alan Alda played father and son talent agents in 1950s New York City (for which Alda was nominated for an Emmy).


title: Steven Weber

text: He appeared in four Stephen King adaptations: "Desperation" (2006), "You Know They Got a Hell of a Band" from the "Nightmares & Dreamscapes" (2006) mini-series, ”Revelations of Becka Paulson” from the “Outer Limits” revival series, and in the television mini-series version of Stephen King's "The Shining" (1997), playing the murderous writer Jack Torrance. He also narrated several audiobooks, including King's novel "It" and works by Harlan Coben and Dean Koontz. In 1998, he played the voice of wisecracking Alsatian Charlie B. Barkin in "An All Dogs Christmas Carol", a role he earlier played in 1996 in "".


title: Steven Weber

text: In 2007, he rejoined former "Wings" co-star Tony Shalhoub in a guest role on "Monk". The same year, Weber played the role of network boss Jack Rudolph in the NBC series "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip". In 2008, Weber starred in Alliance Group Entertainment's feature film "Farm House", where he played Samael, a mysterious vineyard owner. Weber also guest starred on the drama series "Brothers and Sisters" as Graham Finch, a business specialist. He also guest-starred on "Psych" as Jack Spencer, Shawn Spencer's uncle and Henry Spencer's brother. He also starred on "Desperate Housewives" in 2008. Weber appeared as a recurring guest on the 2008–2009 season of the CBS crime drama "Without a Trace".


title: Steven Weber

text: He was part of the cast of the ABC show "Happy Town" and had a major role in the TV movie "" in which he played the villain "Hugh J. Magnate Jr." He stars occasionally in the live action comic "Puddin"', alongside actor Eddie Pepitone. He narrated an unabridged audio book of Stephen King's "It". Between 2012 and 2017, Weber provided the voices of several characters on the Disney XD animated series "Ultimate Spider-Man". In 2014, Weber rejoined former "Wings" co-star Rebecca Schull in "Chasing Life" in recurring character roles. In 2017, Weber made a guest appearance in the "Curb Your Enthusiasm" (episode: "The Shucker"). In 2020, he starred opposite Fran Drescher in the NBC comedy "Indebted".


title: Steven Weber

text: In 1995, he became engaged to Juliette Hohnen, then the Los Angeles bureau chief for MTV News, and they married on July 29 that year at Highclere Castle in Berkshire, England. In March 2013, it was reported that the couple filed for divorce.


title: Vermin Supreme

text: Vermin Love Supreme (born 1960 or 1961) is an American performance artist and activist who has run as a candidate in various local, state, and national elections in the United States. He served as a member of the Libertarian Party's judicial committee. Supreme is known for wearing a boot as a hat and carrying a large toothbrush, and has said that if elected President of the United States, he will pass a law requiring people to brush their teeth. He has campaigned on a platform of zombie apocalypse awareness and time travel research, and promised a free pony for every American.


title: Vermin Supreme

text: He is the subject of the 2014 documentary "Who Is Vermin Supreme? An Outsider Odyssey", which follows his 2012 campaign and explores his life as an activist and political prankster.


title: Vermin Supreme

text: Supreme campaigned for the Libertarian Party's 2020 presidential nomination. At the 2020 Libertarian National Convention he came in third place, receiving 206 delegate votes.


title: Vermin Supreme

text: Supreme generally runs for office as a satirical candidate, making proposals that are considered outlandish or unrealistic and communicating in an unorthodox way in order to mock politicians and the political system. His eccentric attire includes multiple ties and a boot on his head, and he sometimes carries a giant toothbrush. He has created attention by giving interviews to reporters and crashing campaign events for major candidates. Some of the main themes of Vermin Supreme's campaigns are instituting a mandatory tooth brushing law, giving every American a free pony, using zombies for renewable energy, zombie apocalypse awareness, and time travel research. He largely avoided discussing major political issues until his 2020 presidential campaign, which was more serious. Supreme has run variously as a Republican, a Democrat, and a Libertarian.


title: Vermin Supreme

text: Supreme discussed his political views in a 2008 promotional video. He said he was registered as a Republican at that time, but that he leaned toward anarchism and was influenced by the Situationist International, dadaism and discordianism. He asserted that libertarians "are just about abolishing the government and letting shit fall where it may", which he called a mistake, though he later said that assertion was based on a "prejudice" for "lack of knowing." He asserted that Republicans want to nullify the government, but "offer no alternative to helping people other than charity." Supreme's vision of anarchism holds no need for government, but depends on citizens to take responsibility for themselves and for others, citing "mutual aid and support and care to our fellow citizens" as key elements. To that end, Supreme called for a gradual dismantling of the government, while citizens take up the slack. He asserted that Americans no longer know how to be citizens, placing some of the blame on schools that teach in a "very twisted and jingoistic fashion".


title: Vermin Supreme

text: In the video, Supreme discussed his presidential campaign. He describes his "joke humor" campaign as a response to the lies people are fed by the media and by the government.


title: Vermin Supreme

text: In an interview with the "New Hampshire" in 2018, Supreme labelled his political beliefs as "social anarchist" and opined that Peter Kropotkin "was a great anarchist thinker and writer".


title: Vermin Supreme

text: In 1986, Supreme joined the Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament in protest of nuclear weapons. Supreme's first political campaign was for Mayor of Baltimore in 1987. At the time, Supreme was without income, and later said that he ran "mainly to give myself a project...something to do." The election was won by Kurt Schmoke.


title: Vermin Supreme

text: Supreme campaigned in the Washington, D.C. presidential primary in 2004, where he received 149 votes.


title: Vermin Supreme

text: Supreme campaigned in the New Hampshire Republican primary in 2008. He received 41 votes (0.02%) in the New Hampshire primary. According to the Federal Election Commission (FEC), he also received 43 votes nationally in the general election.


title: Vermin Supreme

text: Supreme campaigned as a Democrat in the 2012 U.S. presidential election. His candidacy was supported by the Good Humor Party.


title: Vermin Supreme

text: On April 14, 2011, Supreme participated in the First Debate of the New Election Cycle at the IGLO Dissidents' Convention which also included Jimmy McMillan, Jill Stein and others. He qualified to be listed on the 2012 Democratic Party primary ballot in New Hampshire. On October 29, 2011, Supreme participated in a satirical debate against a representative of the campaign of deceased British occultist Aleister Crowley. On December 19, he participated in the "Lesser-Known Democratic Candidates Presidential Forum", at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College and "glitterbombed" fellow candidate Randall Terry.


title: Vermin Supreme

text: He received Iowa Democratic caucuses and received 1.4% of the votes on January 3, 2012. On January 10, 2012, in the Democratic Primary in New Hampshire, Supreme received 833 votes. (Barack Obama won the primary with 49,080 votes.)


title: Vermin Supreme

text: Supreme participated in the Anti-NATO protests at the May 20–21 Chicago NATO Summit. In May 2012, he visited the second largest regional high school in Maine to give a speech about his campaign style to a government class. In June 2012, he participated in the Rainbow Gathering in Tennessee.


title: Vermin Supreme

text: On August 25, Supreme announced his new political party, the Free Pony Party, and that he has chosen fellow fringe opponent Jimmy McMillan as his running mate. Conversely, McMillan stated he was still running for president on his own Rent Is Too Damn High Party platform, and that Supreme would be McMillan's running mate. In October, Supreme participated in a debate hosted by Peter Schiff in the Peter Schiff Radio Show, which featured a panel of overlooked presidential candidates including McMillan, Santa Claus, independent write-in candidate, and Edgar Lawson, write-in Republican presidential candidate.


title: Vermin Supreme

text: Supreme attempted another presidential run in 2016. He embarked on a tour of 20 cities to build support for his campaign and sought to qualify for matching funds from the Federal Election Commission (FEC). He filed as a candidate in the New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary on November 21, 2015. He was not invited to return to the Lesser-Known Democratic Candidates Presidential Forum, due in part to him glitterbombing Randall Terry at the event in 2011. Shortly before the primary, he was observed questioning Republican candidates Chris Christie and Ted Cruz through a bullhorn. Supreme engaged Christie in an informal debate over his free pony platform, during which he accused Christie of hating ponies, and asked Ted Cruz whether he thought that water being used during waterboarding should include fluoride.


title: Vermin Supreme

text: Supreme received 256 votes in the primary on February 9, 2016, coming in fourth after former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley, who had dropped out after the Iowa caucuses.


title: Vermin Supreme

text: On March 4, Supreme switched his affiliation to the Libertarian Party. He received the vote of a single delegate in the first round of presidential nomination voting at the 2016 Libertarian National Convention.


title: Vermin Supreme

text: Supreme ran again for president in 2020 as a Libertarian. This marked the first time that Supreme ran a "legitimate" campaign, focusing on real rather than satirical issues and using the slogan "In On The Joke". While Supreme continued to use satirical humor, he focused more on legitimate political issues. He called for ending foreign wars and voiced support for pardoning non-violent drug offenders, ending the war on drugs, and reducing incarceration, which he called his top priority. On the COVID-19 pandemic, Supreme criticized President Donald Trump, arguing that he should have paid better attention to the virus and have made testing more widely available. He also promised to make COVID-19 illegal and, in a play on his campaign promise to go back in time and "kill baby Hitler," vowed to go back in time and "kill baby COVID." He pledged to create "COVID-19 free zones" because "they work so well for things like guns and drugs."


title: Vermin Supreme

text: He won the Libertarian Presidential Preference Primary in New Hampshire on February 11, 2020. On March 3, 2020, Supreme was declared the winner of the Massachusetts primary. He dropped out on May 23, 2020, after Jo Jorgensen received the Libertarian Party's nomination for president. Incidentally, Supreme's running mate Spike Cohen was chosen to be the Libertarian vice presidential nominee.


title: Vermin Supreme

text: Supreme expressed interest in running for Governor of Kansas in 2018. He did not live in the state, but Kansas had very few requirements for running for office. Several teenagers taking advantage of the lack of requirements had filed to run for governor, and in order not to take any votes away from them, Supreme decided to run for Attorney General instead, becoming a challenger to incumbent Republican Derek Schmidt. The lack of requirements in order to run for office, as outlined in the state's Constitution, has been heralded by Supreme: "This is indeed a very interesting and attractive loophole," he said. "I think that’s a very good thing for democracy." Desarae Lindsay of Texas was named his campaign treasurer and would accompany him to his 2020 presidential campaign. Supreme was eventually disqualified from running on the basis of his non-residency in the state, his home address being in Massachusetts.


title: Vermin Supreme

text: On August 24, 2020, Supreme announced that he would be launching a write-in campaign for the Libertarian nomination for the 2020 Massachusetts senatorial election.


title: Vermin Supreme

text: In December 2017 Hillary Clinton planned to visit Concord, New Hampshire, for a book tour promoting her new book "What Happened". In advance of her presentation, Supreme planned a demonstration in front of the bookstore during the event. The demonstration was to be a "pony protest" and include at least one pony. Supreme has a history of making the election promise of ponies to constituents and has asserted that Clinton does not like ponies enough. When Supreme sought a protest permit for his demonstration the police ordered the city to deny his request.


title: Vermin Supreme

text: In response, Supreme asserted his "right to pony" and retained Marc Randazza, an attorney with a reputation for advocacy of First Amendment rights, to represent him in suing the city of Concord for the permit. The court found in favor of Supreme, issuing an injunction that the city give him a permit, allow him to protest the event, and allow him to bring ponies. A stipulation was that Supreme had to pay for parking for ponies at the rate for cars.


title: Vermin Supreme

text: When Supreme presented the pony protest, there was a parade. More than 1,000 people attended the book signing and protest.


title: Vermin Supreme

text: Supreme grew up near Boston, Massachusetts, and is said to be the oldest of three children. He graduated from Gloucester High School in 1979, then moved to Baltimore to attend the Maryland Institute College of Art. He eventually dropped out of college and began booking bands for underground music clubs.


title: Vermin Supreme

text: In 2006, Supreme donated one of his kidneys to his mother, who was suffering from renal failure. He is married and has no children.


title: Aster (missile family)

text: The Aster 15 and Aster 30 are a Franco-Italian family of all-weather, vertical launch surface-to-air missiles. The name ""Aster"" stands for "Aérospatiale Terminale" (French company Aérospatiale having been the project's lead contractor before its missile activities were merged into MBDA). It also takes inspiration from the word "aster" (), meaning "star" in Ancient Greek. The missiles as well as the related weapon systems are manufactured by Eurosam, a consortium consisting of MBDA France, MBDA Italy (both with a combined 66% share) and Thales (holding 33%).


title: Aster (missile family)

text: The Aster missiles were developed to intercept and destroy the full spectrum of air threats from high-performance combat aircraft, UAVs and helicopters to cruise, anti-radiation and even sea-skimming supersonic anti-ship missiles. In addition, the Aster 30 Block 1 and Block 1 NT were designed to counter ballistic missiles.


title: Aster (missile family)

text: The Aster is primarily operated by France, Italy, as well as the United Kingdom as an export customer, and is an integrated component of the PAAMS air defence system (known in the Royal Navy as Sea Viper). As the principal weapon of the PAAMS, the Aster equips the s in French and Italian service as well as the British Type 45 destroyers. It also equips the French and Italian FREMM multipurpose frigates, though not through the PAAMS air defense suite itself but specific French and Italian derivatives of the system.


title: Aster (missile family)

text: During the 1980s, the predominant missiles in Franco-Italian service were short-range systems such as the French Crotale, Italian Selenia Aspide or American Sea Sparrow, with ranges up to a dozen kilometres. Some vessels were also equipped with the American medium/long range RIM-66 Standard. France and Italy decided to start development of a domestic medium/long range surface-to-air missile to enter service in the first decade of the 21st century, that would give them comparable range but superior interception capability to the American Standard or British Sea Dart already in service. Thought was given in particular to the new missile's ability to intercept next-generation supersonic anti-ship missiles, such as the BrahMos missile developed jointly by India and Russia. This allowed the actual systems to have the characteristic of being specialised either in short-to-medium range "point defence" for e.g. ships, or in medium-to-long range "zone defence" of fleets.


title: Aster (missile family)

text: In May 1989, a Memorandum of understanding was signed between France and Italy for the development of a family of future surface-to air-missiles. Eurosam was formed shortly afterwards. By July 1995 development had taken shape in the form of the Aster missile and test firing of the first Aster 30 took place. The missile successfully intercepted a target at an altitude of and at speeds of . A Phase 2 contract was awarded in 1997 at US$1 billion for pre-production and development of the French-Italian land and naval systems.


title: Aster (missile family)

text: During development trials between 1993 and 1994 all flight sequences, altitudes and ranges, were validated. This was also the period during which the launch sequence of Aster 30 was validated. In May 1996, trials of the Aster 15 active electromagnetic final guidance system against live targets began. All six attempts were successful. Again during 1997 Aster was extensively tested, this time being pitted against targets such as the Aerospatiale C.22 target and first generation Exocet anti-ship missiles. In numerous engagements Aster scored direct impacts on its targets. During one such engagement on 13 November 1997 in a strong countermeasures environment, the Aster was not armed with its military warhead so that the distance between the Aster and the target could be recorded. The target (a C22) was recovered bearing two strong cuts made by the fins of the Aster missile.


title: Aster (missile family)

text: In May 2001 Aster had again successfully completed the "manufacturer's validation firing test" and was deployed for the first time on the French nuclear-powered aircraft carrier . Again on 29 June 2001, the Aster achieved a successful interception of an Arabel missile at low altitude in less than five seconds. During the same year a target simulating an aircraft flying at speeds of Mach 1 and at an altitude of was intercepted by an Aster 15. The first ever operational firing of the Aster missile took place during October 2002 on board "Charles de Gaulle". Finally in November 2003 Eurosam was awarded the 3 billion euro Phase 3 production contract which saw full production commence and exports to France, Italy, Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom. The resulting Aster surface-to-air missile meets inter-service and international requirements, addressing the needs of the land, air and naval forces of France, Italy and the United Kingdom. The decision to base the missile around a common terminal intercept "dart" to which different sized boosters can be attached has made it modular and extensible.


title: Aster (missile family)

text: From 2002 to 2005, the Italian experimental frigate provided a test bed for live firing trials of the Aster 15 from Sylver A43 launchers with EMPAR and SAAM-it systems, and the trials of Aster 30 from Sylver A50 launchers with EMPAR and PAAMS(E) systems. , France had spent €4.1bn at 2010 prices on 10 SAMP/T launchers, 375 Aster 30 missiles and 200 Aster 15 missiles. Another 80 Aster 30 and 40 Aster 15 were purchased for France's s under a separate programme.


title: Aster (missile family)

text: There are currently two versions of the Aster missile family, the short-medium range version, Aster 15, and the long range version, Aster 30. The missile bodies are identical; their difference in range and intercept speed is because Aster 30 uses a much larger booster. Total weights of the Aster 15 and Aster 30 are and respectively. Aster 15 has a length of , rising to just under for Aster 30. Aster 15 has a diameter of . Given the larger dimensions of the Aster 30, a naval based system requires the longer tubes of the Sylver A50 or A70 vertical launching system (VLS). Additionally the American Mark 41 Vertical Launching System can accommodate Aster 30.


title: Aster (missile family)

text: The Aster 30 Block 1 is used on the Eurosam SAMP/T system operated by the French Air Force and the Italian Army. , the Block 1NT variant is being developed by MBDA France and funded by France and Italy. In 2016, the United Kingdom showed interest in acquiring the Block 1NT version for its Type 45 destroyers currently operating the Block 0. In 2022, the United Kingdom announced a series of upgrades to its Type 45 destroyers. This included the implementation of the Block 1 version for anti-ship ballistic missile defense.


title: Aster (missile family)

text: The Aster 30 has been incorporated by Eurosam into a mobile SAM system, fulfilling the ground-based theatre air defence/protection requirement. It comes in the form of the Sol-Air Moyenne-Portée/Terrestre (French for "Surface-to-Air Medium-Range/Land-based"), commonly known as SAMP/T. The system uses a network of radars and sensors – including 3D phased array radar – enabling it to be effective against various air threats such as aircraft, tactical ballistic missiles, standoff missiles, cruise missiles or anti-radiation missiles. The SAMP/T uses an upgraded version of the Arabel long range radar, developed under the Aster 30 block 1 upgrade program, in order to extend the system's capability against higher speed and higher altitude targets. The Aster 30 Block 1 can intercept missiles with a range (short-range ballistic missiles).<ref name="SAMP/T"></ref>


title: The Map of Tiny Perfect Things

text: The Map of Tiny Perfect Things is a 2021 American science fiction romantic comedy film directed by Ian Samuels, from a screenplay by Lev Grossman, based on his 2016 short story of the same name. It stars Kathryn Newton and Kyle Allen as two teenagers stuck in a time loop.


title: The Map of Tiny Perfect Things

text: The film was released through Amazon Prime Video on February 12, 2021. It received positive reviews from critics and was nominated for the Critics' Choice Award for Best Movie Made for Television.


title: The Map of Tiny Perfect Things

text: Mark, a teenage boy, has been stuck in a time loop, repeating the same day over and over again. After many iterations of the loop, Mark has perfected several routines and is able to aid other people by anticipating their movements. Developing a crush on a girl he gives directions to, Mark goes to the community pool to meet her again, saving her from being knocked into the pool by a beach ball. However, his efforts to spend more time with her are constantly frustrated. One day, while Mark is waiting to save the girl from the beach ball, another girl, Margaret, unexpectedly intervenes. Mark tracks her down and discovers that she is also living in the same time loop.


title: The Map of Tiny Perfect Things

text: Mark and Margaret spend time together. Mark tells her about his desire to go to art school, and his father quitting his job to write a book on the Civil War; she talks about her dream of working as a mission specialist for NASA, and how she has been looking for a missing dog. They become close. Mark brings up possible ways they could break the time loop, but Margaret is not interested in trying to escape it. Every evening she hurries off after receiving a text from a medical student named Jared, who Mark speculates must be her boyfriend.


title: The Map of Tiny Perfect Things

text: Mark and Margaret decide to look for moments of perfect beauty during the day; Mark conjectures that they might escape the time loop after finding all of them. To cheer Margaret up, Mark creates a mock-up of Tranquility Base in the school gym for her. Later, at his room, she sees a map he has created of the perfect moments. Mark leans in to kiss her, but she avoids the kiss, saying she doesn’t want to be more than friends. The next day, when his dad comes to talk to him about his future, Mark calls him hypocritical for chasing his own dreams while thwarting Mark's. After talking to his sister Emma, Mark learns their dad didn't quit his job, but was fired and was too ashamed to reveal it.


title: The Map of Tiny Perfect Things

text: Mark suggests to Margaret that they might be able to break the loop if they go far away. They buy tickets to Tokyo, but Margaret leaves the plane before takeoff. When the plane crosses the International Date Line, Mark wakes up in his bedroom, realizing the plan didn't work. He decides to focus on others in the next loop. He invites his father to tell him about the Civil War, and attends Emma's soccer game, where she scores a goal that she did not score in the loops when he was not there. While attempting a skateboarding trick, Mark injures himself and is taken to the hospital. There, he sees Margaret visiting her mother, who is dying of cancer. Mark realizes that he isn't the center of this story, but rather Margaret is.


title: The Map of Tiny Perfect Things

text: Margaret wakes up and manages to find the lost dog she has been searching for. She then has a conversation with Mark's friend Henry, whom Mark has repeatedly confided in about the time loop. After helping Henry win his video game, Margaret has an epiphany. She creates a three-dimensional model of the times and places of the perfect moments using string. The shadow cast by the model creates an image of a four-dimensional cube, with a single vertex missing. She determines that the final event will occur at 7:00 PM at the pool.


title: The Map of Tiny Perfect Things

text: Margaret finds Mark sitting alone at the pool and explains that she is responsible for the time loop: this was the last day her mother is alive, and she was not willing to move past it. But she now believes that Mark was caught up in the loop too in order to allow her someone to move on with. The two of them kiss.


title: The Map of Tiny Perfect Things

text: Margaret goes to the hospital and says goodbye to her mother for a final time. She and Mark go outside. At midnight it begins to rain, signalling that the loop has been broken. The next morning they finally return the missing dog.


title: The Map of Tiny Perfect Things

text: In September 2019, it was announced Ian Samuels would direct the film, from a screenplay by Lev Grossman based upon his short story of the same name, with Akiva Goldsman producing the film under his Weed Road Pictures banner, alongside FilmNation Entertainment. In February 2020, Kathryn Newton, Kyle Allen, Jermaine Harris, Anna Mikami, Josh Hamilton and Cleo Fraser joined the cast of the film, with Amazon Studios distributing.


title: The Map of Tiny Perfect Things

text: On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 77% based on 74 critic reviews, with an average of 6.60/10. The website's critics consensus states, "Its characters' time-loop journey is a little bumpy and fairly familiar, but heartfelt charm and likeable leads make "A Map of Tiny Perfect Things" worth following." On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 61 out of 100, based on 16 critic reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: Kelly Yu

text: Kelly Yu Wenwen (simplified Chinese: 于文文; pinyin: Yú Wénwén; born 7 November 1989) is a Chinese Canadian singer, songwriter, and actress.


title: Kelly Yu

text: Yu was born in Dalian, China and moved with her parents to Vancouver, British Columbia in 2004. She attended Killarney Secondary School and later moved to Boston, where she attended the Berklee College of Music.


title: Kelly Yu

text: Yu's first movie was "Under the Rain" in 2012, directed by Liu Chen. Her first lead role was in 2014 in the television series "One and a Half Summer" pairing up with Nichkhun.


title: Vortex

text: In fluid dynamics, a vortex (: vortices or vortexes) is a region in a fluid in which the flow revolves around an axis line, which may be straight or curved. Vortices form in stirred fluids, and may be observed in smoke rings, whirlpools in the wake of a boat, and the winds surrounding a tropical cyclone, tornado or dust devil.


title: Vortex

text: Vortices are a major component of turbulent flow. The distribution of velocity, vorticity (the curl of the flow velocity), as well as the concept of circulation are used to characterise vortices. In most vortices, the fluid flow velocity is greatest next to its axis and decreases in inverse proportion to the distance from the axis.


title: Vortex

text: In the absence of external forces, viscous friction within the fluid tends to organise the flow into a collection of irrotational vortices, possibly superimposed to larger-scale flows, including larger-scale vortices. Once formed, vortices can move, stretch, twist, and interact in complex ways. A moving vortex carries some angular and linear momentum, energy, and mass, with it.


title: Vortex

text: A key concept in the dynamics of vortices is the vorticity, a vector that describes the "local" rotary motion at a point in the fluid, as would be perceived by an observer that moves along with it. Conceptually, the vorticity could be observed by placing a tiny rough ball at the point in question, free to move with the fluid, and observing how it rotates about its center. The direction of the vorticity vector is defined to be the direction of the axis of rotation of this imaginary ball (according to the right-hand rule) while its length is twice the ball's angular velocity. Mathematically, the vorticity is defined as the curl (or rotational) of the velocity field of the fluid, usually denoted by formula_1 and expressed by the vector analysis formula formula_2, where formula_3 is the nabla operator and formula_4 is the local flow velocity.


title: Vortex

text: The local rotation measured by the vorticity formula_1 must not be confused with the angular velocity vector of that portion of the fluid with respect to the external environment or to any fixed axis. In a vortex, in particular, formula_1 may be opposite to the mean angular velocity vector of the fluid relative to the vortex's axis.


title: Vortex

text: In theory, the speed of the particles (and, therefore, the vorticity) in a vortex may vary with the distance from the axis in many ways. There are two important special cases, however:


title: Vortex

text: In the absence of external forces, a vortex usually evolves fairly quickly toward the irrotational flow pattern, where the flow velocity is inversely proportional to the distance . Irrotational vortices are also called "free vortices".


title: Vortex

text: For an irrotational vortex, the circulation is zero along any closed contour that does not enclose the vortex axis; and has a fixed value, , for any contour that does enclose the axis once. The tangential component of the particle velocity is then formula_14. The angular momentum per unit mass relative to the vortex axis is therefore constant, formula_15.


title: Vortex

text: The ideal irrotational vortex flow in free space is not physically realizable, since it would imply that the particle speed (and hence the force needed to keep particles in their circular paths) would grow without bound as one approaches the vortex axis. Indeed, in real vortices there is always a core region surrounding the axis where the particle velocity stops increasing and then decreases to zero as goes to zero. Within that region, the flow is no longer irrotational: the vorticity formula_1 becomes non-zero, with direction roughly parallel to the vortex axis. The Rankine vortex is a model that assumes a rigid-body rotational flow where is less than a fixed distance , and irrotational flow outside that core regions.


title: Vortex

text: In a viscous fluid, irrotational flow contains viscous dissipation everywhere, yet there are no net viscous forces, only viscous stresses. Due to the dissipation, this means that sustaining an irrotational viscous vortex requires continuous input of work at the core (for example, by steadily turning a cylinder at the core). In free space there is no energy input at the core, and thus the compact vorticity held in the core will naturally diffuse outwards, converting the core to a gradually-slowing and gradually-growing rigid-body flow, surrounded by the original irrotational flow. Such a decaying irrotational vortex has an exact solution of the viscous Navier–Stokes equations, known as a Lamb–Oseen vortex.


title: Vortex

text: A rotational vortex – a vortex that rotates in the same way as a rigid body – cannot exist indefinitely in that state except through the application of some extra force, that is not generated by the fluid motion itself. It has non-zero vorticity everywhere outside the core. Rotational vortices are also called rigid-body vortices or forced vortices.


title: Vortex

text: For example, if a water bucket is spun at constant angular speed about its vertical axis, the water will eventually rotate in rigid-body fashion. The particles will then move along circles, with velocity equal to . In that case, the free surface of the water will assume a parabolic shape.


title: Vortex

text: In this situation, the rigid rotating enclosure provides an extra force, namely an extra pressure gradient in the water, directed inwards, that prevents transition of the rigid-body flow to the irrotational state.


title: Vortex

text: Vortex structures are defined by their vorticity"," the local rotation rate of fluid particles. They can be formed via the phenomenon known as boundary layer separation which can occur when a fluid moves over a surface and experiences a rapid acceleration from the fluid velocity to zero due to the no-slip condition. This rapid negative acceleration creates a boundary layer which causes a local rotation of fluid at the wall (i.e. vorticity) which is referred to as the wall shear rate. The thickness of this boundary layer is proportional to formula_17 (where v is the free stream fluid velocity and t is time).


title: Vortex

text: If the diameter or thickness of the vessel or fluid is less than the boundary layer thickness then the boundary layer will not separate and vortices will not form. However, when the boundary layer does grow beyond this critical boundary layer thickness then separation will occur which will generate vortices.


title: Vortex

text: This boundary layer separation can also occur in the presence of combatting pressure gradients (i.e. a pressure that develops downstream). This is present in curved surfaces and general geometry changes like a convex surface. A unique example of severe geometric changes is at the trailing edge of a bluff body where the fluid flow deceleration, and therefore boundary layer and vortex formation, is located.


title: Vortex

text: Another form of vortex formation on a boundary is when fluid flows perpendicularly into a wall and creates a "splash effect." The velocity streamlines are immediately deflected and decelerated so that the boundary layer separates and forms a toroidal vortex ring.


title: Vortex

text: In a stationary vortex, the typical streamline (a line that is everywhere tangent to the flow velocity vector) is a closed loop surrounding the axis; and each vortex line (a line that is everywhere tangent to the vorticity vector) is roughly parallel to the axis. A surface that is everywhere tangent to both flow velocity and vorticity is called a vortex tube. In general, vortex tubes are nested around the axis of rotation. The axis itself is one of the vortex lines, a limiting case of a vortex tube with zero diameter.


title: Vortex

text: According to Helmholtz's theorems, a vortex line cannot start or end in the fluid – except momentarily, in non-steady flow, while the vortex is forming or dissipating. In general, vortex lines (in particular, the axis line) are either closed loops or end at the boundary of the fluid. A whirlpool is an example of the latter, namely a vortex in a body of water whose axis ends at the free surface. A vortex tube whose vortex lines are all closed will be a closed torus-like surface.


title: Vortex

text: A newly created vortex will promptly extend and bend so as to eliminate any open-ended vortex lines. For example, when an airplane engine is started, a vortex usually forms ahead of each propeller, or the turbofan of each jet engine. One end of the vortex line is attached to the engine, while the other end usually stretches out and bends until it reaches the ground.


title: Vortex

text: When vortices are made visible by smoke or ink trails, they may seem to have spiral pathlines or streamlines. However, this appearance is often an illusion and the fluid particles are moving in closed paths. The spiral streaks that are taken to be streamlines are in fact clouds of the marker fluid that originally spanned several vortex tubes and were stretched into spiral shapes by the non-uniform flow velocity distribution.


title: Vortex

text: The fluid motion in a vortex creates a dynamic pressure (in addition to any hydrostatic pressure) that is lowest in the core region, closest to the axis, and increases as one moves away from it, in accordance with Bernoulli's principle. One can say that it is the gradient of this pressure that forces the fluid to follow a curved path around the axis.


title: Vortex

text: In a rigid-body vortex flow of a fluid with constant density, the dynamic pressure is proportional to the square of the distance from the axis. In a constant gravity field, the free surface of the liquid, if present, is a concave paraboloid.


title: Vortex

text: In an irrotational vortex flow with constant fluid density and cylindrical symmetry, the dynamic pressure varies as , where is the limiting pressure infinitely far from the axis. This formula provides another constraint for the extent of the core, since the pressure cannot be negative. The free surface (if present) dips sharply near the axis line, with depth inversely proportional to . The shape formed by the free surface is called a hyperboloid, or "Gabriel's Horn" (by Evangelista Torricelli).


title: Vortex

text: The core of a vortex in air is sometimes visible because water vapor condenses as the low pressure of the core causes adiabatic cooling; the funnel of a tornado is an example. When a vortex line ends at a boundary surface, the reduced pressure may also draw matter from that surface into the core. For example, a dust devil is a column of dust picked up by the core of an air vortex attached to the ground. A vortex that ends at the free surface of a body of water (like the whirlpool that often forms over a bathtub drain) may draw a column of air down the core. The forward vortex extending from a jet engine of a parked airplane can suck water and small stones into the core and then into the engine.


title: Vortex

text: Vortices need not be steady-state features; they can move and change shape. In a moving vortex, the particle paths are not closed, but are open, loopy curves like helices and cycloids. A vortex flow might also be combined with a radial or axial flow pattern. In that case the streamlines and pathlines are not closed curves but spirals or helices, respectively. This is the case in tornadoes and in drain whirlpools. A vortex with helical streamlines is said to be solenoidal.


title: Vortex

text: As long as the effects of viscosity and diffusion are negligible, the fluid in a moving vortex is carried along with it. In particular, the fluid in the core (and matter trapped by it) tends to remain in the core as the vortex moves about. This is a consequence of Helmholtz's second theorem. Thus vortices (unlike surface waves and pressure waves) can transport mass, energy and momentum over considerable distances compared to their size, with surprisingly little dispersion. This effect is demonstrated by smoke rings and exploited in vortex ring toys and guns.