title: Kim Possible

text: "Kim Possible" is Disney Channel's second animated series, as well as the first one to be produced exclusively by Walt Disney Television Animation. It also became the first Disney Channel animated series to be produced in high-definition. The series premiered on June 7, 2002, and ended on September 7, 2007, after 87 episodes and four seasons. "Kim Possible" received critical acclaim, becoming one of Disney's top-rated and most popular series. During its run, a pair of made-for-TV films were made: "" (2003) and "" (2005). Merchandising based on the series, such as home media releases, toys, and video games were also made. A live-action television film of the same name was released in 2019.


title: Kim Possible

text: "Kim Possible" takes place primarily within the town of Middleton, USA and focuses on the life and adventures of Kim Possible, an accomplished high school student who fights crime on a regular basis, assisted by her best friend and sidekick Ron Stoppable and Rufus, his pet naked mole rat. Ron's personal fears, insecurities, and clumsiness tend to jeopardize the success of their own missions. Kim and Ron are aided remotely by Wade, a 10-year-old computer genius who seldom leaves his bedroom and communicates with the duo via a device he invented himself known as a Kimmunicator. Together, the foursome is known as Team Possible. The majority of Kim's missions involve her traveling to various destinations around the world to rescue citizens from harm and fight a variety of villains, the most frequent of whom are Dr. Drakken, a mad scientist constantly plotting world domination, and his superpowered sidekick Shego, who possesses the ability to generate powerful energy blasts and emit them from her hands, making her the heroine's most dangerous opponent. Not yet of age to drive herself to most of her missions, Kim often relies on favors from various people she has assisted in the past for transportation.


title: Kim Possible

text: Attending Middleton High School alongside Ron, her best female friend Monique and rival classmate Bonnie Rockwaller, Kim lives with her family: father James, a rocket scientist, and Ann, a brain surgeon, as well as her younger brothers, identical twins Jim and Tim, both of whom possess genius-level intellect. Fully aware of their daughter's occupation, Kim's parents remain completely supportive of her crime-fighting endeavors so long as she continues to obey curfew, but tend to be more-so concerned about the character's performance in school, as well as her love life. Lacking a secret identity, Kim is world famous and her profession is constantly acknowledged by both her classmates and teachers. "Kim Possible" also explores the highs and lows of Kim's life as a high school student attempting to navigate dating, captaining her high school's cheerleading squad, academics, sports, homework, exams and eventually learning to drive, all the while striving to maintain a healthy work–life balance; fighting crime typically comes to Kim more naturally than the more standard components of adolescence.


title: Kim Possible

text: As revealed in "", Kim became involved in crime-fighting rather unintentionally. In a series of events prior to the beginning of the series, a pre-adolescent Kim, in search of a job, creates her own website, kimpossible.com, to promote her burgeoning babysitting and lawn mowing services, promoting it using the slogan "I can do anything". When he becomes trapped by his own laser security system, a billionaire accidentally contacts Kim while he was attempting to reach Team Impossible, to whose aid she immediately rushes. As news of the character's heroism spreads, her website is soon flooded with e-mails from around the globe requesting her assistance, and Kim ultimately decides to use her talents to help the world, becoming a superhero, even without superpowers.


title: Kim Possible

text: A crossover episode of "" and "Kim Possible" aired on August 26, 2005 as part of the former show's second season. Entitled "Rufus", Season 2, episode 20 features Lilo contacting Kim and Ron to help her rescue Stitch, who has been captured by Drakken and Shego in a partnership with Dr. Hamsterviel to clone Stitch for an army of obedient monsters. Meanwhile, Jumba mistakes Rufus for one of his missing experiments.


title: Kim Possible

text: Some episodes revolve around characters other than Kim and Ron, particularly villains, who have been provided with nearly as much back story as the heroes. Other significant recurring characters include Kim's parents, Drs. James and Ann Possible (Gary Cole and Jean Smart, respectively), and her younger brothers, twin geniuses Jim and Tim (Shaun Fleming, 2002–06; Spencer Fox, 2007), to whom she refers as "Tweebs" (a portmanteau of "twin" and "dweebs"); the twins speak their own made up language known as "Twinnish". Kim shares a bitter rivalry with fellow cheerleader Bonnie Rockwaller (Kirsten Storms), who, unlike Kim, is selfish, inconsiderate, superficial, and has a tendency to be mean when angry – her "polar opposite", essentially representing the kind of person Kim could have been if not for her humility. Kim's best female friend is Monique (Raven-Symoné), who is occasionally forced into accompanying Kim on select missions when Ron is unavailable. With her fashion and pop culture expertise, Monique bridges the worlds between Kim's high school and crime-fighting lives, also serving as something of a guidance counselor. Although Drakken and Shego are Kim and Ron's most frequent opponents, the characters also battle a diverse cast of other villains, namely Monkey Fist (Tom Kane), a British nobleman with surgically implanted monkey hands and feet who seeks mystical power, and becomes Ron's nemesis due to his fear of monkeys; Scottish golfer Duff Killigan (Brian George); father-son billionaires Señor Senior, Sr. and Señor Senior, Jr. (Ricardo Montalbán/Earl Boen; Néstor Carbonell), who take up villainy as a hobby out of boredom; and Professor Dementor (Patton Oswalt), a German mad scientist and Drakken's more successful rival.


title: Kim Possible

text: Long-time collaborators and veteran Disney writers, Bob Schooley and Mark McCorkle had already been writing for Disney Channel for several years, contributing to the network's male-led animated series "Aladdin", "Hercules" and "Buzz Lightyear of Star Command", each one spin-offs of their respective feature-length animated films. Although they had enjoyed working on those projects, Schooley and McCorkle were becoming interested in contributing to "something original". At the same time, the writers learned that Disney Channel had become interested in developing a show featuring ordinary children in extraordinary circumstances. Thus, the network commissioned Schooley and McCorkle to create an animated series geared towards the 9- to 14-year-old demographic that was also capable of entertaining older audiences at the same time. While traveling in an elevator on their way back to their office from their lunch break, McCorkle said to Schooley, "Kim Possible. She can do anything", to which Schooley responded, "Ron Stoppable, he can't", and nearly the entire premise of "Kim Possible" naturally unfolded thereafter. According to Schooley and McCorkle, both lead characters' names indicate that "Kim Possible" "is going to be an arched show that is a little bit over the top, but also that the girl is going to be the action lead and the guy is going to be funny." Conceiving all main characters themselves, Rufus and Wade were eventually created and added to the roster, but the series essentially remains about Kim "who is incredibly competent in the action world but challenged in the real world" while "Ron would be challenged everywhere."


title: Kim Possible

text: With its main duo finally established, "Kim Possible" became the easiest show Schooley and McCorkle had ever developed. One of Disney Channel's earliest forays into developing an entirely original animated series "from scratch", "Kim Possible" was born out of the creators' realization that there were few animated series starring strong female characters at the time and created Kim as "a character that ... girls can look up to", inspired by their own young daughters. The creators were also influenced by their own childhood heroes James Bond and Captain Kirk from "Star Trek", and wanted Kim to resemble a character their daughters could idolise similarly. Despite being a "strong female role model", Schooley maintained that heroism "doesn't help [Kim] a bit when she comes face-to-face with her latest school crush." Unlike traditional superheroes, Kim is entirely devoid of both superpowers and a secret identity; the creators avoided making the character "impervious" like most comic book superheroes tend to be because they wanted both her and Ron to remain relatable to younger viewers. Working completely independently from government spy organizations, Kim's crime-fighting abilities are drawn from real-life activities such as cheerleading and gymnastics, "something that any kid…in the world could do", according to the creators.


title: Kim Possible

text: Much of "Kim Possible"s cast consists of Disney Channel and ABC alumnae, as well as actors known for their roles on other popular animated and comedy series. After auditioning several actresses to voice the title character, then-16 year-old Christy Carlson Romano was finally cast as Kim after first being introduced to Schooley and McCorkle by Disney Channel executives. Romano had already been well known to Disney Channel audiences for her portrayal of Ren Stevens on the series "Even Stevens", and began voicing Kim while completing her stint on the show. Her first voice acting role, Romano immediately identified with her character because both were "dealing with teenage issues" at the same time, comparing Kim's challenge of battling both her personal life and villains to herself balancing schoolwork with her budding acting career; the actress was forced to forfeit her own senior prom due to "Kim Possible" commitments. Describing her character as "very ambitious, very skilled, very smart," Romano told "The New York Times" "I've tried to make her a good role model. Her confidence and her sincerity really shine through." One episode in particular, "Blush", was inspired by Romano's modesty and tendency to blush at the slightest compliment. Romano's performance as Kim was nominated for an Emmy Award. Recognized for his ability to play "over-the-top characters", Will Friedle, best remembered for his performance as Eric Matthews on the sitcom "Boy Meets World", was cast as Ron. Actor Neil Patrick Harris had auditioned for the role, as did actor John Cena before he decided to pursue a professional wrestling career. Schooley attributes much of the show's success to Romano and Friedle's chemistry, explaining, "they add something to this that makes it more than a typical gag-oriented cartoon."


title: Kim Possible

text: To prepare herself for the role of Rufus, Nancy Cartwright, best known for her long-running voice work as Bart Simpson on "The Simpsons", researched naked mole rats extensively to the point of which she became "a font of useless trivia" and knowledge. Cartwright cites Rufus among her two most difficult characters to voice due to the constant use of her diaphragm required to produce 18 mole rat sound effects. Her performance earned her a Daytime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program. John DiMaggio was cast as Drakken based on his vocal performance as Bender on the animated sitcom "Futurama." The creators mused, "Drakken is as funny as he is because of how funny John is. Like any of the great voiceover guys, he can do multiple voices. He also just has a terrific comedic sense", while director and animator Steve Loter described both Friedle and DiMaggio as "experts in ad-libbing." Schooley and McCorkle had previously worked with Nicole Sullivan on "Buzz Lightyear of Star Command" and thus created the role of Shego with her in mind. Sullivan's first recording session opposite DiMaggio established a chemistry between the two voice actors and their respective characters, out of which Shego's signature sarcasm was introduced and eventually expanded upon. During the show's inaugural season, the actors generally recorded separate from each other, but Friedle, DiMaggio and Sullivan experienced opportunities to record together during the second season. Having been attending high school in New York at the time, Romano would mostly work remotely and usually be "phone patched in" whenever necessary; there is only one occasion during which the entire main cast recorded together.


title: Kim Possible

text: Tahj Mowry, who plays T.J. Henderson on the sitcom "Smart Guy", voices Wade. In terms of recurring and guest roles, "Designing Women"s Jean Smart voices Kim's mother Ann. Kirsten Storms voiced Kim's high school rival Bonnie while portraying Belle on the soap opera "Days of Our Lives". Prior to "Kim Possible", Storms had starred in Disney Channel's "" film series. "That's So Raven"s Raven-Symoné voices Kim's female best friend Monique, cast based on her reputation as a comedic actress and ability to deliver a punchline. Señor Senior, Sr. and Señor Senior, Jr. are voiced by Ricardo Montalban and Nestor Carbonell, respectively. Friedle's "Boy Meets World" co-star Rider Strong voices Brick Flag, Bonnie's boyfriend. Ashley Tisdale of Disney Channel's "High School Musical" film series and sitcom "The Suite Life of Zack & Cody" was offered the role of Season 4 villain Camille Leon. "That's So Raven"'s Anneliese van der Pol voiced a guest role in the episode "And The Mole Rat Will Be CGI" as Heather, an actress hired to play Kim in a film adaptation of her life, serving as her first voice-acting role. Loter had always been interested in working with the cast of the television series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" but this idea never came to fruition; one particularly famous actor refused a villainous guest role in Season 4 because he was insulted to have been asked to voice an animated character on a television series.


title: Kim Possible

text: Serving as executive producers in addition to writers throughout the entire series, Schooley and McCorkle oversaw the show for its entire duration to maintain consistency. As executive producers, Schooley and McCorkle were mostly involved in the writing process, focusing mainly on plot and dialogue, while storyboarding was chiefly handled by Loter. The writing staff consisted of both Disney Channel employees and freelance writers. Much of the series is based on both Schooley and McCorkle's own experiences growing up as teenagers in high school. Although essentially a comedy series, Schooley and McCorkle also combined elements of adventure, relationships, and humor in order to appeal to both boys, who are primarily interested in action, and girls, who are more-so attracted to relationships and character development, aware of "ancient truisms" surrounding the belief that boys are generally less likely to watch a series starring a female lead, while girls seldom exhibit such reservations when the casting situation is reversed. Without alienating younger viewers, to whom the show refuses to "talk down", the writing in "Kim Possible" is "a little older than" that of traditional Disney animated series. While avoiding adult references, Schooley and McCorkle opted for a fast-paced sitcom-style dialogue and rhythm that attracted adult viewers instead, ultimately resulting in teleplays that were typically five pages longer than traditional Disney Channel scripts. Additionally, the show heavily parodies the popular "James Bond" films. "Kim Possible"'s showrunners were heavily influenced by Marvel Comics, particularly the "Spider-Man", "Fantastic Four", and "X-Men" comic book series. One particularly strong influence is found in Dr. Drakken and James Possible's former friendship, whose relationship closely mirrors that of the "Fantastic Four"'s Victor von Doom/Doctor Doom and Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic, respectively.


title: Kim Possible

text: Some of the show's plots and ideas are drawn from the lives of both creators' daughters; the decision to have Ron eventually join his school's football team was inspired by Schooley's daughter being involved in her high school band, which resulted in them attending several school football matches. Citing Ron as his favorite character, McCorkle admitted that he reminds him of his high school self. Although not as strong an action hero as Kim, at the same time the creators were careful to highlight Ron's courage and attributes by emphasizing the fact that he constantly finds himself in dangerous situations. By the fourth and final season, the writers had taken into consideration male fans' requests to see Ron succeed more often than he had in earlier seasons, developing him into a more confident character as he gradually "come[s] into his own" and becomes more of a partner than a sidekick. Drakken and Shego's relationship "weirdly" mirrors Kim and Ron's to some extent, with the female character remaining smarter and more competent than her fumbling male teammate. Initially envisioned as a "standard sidekick", Sullivan's sarcastic interpretation of Shego ultimately inspired Schooley and McCorkle to expand upon the humor revolving around the fact that Shego is barely able to tolerate Drakken. The creators had always intended for Kim and Ron to eventually become romantically involved but avoided this storyline in fear of "paint[ing] ourselves in a corner", citing Sam and Diane's ill-fated relationship in the sitcom "Cheers" as an example. Throughout the first three seasons, the idea of Ron having feelings for Kim is alluded to, but he never pursues them for various reasons. Production on new episodes of "Kim Possible" had virtually ceased by the end of Season 3 when Kim and Ron finally become a couple, which McCorkle felt had ended the series perfectly in the film "", thus initially eliminating any need to determine how they were to proceed with them as a new couple. However, when the series was surprisingly renewed for a fourth season, Schooley and McCorkle were forced to confronted the challenge of writing for Kim and Ron as a couple for the first time but eventually grew to appreciate their "new dynamic", which provided the show with "new life" while allowing the writers to explore previously uncharted comedic territory. In fact, fans' interest in the new power couple's relationship was one of the main reasons the show was renewed. Schooley and McCorkle returned from other projects they had begun working on to complete the series.


title: Kim Possible

text: Schooley and McCorkle approached the challenge of portraying dating in a way that would appeal to both younger and older children by having the villains, particularly Shego, react to news of Kim and Ron's relationship with disbelief since "Ron is painfully aware that he is the luckiest man in the world ... for landing Kim", according to Schooley. Approaching their romantic relationship much like they did their friendship, the writers refused to treat the storyline like a soap opera in which the couple constantly breaks up and reunites, keeping their romance realistic by quickly abandoning "the lovey-dovey phase". To avoid alienating younger audiences, Schooley and McCorkle only slightly acknowledged the relationship, maintaining that Kim "still saves the world. We still have the villains, and we have the comedy with the villains and their bizarre schemes and how they get foiled." The fourth season introduces new villains such as Camille Léon, a shapeshifting celebrity heiress, and Warmonga, a more serious villain who possesses "No funny clownish behavior, just evil." The villains also work together against Kim in different combinations. Kim is also given her own car while her brothers, having skipped several grades due to their intelligence, join her in high school despite being only 12 years-old, much to Kim's chagrin. Wade ventures outside his bedroom more often, occasionally assisting Kim and Ron in person. The recurring character Monique, who was created because Schooley and McCorkle felt that Kim would be more realistic if she were to have a female best friend in addition to Ron, is expanded from that of simply an observer of Kim and Ron's lives to a more involved member of Team Possible, broadening the ensemble. Ron's home life is also explored as he welcomes a younger sibling. The series ends with Kim and Ron graduating. Several Season 4 episodes were edited and shortened for time because they would run up to five minutes too long, forcing Loter to eliminate some sub plots and characters. Steve Loter documented the production of the final episode of season four, and thus the completion of the "Kim Possible" franchise, in a blog titled "So the Finale" hosted on Blogger. It included behind-the-scenes and production information from the perspective of the crew as well as production sketches from one of several alternative endings that had been scripted. "So the Finale" maintained an open comment system allowing fans to express their views on the franchise and its closure.


title: Kim Possible

text: Creating the "Kim Possible" universe and environment was very much a collaborative process between Schooley and McCorkle, Disney Channel, the character designers, and the cast, who were also encouraged to contribute their own ideas. Although Schooley and McCorkle participated in designing Kim, the majority of that particular task was the combined efforts of Loter, inaugural season director Chris Bailey, art director Alan Bodner and character designer Stephen Silver, each of whom had worked together on previous animated projects. Due to their extensive animation experience, Schooley and McCorkle were aware that "Kim had to be an appealing character", while Ron would be more-so "goofy-appealing". Evolving dramatically over the course of three months, Kim, who had originally been designed to resemble a "standard" athletic-looking blonde heroine, underwent several changes. At one point, the character's appearance was based on that of video game character Lara Croft from the "Tomb Raider" franchise until Disney Channel abandoned this concept in favor of one more akin to that of a 14 year-old girl as opposed to a bombshell. Admitting that Kim would have been their dream girl in high school, the creators joked, "She would have been way out of our class though." A super suit designed for the character was introduced in early Season 4 but quickly abandoned once the writers realized that the costume would detract from the character's established "she can do anything" reputation. However, her original mission outfit consisting of a crop top and cargo pants is permanently replaced by a T-shirt and pants. Meanwhile, the outfits of Team Impossible were influenced by the X-Men's "classic" blue and gold uniforms.


title: Kim Possible

text: Loter typically visualized whatever script he was provided with after they had been written. With characters drawn with large heads and eyes, the show's colorful, "hip and retro" style is reminiscent of "campy" spy films released during the 1960s and 1970s. "The New York Times" observed that the show's retro setting is more similar to that of "The Jetsons" than "The Simpsons". Using a limited animation style, the characters wear a wide variety of costumes and hairstyles. Opting for a "simplicity that was the hallmark of" the 1960s, some of the architecture in "Kim Possible" is reminiscent of lairs owned by James Bond villains, while Bodner was inspired by the graphic design of posters Disney used during the same decade, as well a Chuck Jones and Maurice Noble. In Season 4, some episodes were intentionally filmed in multiplane to achieve a more cinematic image. Additionally, Disney Channel's animated series "" inspired the animators and artists to approach "Kim Possible"s final season with an "edgier" design. Director Steve Loter declared that Season 4 was the "most international season" because Kim and Ron travel to more exotic countries.


title: Kim Possible

text: Four different animation studios animated the series: Rough Draft Korea, Starburst Animation Studios, Toon City and Hanho Heung-Up Co., Ltd.


title: Kim Possible

text: Written by musicians Cory Lerios and George Gabriel, the show's theme song "Call Me, Beep Me" (also known as "Call Me, Beep Me! (The Kim Possible Song)" or simply "The Kim Possible Song") is performed by American recording artist Christina Milian. Having already been working for Disney Channel at the time, appearing as a correspondent on the network's miniseries "Movie Surfers" after declining an offer to appear on their variety show "The Mickey Mouse Club", Milian learned about "Kim Possible" from Disney when the studio called her in recruitment of an artist to record the new show's theme song. After meeting with the songwriters, who then proceeded to write the song, for the first time, Milian returned to the studio to record "Call Me, Beep Me" one week later. Romano also contributed vocals to the song. Described as a Motown-influenced R&B and teen pop track, "Call Me, Beep Me" is heard during the show's opening title sequence, encouraging viewers and listeners to contact Kim for assistance should they ever find themselves in difficult situations, featuring the lyrics "Danger or trouble, I'm there on the double." The sounds of mobile devices and modern-day technology are incorporated throughout the song. Although "Call Me, Beep Me" begins "I'm your basic, average girl" in reference to Kim, these lyrics are paradoxical because there is little basic or average about its protagonist. A music video was released for "Call Me, Beep Me", which features Milian and Romano recording the song in the recording studio interspersed with short scenes from the series.


title: Kim Possible

text: "Call Me, Beep Me" became a Radio Disney hit, remaining at number one for 12 weeks. The song's success ultimately benefited Milian's career as a performer; she explained, "I never realized that show would give me so much exposure. It's great because people have grown with me, even with that damn song. Didn't know so many people were watching "Kim Possible" like that. Because of that song, it actually inspired me to do my own musical animated artist because a lot of people thought I was Kim Possible." Milian has yet to perform the song live in concert but has expressed interest in recording a remix for fans. "Call Me, Beep Me" was the first song Lerios and Gabriel wrote together, and the songwriting duo has since gone on to collaborate on both scoring and writing songs for several other major television networks and programs. "Call Me, Beep Me" became so popular among fans of both the show that several of them proceeded to download it as their own cell phone ringtones, including Milian herself.


title: Kim Possible

text: Composer Adam Berry was responsible for scoring the entire series. Berry was also responsible for creating music for the first three seasons of Comedy Central's "South Park". While the music in "Kim Possible" is mostly guitar-driven, Berry's scoring experience prior to the show had been exclusively orchestral, composing scores using only a keyboard. A guitarist since the age of six, Berry himself provided all the guitar and bass musical cues in "Kim Possible". Although discussing whether or not popular music featured in the series should be stylistically similar to the score, Disney decided to avoid limiting the show to then-current musical trends because, according to Berry, "trying to be current is one of the best ways to sound dated." While themes of electronic music are heard during the scene's fight sequences, guitar riffs of "Call Me, Beep Me" are reprised throughout episodes. Smash Mouth lead singer Steve Harwell made a guest appearance in the Season 2 episode "Queen BeBe" in December 2003. The third season introduced several character-specific songs. The title sequence was almost entirely updated with the premiere of the fourth season, though "Call Me, Beep Me" remained unchanged.


title: Kim Possible

text: An official "Kim Possible" soundtrack was released by Walt Disney Records on July 1, 2003, featuring "Call Me, Beep Me" and "Could it Be", in addition to other musical contributions from the cast of "Kim Possible" in addition to various Disney recording artists, including Aaron Carter. Romano also recorded a new song entitled "Say the Word" for the album. A combination of teen pop, pop rock, power pop and R&B music, the soundtrack also features appearances by musical groups A-Teens, Jump5 (performing a cover of Kool & the Gang's "Celebration"), LMNT and Smash Mouth, and Will Friedle and Nancy Cartwright's "Naked Mole Rap", a rapped tribute to Ron's pet Rufus, ultimately concluding with a "work-you-up remix" of the theme song by Tony Phillip. Aimed primarily at the show's young fan base, AllMusic writer Heather Phares reviewed the album as "a better than average children's soundtrack."


title: Kim Possible

text: Episodes typically adhere to a simple, similar format, featuring a power-hungry villain who Kim and Ron must somehow prevent from taking over the world. Although primarily an action comedy TV series, "Music in Television: Channels of Listening" author James Deaville observed that "Kim Possible" adheres to the long-standing tradition of combining adventure with comedy in animated television. According to Telebisyon, "The show is fairly action-oriented, but also has a strong, light-hearted comedic atmosphere". In addition to action, comedy and adventure, "Kim Possible"s storylines also explore elements of romance and drama. According to "The Artifice", the show's unique brand of humor distinguishes it from the slapstick style associated with most Disney Channel sitcoms, namely "Phil of the Future" and "That's so Raven", although Ron can be considered a slapstick character. The villains are also depicted as clever, yet comical. With a tendency not to take itself seriously, "Kim Possible" both parodies and pays homage to the spy, action and superhero genres, its comedy benefiting from the show's emphasis on "over-the-top plots" and circumstances. Shego's own family of superheroes, Team Go, is a deliberate parody of the Marvel superhero team the Fantastic Four; the series also references the "Tomb Raider" and "" film franchises. Self-referential in its humor that avoids talking down to viewers, the series additionally parodies the teen sitcom genre, teenage fads and trends in general, and sometimes makes fun of its own plot holes and oversights, while occasionally adopting common cartoon and sitcom tropes.


title: Kim Possible

text: In addition to other "mainstays" of modern-day youth, technology serves an important role throughout the series, specifically the Internet and Kim's gadgets, the most significant of which is the Kimmunicator designed to help Kim communicate with Wade and grants her access to virtually any information she desires. McCorkle elaborated on the show's emphasis on technology: "Using the Internet theme in the series became an easy launching pad partially because it is such a major part of the fabric of teen life and the interactive possibilities are endless ... It's as though we get to play James Bond's 'Q' for each episode -- the more imaginative the toy, the better." Particularly desirable to younger viewers, technology enables Kim to travel around the world effortlessly and, to some extent, mirrors children's ability to speak to anyone in the world via the Internet. Kim's ability to travel virtually anywhere around the world within a short period of time is left largely unexplained; BuzzFeed referred to Wade as an "example that sitting in front of your computer all day is actually the most powerful position to be in." The fact that Wade never leaves his bedroom could potentially indicate that he suffers from agoraphobia.


title: Kim Possible

text: Kim is raised in a nuclear family. Unlike popular animated sitcoms such as "The Simpsons" and "Family Guy", both of Kim's parents are intelligent, accomplished and attractive; Kim's own intelligence is often attributed to the fact that she is born to a rocket scientist father and neurosurgeon mother. Kim's inherent confidence is a Possible family trait; her father James, who views women as equals, proudly reiterates the phrase "Nothing is impossible for a Possible" on numerous occasions. In her younger years, Kim's grandmother "Nana" Possible fought crime much like Kim herself. "Kim Possible" approaches the subject of the friend zone via Kim and Ron's relationship, discussing male-female friendship in a manner reminiscent to that of the romantic comedy "When Harry Met Sally..." (1989). According to Sarah Freymiller of "Bustle", the protagonists friendship evokes that of Batman and the Joker, "Kim holds the functional and social power, while Ron exerts more of a calming, occasionally slapstick influence on the show ... he is the intelligent, kind chaos in her highly-organized life." Kim and Ron are solely platonic friends for the show's first three seasons and remain best friends even after they start dating in Season 4, defying the popular belief that "being romantically involved is worth more than being in a friendship." The series avoids the popular "Will they or won't they?" trope often used in television shows, keeping them as a couple for the remainder of the series. Having grown up together and learned from each other's mistakes, Kim and Ron ultimately make up for each other's shortcomings. According to Feminist Fairytales, "Ron has a very relaxed attitude towards life which often provides a balance to Kim's assertive nature and perfectionism, while Kim helps Ron become much more independent and self-reliant." Freymiller also believes Ron might have been conceived because "the creators sensed that television would only be able to accept a strong female character if she had a male counterpart," eliminating fears Kim might be perceived as too bitchy, complementing her actions as opposed to dominating.


title: Kim Possible

text: Hosting a diverse cast of strong female characters while confronting gender norms and barriers, "Kim Possible" explores feminist themes, specifically third-wave feminism. Alongside several other female-led animated series that premiered throughout the decade, which had been experiencing a steady influx in media starring "Teenage Action Chicks with special powers", "Kim Possible" is considered to be an example of both girl power and power feminism. Similar to the animated shows "Totally Spies", "Atomic Betty", and "The Life and Times of Juniper Lee", "Kim Possible" revolves around an attractive, intelligent, and strong female character whose public identity is meant to indicate that she should be received as a positive role models for young girls. According to Betsy Wallace of Common Sense Media, "Kim Possible" "capitalizes on the female villain-fighting craze that sparked with "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Alias"", albeit simplifying the genre for a younger generation. Agreeing that the series adopted the then-new "crime-fighting female" formula, Tracey McLoone of "PopMatters" admitted that "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", "Alias" and "The Powerpuff Girls" comparisons are inevitable, but at the same time observed that Kim is more confident than her predecessors, incorporating cheerleading and acrobatics into her fights against enemies, while using traditionally "girly" accessories such as lip gloss and makeup to her advantage in battle. In comparison to Buffy, Kim also approaches her complicated lifestyle more joyfully. Meanwhile, Nicole Rogers of the "Wisconsin State Journal" believes that Kim resembles what Sydney Bristow of "Alias" would be like had she been depicted as an animated high school student.


title: Kim Possible

text: According to MTV's Monique Steele, "Kim Possible" is "all about how girls kick butt"; Kim constantly rescues Ron, saving him from peril on numerous occasions throughout the series. Writing for Wewomen.com, Carla Cain Walther observed that the series "scoffed at the 'damsel in distress' trope used in action films" by having Kim save Ron "using her ingenuity and strength", reinforcing the idea that girls are capable of helping themselves. Identifying Kim as a postfeminist heroine because she is intelligent in addition to being "shaped like Barbie" and having a male assistant similar to female executives, "The New York Times" Julie Salamon joked that "Kim's job seems to be making the world safe for cheerleaders again, following the path forged by Reese Witherspoon in "Legally Blonde" on behalf of sorority girls." Tor.com's Sarah Gailey observed that while Shego proudly spends much of her time lounging poolside and deciding what she does and does not want to do, Kim is forced "to leap into action regardless of whether she's tired or sad or sick or, heaven forbid, too busy". "Bustle"s Sarah Freymiller wrote that "Kim offers a model for femininity that both bolsters and works against the typical 'high school cheerleader' stereotype", citing cheerleading as an outlet the character chooses willingly. Kim is not a tomboy; Julia Pugachevsky of BuzzFeed credits the series with "show[ing] that you could be traditionally feminine and strong at the same time." Conversely, "Geek Chic: Smart Women in Popular Culture" author S. Inness argued that "Kim Possible" reinforces that "girls can do anything they choose" but must look a certain way in order to do so since its female character participate in consumerism and normative femininity that its male characters do not, such as shopping and spending much time on their appearance. Inness also felt that show's feminist potential is compromised by the fact that Kim mostly surrounds herself with male companions as opposed to female, "contradict[ing] the messages of female solidarity". Steve Loter documented the production of the final episode of season four, and thus the completion of the "Kim Possible" franchise, in a blog titled "So the Finale" hosted on Blogger. It included behind-the-scenes and production information from the perspective of the crew as well as production sketches from one of several alternative endings that had been scripted. "So the Finale" maintained an open comment system allowing fans to express their views on the franchise and its closure.


title: Kim Possible

text: Produced by Walt Disney Television Animation, "Kim Possible"s episodes are typically 22 minutes in length and occupy half-hour time slots. Season 1 included a total of 21 episodes and was initially scheduled to premiere in January 2002. The first episode, "Crush", premiered on Disney Channel on June 7, 2002, followed by the airing of two back-to-back episodes, occupying the 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm time slot. In total, three half-hour episodes premiered back-to-back. A ratings success, "Kim Possible"s premiere became the most-watched of any Disney Channel Original Series. Following its premiere, Disney Channel aired one new episode of the series Friday nights at 6:30 pm. By 2005, the show's time slot had been changed to Friday evenings at 5:30 pm. Episodes were also broadcast in syndication on several Disney-affiliated television networks including Toon Disney, weekdays at 7:30 am and weekends at 3:00 pm and 4:00 pm, and ABC's ABC Kids Saturday mornings at 11:00 am, ultimately becoming the "lynchpin" of that particular segment. Internationally, "Kim Possible" aired on the Family Channel in Canada, while broadcasting on CCTV 12 in China, Dubai TV in Dubai in their respective local languages, Mandarin and Arabic and on ABS-CBN in the Philippines in Filipino language. The show proved particularly popular in Germany and Japan.


title: Kim Possible

text: In terms of ratings, "Kim Possible" continued to perform consistently well into its second and third seasons. Typically, series that originate on Disney Channel seldom surpass three seasons (65 episodes) before they are canceled, a rule that had been practiced since the late 1990s. In 2005, production halted following the premiere of "" after airing three seasons and 65 episodes. However, the success of "So the Drama" bolstered the show's popularity overseas and ultimately encouraged Disney Channel executives to renew the series for a fourth and final season. In December 2005, Disney Channel ordered 22 new episodes of "Kim Possible" in response to the series' success and popular demand from fans, who had been heavily petitioning for the show's renewal online and via e-mail. One of only a handful of television series revived by cult following, "Kim Possible" was the first Disney Channel Original Series to air more than 65 episodes; its order to produce 22 new episodes as opposed to the usual 13 to 18 was also unprecedented for a revived program. After a year-long hiatus, Season 4 initially premiered exclusively on Disney Channel's website before finally returning to the network on February 10, 2007, prior to which an image of a watch-sized rendition of the Kimmunicator had been leaked online. Originally, the episodes were not aired in chronological order, a decision Loter detested. Ratings remained strong into the final season. After running five years, four seasons and 81 episodes (87 including the films), the hour-long series finale, "Graduation", aired on September 7, 2007, ending "Kim Possible".


title: Kim Possible

text: "Kim Possible" aired weekdays on Disney XD in the United States. When the series returned to Disney XD in February 2014, fans flocked to Twitter to voice their approval. The series also airs on Disney-affiliated channels around the world in countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, India, South Africa, and several Eastern European countries. On May 2, 2016, the series began airing on Disney's Freeform network as part of the late-night "That's So Throwback" block. The series began airing on Disney XD in 2018, though only including random episodes from Seasons 1 and 4. Eventually, the reruns shifted to include episodes from all four seasons, still out of order, beginning with reruns aired beginning and after July 30, 2018 until August 2018. In addition to maintaining consistently high ratings throughout its four-season run, "Kim Possible" was the longest-running Disney Channel Original Series until it was surpassed by "Phineas and Ferb" in 2012.


title: Kim Possible

text: In the days leading up to "Kim Possible"s premiere, television critics speculated whether or not the show would attract a large enough male audience despite its female lead to prove successful. Ultimately, "Kim Possible" premiered to both widespread acclaim and strong viewership. The first season currently holds a perfect 100% score on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. The series continued to garner critical acclaim throughout its run, earning particular praise for its dialogue, humor and animation, as well as appeal towards both younger and older viewers.


title: Kim Possible

text: Describing the show as "infectious", Rob Owen of the "Pittsburgh Post-Gazette" wrote, "Blessed with a modern sense of humor and hip -- but not too hip -- vocabulary, "Kim Possible" should appeal to the tweens ... it clearly targets", believing that its animation, "speed with which stories unfold and especially the dialogue makes "Kim Possible" an early summer TV treat." Writing for "The New York Times", television critic Julie Salamon enjoyed Rufus' role, penning, "I probably would have liked "Kim Impossible" even if one of its lead characters hadn't been a naked mole rat. But the cheerful presence of Rufus ... in this new animated series from Disney signals that the show's executive producer and director, Chris Bailey, doesn't mind getting cute in obvious ways." Similarly, "USA Today"'s Alex Kane wrote that the show "is ultimately made memorable by its charming cast of characters, including a naked mole rat named Rufus". In his book "The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present", television historian Tim Brooks appreciated the show's "marvelous sense of humor about itself."


title: Kim Possible

text: Scott D. Pierce of the "Deseret News" praised "Kim Possible" for being "an entertaining show that should indeed appeal to tweens, younger kids and even their parents" that "plays with the superhero format in a way that doesn't take itself too seriously but doesn't play down to the viewers." Tracy McLoone of "PopMatters" reviewed, ""Kim Possible" includes adult-friendly humor, in the event that parents feel the need to watch tv (sic) with their kids. But nobody in or watching the series will ever be offended or over-stimulated, or even surprised." While accepting Kim as a positive role model and admitting that the series teaches "good lessons" at times, Besty Wallace of Common Sense Media expressed concern over the show's violent action sequences, explaining, "lessons may get muddled and nearly lost as the heroes shimmy up rope ladders dangling from helicopters and dodge spinning tops of doom." Wallace concluded, "As long as you're not expecting too much in the way of educational value, you'll probably have plenty of fun with this one." Writing for "Bustle", Sarah Freymiller opined, "Ultimately, "Kim Possible was" just a solid show" that "didn't skimp on plot or dialogue in favor of Wile E. Coyote explosions, and its tongue-in-cheek humor allowed it to be self-aware and hip at the same time."


title: Kim Possible

text: Conversely, "Girlfighting: Betrayal and Rejection Among Girls" author Lyn Mikel Brown was less receptive towards Kim herself, criticizing the show for promoting the beautiful and thin heroine as "your basic average girl" and apparent reliance on Ron's intelligence, as well as the fact that her "biggest threat" is Bonnie as opposed to evil. According to Brown, "Being the kind of girl who's accepted or befriended by boys underscores a girl's power and sets her against other girls."


title: Kim Possible

text: "Polygon" writer Petrana Radulovic observed that the series "bears a weighty legacy" due to being "a staple of many childhoods ... Unlike many other action comedies at the time, "Kim Possible" centered around a capable heroine, and many boys and girls alike watched the show. Because it is such a beloved childhood show, the nostalgia value is high." One of Disney Channel's most popular and successful original shows, "Kim Possible" remains the project for which Schooley and McCorkle are best known. Few anticipated "Kim Possible" would become as successful as it ultimately did, proving popular among both male and female audiences. Explaining "Kim Possible"s universal appeal, the creators said, "Whenever there's an action complement to a show, boys get excited, and when Kim does her martial arts and when she's doing one of these incredible stunts, boys love to watch it ... And one of the things that we've always found is that boys of any age ... love humour and characters that are a little goofy, sort of silly and weird. When we tested it, the kids were like: 'Oh, Ron's stupid funny' and that became sort of a buzz phrase." "Kim Possible" was greeted with a level of enthusiasm that had not been experienced since the Disney Afternoon Lineup, becoming Disney Channel's most successful post-1990s show. Disney Channel Worldwide President Rich Ross extolled "Kim Possible" as a "stand-out" among both the network's live action and animated catalog. The series maintains "legions" of devoted fans. A poll conducted by Disney Channel revealed that "Kim Possible" viewers voted for Season 3's "Emotion Sickness" as their favorite episode of the series.


title: Kim Possible

text: "Kim Possible" is considered to be one of Disney Channel's most beloved programs. "Entertainment Weekly" ranked "Kim Possible" the fourth on greatest Disney Channel Original Series, calling it an "animated gem". "Kim Possible" was placed at number nine on "TV Guide"'s ranking of "The Best Disney Channel Shows". MTV ranked "Kim Possible" 13th in its article "15 Disney Channel Series We Wish We Could Watch Again". According to a 2019 article by "Screen Rant", "Kim Possible" is the sixth highest-ranked Disney Channel Original Series on IMDb, with a score of 7.2 at the time of publishing, praising its combination of "a strong female lead, a dude instead of a damsel in distress, and a slew of colorful villains to fight".


title: Kim Possible

text: On June 7, 2022, Romano and Friedle appeared on "Good Morning America" to celebrate the 20th anniversary of "Kim Possible" and discuss its impact. On that same day, a special "Kim Possible"-themed episode of Romano and Friedle's podcast "I Hear Voices" was released. At the beginning, Romano and Friedle interview creators Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, as well as voice actors Nicole Sullivan (Shego) and John DiMaggio (Drakken). At the end, the four actors performed a brand new "Kim Possible" scene written by McCorkle and Schooley and directed by original "Kim" voice director Lisa Schaffer. The scene begins with Kim and Ron hanging at Bueno Nacho before entering Drakken's lair and tricked into being guests on Drakken and Shego's podcast. As usual, Kim and Ron escape but not before Kim gets into fisticuffs with Shego (with Drakken and Ron providing commentary on the fight).


title: Kim Possible

text: There have been two full length animated "Kim Possible" films, and one live action feature length film:


title: Kim Possible

text: The success of "Kim Possible" spawned two animated—as well as a live action—television films based on the series, becoming the first animated series to be adapted into a Disney Channel Original Movie. The first, "", is science fiction-themed and premiered on Disney Channel on November 28, 2003, following Kim as she travels both back in time and into the future to save the world. Dubbed an "extended episode", the film also explores the character's origin, revealing how both she and Ron became crime fighters, and features an all-star cast. The second, "," was released in 2005 and was originally going to be the series finale, but due to popular demand the series was renewed for the fourth season.


title: Kim Possible

text: On February 7, 2018, Disney announced on Twitter that they were moving forward in making a live action "Kim Possible" Disney Channel Original Movie and were beginning casting. On April 25, 2018, Disney Channel announced on its Public Relations Twitter account that the movie was set to premiere sometime in 2019 and that Sadie Stanley and Sean Giambrone would portray Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable respectively. On May 25, 2018, TVLine revealed casting for six key roles in the movie including Alyson Hannigan as Dr. Ann Possible, Connie Ray as Nana Possible, Todd Stashwick as Drakken, Taylor Ortega as Shego, Ciara Wilson as Athena and Erika Tham as Bonnie. On June 22, 2018, it was announced that Issac Ryan Brown will portray Wade. In August 2018, it was announced Christy Carlson Romano had joined the cast of the film, with Patton Oswalt reprising his role as Professor Dementor. A trailer was released on December 7, and the film itself premiered on February 15, 2019.


title: Kim Possible

text: The live action film was followed by the miniseries "Kim Hushable", released on Disney Channel’s YouTube account with five 4-minutes episodes between June 5 and 24, 2019.


title: Kim Possible

text: The success of "Kim Possible" spawned its own video game series; a total of six video games were released, supported by various gaming consoles and platforms:


title: Kim Possible

text: In 2003, Disney began using the popularity of both Disney Channel's "Kim Possible" and "Lizzie McGuire" in an attempt to revive the company's struggling merchandising division, which had been suffering from a declining interest in movie and television tie-ins. In June 2004, McDonald's customers received "Kim Possible" memorabilia ranging from action figures to spy gear and accessories with their purchase of a Happy Meal. Customers were given a choice of eight different interactive toys to choose from, including a magnetic drawing tablet designed to resemble the Kimminucator and action figures of Kim, Ron, Rufus, Shego, and Monkey Fist.


title: Kim Possible

text: Based on the series, the "Kim Possible World Showcase Adventure" was an interactive attraction that took place in several of Epcot's World Showcase pavilions in Walt Disney World. The attraction is an electronic scavenger hunt that has guests using special "Kimmunicators" (in actuality, modified cell phones) to help Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable solve a "crime" or disrupt an evil-doer's "plans for global domination." The "Kimmunicator" is able to trigger specific events within the pavilion grounds that provide clues to completing the adventure. Launched in January 2009 and presented by Verizon Wireless, the "Adventure" is included in park admission.


title: Kim Possible

text: The attraction was closed on May 18, 2012, to make way for a similar attraction themed around the character of "Agent P" from Disney Channel animated television show "Phineas and Ferb". The new attraction, now called "Disney's Phineas and Ferb's Agent P World Showcase Adventure", opened in June 2012.


title: Zeno's paradoxes

text: Zeno's paradoxes are a set of philosophical problems generally thought to have been devised by Greek philosopher Zeno of Elea (c. 490–430 BC) to support Parmenides' doctrine that contrary to the evidence of one's senses, the belief in plurality and change is mistaken, and in particular that motion is nothing but an illusion. It is usually assumed, based on Plato's "Parmenides" (128a–d), that Zeno took on the project of creating these paradoxes because other philosophers had created paradoxes against Parmenides' view. Thus Plato has Zeno say the purpose of the paradoxes "is to show that their hypothesis that existences are many, if properly followed up, leads to still more absurd results than the hypothesis that they are one." Plato has Socrates claim that Zeno and Parmenides were essentially arguing exactly the same point. Some of Zeno's nine surviving paradoxes (preserved in Aristotle's "Physics"


title: Zeno's paradoxes

text: and Simplicius's commentary thereon) are essentially equivalent to one another. Aristotle offered a refutation of some of them. Three of the strongest and most famous—that of Achilles and the tortoise, the Dichotomy argument, and that of an arrow in flight—are presented in detail below.


title: Zeno's paradoxes

text: Zeno's arguments are perhaps the first examples of a method of proof called "reductio ad absurdum", also known as proof by contradiction. They are also credited as a source of the dialectic method used by Socrates. Some mathematicians and historians, such as Carl Boyer, hold that Zeno's paradoxes are simply mathematical problems, for which modern calculus provides a mathematical solution. Some philosophers, however, say that Zeno's paradoxes and their variations (see Thomson's lamp) remain relevant metaphysical problems. The origins of the paradoxes are somewhat unclear. Diogenes Laërtius, a fourth source for information about Zeno and his teachings, citing Favorinus, says that Zeno's teacher Parmenides was the first to introduce the paradox of Achilles and the tortoise. But in a later passage, Laërtius attributes the origin of the paradox to Zeno, explaining that Favorinus disagrees.


title: Zeno's paradoxes

text: Suppose Atalanta wishes to walk to the end of a path. Before she can get there, she must get halfway there. Before she can get halfway there, she must get a quarter of the way there. Before traveling a quarter, she must travel one-eighth; before an eighth, one-sixteenth; and so on.


title: Zeno's paradoxes

text: This description requires one to complete an infinite number of tasks, which Zeno maintains is an impossibility.


title: Zeno's paradoxes

text: This sequence also presents a second problem in that it contains no first distance to run, for any possible (finite) first distance could be divided in half, and hence would not be first after all. Hence, the trip cannot even begin. The paradoxical conclusion then would be that travel over any finite distance can be neither completed nor begun, and so all motion must be an illusion.


title: Zeno's paradoxes

text: This argument is called the "Dichotomy" because it involves repeatedly splitting a distance into two parts. An example with the original sense can be found in an asymptote. It is also known as the Race Course paradox.


title: Zeno's paradoxes

text: In the paradox of Achilles and the tortoise, Achilles is in a footrace with the tortoise. Achilles allows the tortoise a head start of 100 meters, for example. Suppose that each racer starts running at some constant speed, one faster than the other. After some finite time, Achilles will have run 100 meters, bringing him to the tortoise's starting point. During this time, the tortoise has run a much shorter distance, say 2 meters. It will then take Achilles some further time to run that distance, by which time the tortoise will have advanced farther; and then more time still to reach this third point, while the tortoise moves ahead. Thus, whenever Achilles arrives somewhere the tortoise has been, he still has some distance to go before he can even reach the tortoise. As Aristotle noted, this argument is similar to the Dichotomy. It lacks, however, the apparent conclusion of motionlessness.


title: Zeno's paradoxes

text: In the arrow paradox, Zeno states that for motion to occur, an object must change the position which it occupies. He gives an example of an arrow in flight. He states that at any one (duration-less) instant of time, the arrow is neither moving to where it is, nor to where it is not.


title: Zeno's paradoxes

text: It cannot move to where it is not, because no time elapses for it to move there; it cannot move to where it is, because it is already there. In other words, at every instant of time there is no motion occurring. If everything is motionless at every instant, and time is entirely composed of instants, then motion is impossible.


title: Zeno's paradoxes

text: Whereas the first two paradoxes divide space, this paradox starts by dividing time—and not into segments, but into points.


title: Zeno's paradoxes

text: For an expanded account of Zeno's arguments as presented by Aristotle, see Simplicius's commentary "On Aristotle's Physics".


title: Zeno's paradoxes

text: According to Simplicius, Diogenes the Cynic said nothing upon hearing Zeno's arguments, but stood up and walked, in order to demonstrate the falsity of Zeno's conclusions (see "solvitur ambulando"). To fully solve any of the paradoxes, however, one needs to show what is wrong with the argument, not just the conclusions. Through history, several solutions have been proposed, among the earliest recorded being those of Aristotle and Archimedes.


title: Zeno's paradoxes

text: Aristotle (384 BC−322 BC) remarked that as the distance decreases, the time needed to cover those distances also decreases, so that the time needed also becomes increasingly small.


title: Zeno's paradoxes

text: Aristotle also distinguished "things infinite in respect of divisibility" (such as a unit of space that can be mentally divided into ever smaller units while remaining spatially the same) from things (or distances) that are infinite in extension ("with respect to their extremities").


title: Zeno's paradoxes

text: Aristotle's objection to the arrow paradox was that "Time is not composed of indivisible nows any more than any other magnitude is composed of indivisibles."


title: Zeno's paradoxes

text: Before 212 BC, Archimedes had developed a method to derive a finite answer for the sum of infinitely many terms that get progressively smaller. (See: Geometric series, 1/4 + 1/16 + 1/64 + 1/256 + · · ·, "The Quadrature of the Parabola".) His argument, applying the method of exhaustion to prove that the infinite sum in question is equal to the area of a particular square, is largely geometric but quite rigorous. Today's analysis achieves the same result, using limits (see convergent series). These methods allow the construction of solutions based on the conditions stipulated by Zeno, i.e. the amount of time taken at each step is geometrically decreasing.


title: Zeno's paradoxes

text: Thomas Aquinas, commenting on Aristotle's objection, wrote "Instants are not parts of time, for time is not made up of instants any more than a magnitude is made of points, as we have already proved. Hence it does not follow that a thing is not in motion in a given time, just because it is not in motion in any instant of that time."


title: Zeno's paradoxes

text: Bertrand Russell offered what is known as the "at-at theory of motion". It agrees that there can be no motion "during" a durationless instant, and contends that all that is required for motion is that the arrow be at one point at one time, at another point another time, and at appropriate points between those two points for intervening times. In this view motion is just change in position over time.


title: Zeno's paradoxes

text: Another proposed solution is to question one of the assumptions Zeno used in his paradoxes (particularly the Dichotomy), which is that between any two different points in space (or time), there is always another point. Without this assumption there are only a finite number of distances between two points, hence there is no infinite sequence of movements, and the paradox is resolved. According to Hermann Weyl, the assumption that space is made of finite and discrete units is subject to a further problem, given by the "tile argument" or "distance function problem".


title: Zeno's paradoxes

text: According to this, the length of the hypotenuse of a right angled triangle in discretized space is always equal to the length of one of the two sides, in contradiction to geometry. Jean Paul Van Bendegem has argued that the Tile Argument can be resolved, and that discretization can therefore remove the paradox.


title: Zeno's paradoxes

text: An alternative conclusion, proposed by Henri Bergson in his 1896 book "Matter and Memory", is that, while the path is divisible, the motion is not. In this argument, instants in time and instantaneous magnitudes do not physically exist. An object in relative motion cannot have an instantaneous or determined relative position, and so cannot have its motion fractionally dissected.


title: Zeno's paradoxes

text: In 2003, Peter Lynds put forth a very similar argument. All of Zeno's motion paradoxes are resolved by the conclusion that instants in time and instantaneous magnitudes do not physically exist.


title: Zeno's paradoxes

text: Lynds argues that an object in relative motion cannot have an instantaneous or determined relative position (for if it did, it could not be in motion), and so cannot have its motion fractionally dissected as if it does, as is assumed by the paradoxes. For more about the inability to know both speed and location, see Heisenberg uncertainty principle.


title: Zeno's paradoxes

text: Nick Huggett argues that Zeno is assuming the conclusion when he says that objects that occupy the same space as they do at rest must be at rest.


title: Zeno's paradoxes

text: Infinite processes remained theoretically troublesome in mathematics until the late 19th century. With the epsilon-delta definition of limit, Weierstrass and Cauchy developed a rigorous formulation of the logic and calculus involved. These works resolved the mathematics involving infinite processes.


title: Zeno's paradoxes

text: While mathematics can calculate where and when the moving Achilles will overtake the Tortoise of Zeno's paradox, philosophers such as Kevin Brown and Francis Moorcroft


title: Zeno's paradoxes

text: claim that mathematics does not address the central point in Zeno's argument, and that solving the mathematical issues does not solve every issue the paradoxes raise.


title: Zeno's paradoxes

text: Popular literature often misrepresents Zeno's arguments. For example, Zeno is often said to have argued that the sum of an infinite number of terms must itself be infinite–with the result that not only the time, but also the distance to be travelled, become infinite. However, none of the original ancient sources has Zeno discussing the sum of any infinite series. Simplicius has Zeno saying "it is impossible to traverse an infinite number of things in a finite time". This presents Zeno's problem not with finding the "sum", but rather with "finishing" a task with an infinite number of steps: how can one ever get from A to B, if an infinite number of (non-instantaneous) events can be identified that need to precede the arrival at B, and one cannot reach even the beginning of a "last event"?


title: Zeno's paradoxes

text: A humorous take is offered by Tom Stoppard in his 1972 play "Jumpers", in which the principal protagonist, the philosophy professor George Moore, suggests that according to Zeno's paradox, Saint Sebastian, a 3rd Century Christian saint martyred by being shot with arrows, died of fright.


title: Zeno's paradoxes

text: Debate continues on the question of whether or not Zeno's paradoxes have been resolved. In "The History of Mathematics: An Introduction" (2010) Burton writes, "Although Zeno's argument confounded his contemporaries, a satisfactory explanation incorporates a now-familiar idea, the notion of a 'convergent infinite series.'"


title: Zeno's paradoxes

text: Bertrand Russell offered a "solution" to the paradoxes based on the work of Georg Cantor, but Brown concludes "Given the history of 'final resolutions', from Aristotle onwards, it's probably foolhardy to think we've reached the end. It may be that Zeno's arguments on motion, because of their simplicity and universality, will always serve as a kind of 'Rorschach image' onto which people can project their most fundamental phenomenological concerns (if they have any)."


title: Zeno's paradoxes

text: Roughly contemporaneously during the Warring States period (475–221 BCE), ancient Chinese philosophers from the School of Names, a school of thought similarly concerned with logic and dialectics, developed paradoxes similar to those of Zeno. The works of the School of Names have largely been lost, with the exception of portions of the "Gongsun Longzi". The second of the Ten Theses of Hui Shi suggests knowledge of infinitesimals:


title: Zeno's paradoxes

text: The Mohist canon appears to propose a solution to this paradox by arguing that in moving across a measured length, the distance is not covered in successive fractions of the length, but in one stage. Due to the lack of surviving works from the School of Names, most of the other paradoxes listed are difficult to interpret.


title: Zeno's paradoxes

text: In 1977, physicists E. C. George Sudarshan and B. Misra discovered that the dynamical evolution (motion) of a quantum system can be hindered (or even inhibited) through observation of the system. This effect is usually called the "quantum Zeno effect" as it is strongly reminiscent of Zeno's arrow paradox. This effect was first theorized in 1958.


title: Zeno's paradoxes

text: In the field of verification and design of timed and hybrid systems, the system behaviour is called "Zeno" if it includes an infinite number of discrete steps in a finite amount of time. Some formal verification techniques exclude these behaviours from analysis, if they are not equivalent to non-Zeno behaviour. In systems design these behaviours will also often be excluded from system models, since they cannot be implemented with a digital controller.


title: Zeno's paradoxes

text: "What the Tortoise Said to Achilles," written in 1895 by Lewis Carroll, was an attempt to reveal an analogous paradox in the realm of pure logic. If Carroll's argument is valid, the implication is that Zeno's paradoxes of motion are not essentially problems of space and time, but go right to the heart of reasoning itself. Douglas Hofstadter made Carroll's article a centrepiece of his book "Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid," writing many more dialogues between Achilles and the Tortoise to elucidate his arguments. Hofstadter connects Zeno's paradoxes to Gödel's incompleteness theorem in an attempt to demonstrate that the problems raised by Zeno are pervasive and manifest in formal systems theory, computing and the philosophy of mind.


title: Kim Jung-hyun (actor, born 1990)

text: Kim Jung-hyun (born April 5, 1990) is a South Korean actor. He is best known for his lead roles in popular television series "School 2017" (2017), "Welcome to Waikiki" (2018), and "Time" (2018). He gained international recognition by starring in the dramas "Crash Landing on You" (2019–20) and "Mr. Queen" (2020–21) which rank amongst the highest-rated Korean dramas in cable television history.


title: Kim Jung-hyun (actor, born 1990)

text: Kim completed his mandatory military service as an assistant in Kangwon-do's 3rd division when he was 21 years old.


title: Kim Jung-hyun (actor, born 1990)

text: After having acted in several "musical theatre" plays, Kim made his silver screen debut in the film "Overman", which premiered at the 2015 Busan International Film Festival. This earned him Best New Actor nominations at 25th Buil Film Awards and 22nd Chunsa Film Art Awards.


title: Kim Jung-hyun (actor, born 1990)

text: Kim made his small screen debut in 2016 and gained attention with his role as Gong Hyo-jin's younger brother in the romance comedy "Don't Dare to Dream".


title: Kim Jung-hyun (actor, born 1990)

text: He then starred in historical drama "The Rebel". The series was a critical and commercial success, and Kim won the Best New Actor award at the 2017 MBC Drama Awards.


title: Kim Jung-hyun (actor, born 1990)

text: He also played the male lead in KBS2's teen drama "School 2017" alongside "Gugudan"'s Kim Se-jeong. The series was very popular among the youth leading to his increased popularity. Kim's portrayal of a troubled and rebellious student was praised by critics and audiences. The series earned him Best New Actor nominations at the 54th Baeksang Arts Awards, the 2017 KBS Drama Awards and the 1st The Seoul Awards.


title: Kim Jung-hyun (actor, born 1990)

text: In 2018, Kim starred in JTBC's youth series titled "Welcome to Waikiki" playing a cynical but kind-hearted movie director. The series was popular across Asia and solidified Kim's status as a versatile actor.


title: Kim Jung-hyun (actor, born 1990)

text: He then starred in the 4DX VR movie "Stay With Me" alongside Seo Yea-ji playing the role of an aspiring musician with stage fright. Kim lent his vocals to the OST of the movie titled "Moonlight".


title: Kim Jung-hyun (actor, born 1990)

text: Later he starred in MBC melodrama "Time" alongside "Girls' Generation"'s Seohyun, playing a chaebol whose time is running out due to his failing health. Kim's received critical praise for playing the drama's principal character, a terminal patient with few months to live. He withdrew halfway through the series due to an "eating disorder and sleep disorder".


title: Kim Jung-hyun (actor, born 1990)

text: Kim returned to television in December 2019 when he joined the tvN romance drama "Crash Landing on You" alongside Hyun Bin, Son Ye-jin and Seo Ji-hye. It became the highest-rated tvN drama and the third-highest-rated Korean drama in cable television history. Kim's portrayal of Goo Seung-joon, former fiancé of Yoon Se-ri (Son Ye-jin) and eventual love interest to Seo Dan (Seo Ji-hye), received positive reviews from audiences. His character's name “Goo Seung-joon” went on to trend at No. 1 in Korea's realtime search rankings, which he later described in an interview as incredibly rewarding.


title: Kim Jung-hyun (actor, born 1990)

text: In May 2020, Kim made a cameo appearance in his "Crash Landing on You" co-star Seo Ji-hye's drama "Dinner Mate" playing the role of her long-term boyfriend.


title: Kim Jung-hyun (actor, born 1990)

text: On June 5, 2020, it was confirmed that Kim would lead tvN's fusion sageuk drama, "Mr. Queen" alongside Shin Hye-sun playing the role of King Cheoljong. The drama aired from December 2020 to February 2021. On February 15, 2021, "Mr. Queen" became the seventh-highest-rated Korean drama in cable television history and the fifth highest rated tvN drama on record. "The Korea Times" article praised Kim's complex portrayal of the two-faced King and noted that he "left a deep impression on viewers with a heavy presence that took the center of the play." Kim contributed his vocals to the soundtrack with the song "Like the First Snow" for which he also wrote the lyrics.


title: Kim Jung-hyun (actor, born 1990)

text: In September 2021, Kim signed with Story J Company followed by movie and drama casting news in 2022. In January 2022, his agency confirmed that he will appear as Detective Lee Dong-geun in an indie film called "Se²cret"


title: Kim Jung-hyun (actor, born 1990)

text: In July 2018, during the press conference for his drama "The Time", he was criticised for "answering questions unenthusiastically" and for refusing to link arms with his co-star Seohyun. He explained that it was because he was trying to stay in his character from the drama. He withdrew from the series halfway through its run, officially citing health reasons.


title: Kim Jung-hyun (actor, born 1990)

text: In April 2021, South Korean local tabloid Dispatch revealed alleged text messages between Kim Jung-hyun and actress Seo Yea-ji and pointed out requests from Seo as the reason behind Kim's behaviour at the press conference." In response, Seo's agency, Gold Medalist, denied the claim that she was the reason behind Kim's behaviour and abrupt exit from the series.


title: Kim Jung-hyun (actor, born 1990)

text: On May 12, Kim's representative released a statement to announce the expiration of his contract with O& Entertainment and to address the actor's health condition while filming "The Time" in 2018. Kim claimed that his agency had failed to fulfill their duty, and that he would take legal action against them for defamation and spreading false information. The same day, YTN revealed that they had obtained Kim's hospital records which showed that he was diagnosed with anxiety disorder, panic disorder, sleep disorder, and having depressive episodes. After the handwritten apology, he met "The Time" director, Jang Jun-ho, who expressed his willingness to work with him again.


title: Red Army Faction

text: The Red Army Faction (RAF, ; , ), also known as the Baader–Meinhof Group or Baader–Meinhof Gang (, , active 1970–1998), was a West German far-left Marxist-Leninist urban guerrilla group founded in 1970.


title: Red Army Faction

text: The RAF described itself as a communist, anti-imperialist, and urban guerrilla group engaged in armed resistance against what they deemed to be a "fascist" state. Members of the RAF generally used the Marxist–Leninist term "faction" when they wrote in English. Early leadership included Andreas Baader, Ulrike Meinhof, Gudrun Ensslin, and Horst Mahler. The West German government considered the RAF to be a terrorist organization.


title: Red Army Faction

text: The RAF engaged in a series of bombings, assassinations, kidnappings, bank robberies, and shoot-outs with police over the course of three decades. Their activity peaked in late 1977, which led to a national crisis that became known as the "German Autumn". The RAF has been held responsible for 34 deaths, including industrialist Hanns Martin Schleyer, the Dresdner Bank head Jürgen Ponto, and the federal prosecutor Siegfried Buback, as well as many secondary targets, such as chauffeurs and bodyguards, with many others injured throughout its almost thirty years of activity; 26 RAF members or supporters were killed. Although better-known, the RAF conducted fewer attacks than the Revolutionary Cells, which is held responsible for 296 bomb attacks, arson and other attacks between 1973 and 1995. The group was motivated by leftist political concerns and the perceived failure of their parents' generation to confront Germany's Nazi past, and received support from Stasi and other Eastern Bloc security services.


title: Red Army Faction

text: On 20 April 1998, an eight-page typewritten letter in German was faxed to the Reuters news agency, signed "RAF" with the submachine-gun red star, declaring that the group had dissolved. In 1999, after a robbery in Duisburg, evidence pointing to Ernst-Volker Staub and Daniela Klette was found, causing an official investigation into a re-founding.


title: Red Army Faction

text: The usual translation into English is the "Red Army Faction"; however, the founders wanted it to reflect not a splinter group but rather an embryonic militant unit that was embedded, in or part of, a wider communist workers' movement, i.e., a "fraction" of a whole.


title: Red Army Faction

text: The group always called itself the , never the Baader–Meinhof Group or Baader–Meinhof Gang. The name refers to all incarnations of the organization: the "first generation" RAF, which consisted of Baader, Ensslin, Meinhof, and others; the "second generation" RAF; and the "third generation" RAF, which existed in the 1980s and 90s. The terms "Baader–Meinhof Gang" and "Baader–Meinhof Group" were first used by the media and the government. The group never used these names to refer to itself, because it viewed itself as a co-founded group consisting of numerous members and not a group with two figureheads.


title: Red Army Faction

text: The origins of the group can be traced back to the 1968 student protest movement in West Germany. Industrialised nations in the late 1960s experienced social upheavals related to the maturing of the "baby boomers", the Cold War, and the end of colonialism. Newly found youth identity and issues such as racism, women's liberation, and anti-imperialism were at the forefront of left-wing politics. Many young people were alienated from their parents and the institutions of the state. The historical legacy of Nazism drove a wedge between the generations and increased suspicion of authoritarian structures in society (some analysts see the same occurring in post-fascism Italy, giving rise to ).


title: Red Army Faction

text: In West Germany there was anger among leftist youth at the post-war denazification in West Germany and East Germany, which was perceived as a failure or as ineffective, as former (actual and supposed) Nazis held positions in government and the economy. The Communist Party of Germany had been outlawed since 1956. Elected and appointed government positions down to the local level were often occupied by ex-Nazis. Konrad Adenauer, the first Federal Republic chancellor (in office 1949–1963), had even appointed former Nazi sympathiser Hans Globke as Director of the Federal Chancellery of West Germany (in office 1953–1963).


title: Red Army Faction

text: The radicals regarded the conservative media as biased—at the time conservatives such as Axel Springer, who was implacably opposed to student radicalism, owned and controlled the conservative media including all of the most influential mass-circulation tabloid newspapers. The emergence of the Grand Coalition between the two main parties, the SPD and CDU, with former Nazi Party member Kurt Georg Kiesinger as chancellor, occurred in 1966. This horrified many on the left and was viewed as a monolithic, political marriage of convenience with pro-NATO, pro-capitalist collusion on the part of the social democratic SPD. With about 90% of the Bundestag controlled by the coalition, an Extra-Parliamentary Opposition (APO) was formed with the intent of generating protest and political activity outside of government. In 1972 a law was passed—the —that banned radicals or those with a "questionable" political persuasion from public sector jobs.


title: Red Army Faction

text: Some radicals used the supposed association of large parts of society with Nazism as an argument against any peaceful approaches:


title: Red Army Faction

text: RAF founder Ulrike Meinhof had a long history in the Communist Party. Holger Meins had studied film and was a veteran of the Berlin revolt; his short feature "How To Produce A Molotov Cocktail" was seen by huge audiences. Jan Carl Raspe lived at the Kommune 2; Horst Mahler was an established lawyer but also at the center of the anti-Springer revolt from the beginning. From their own personal experiences and assessments of the socio-economic situation they soon became more specifically influenced by Leninism and Maoism, calling themselves "Marxist–Leninist" though they effectively added to or updated this ideological tradition. A contemporaneous critique of the Red Army Faction's view of the state, published in a pirate edition of , ascribed to it "state-fetishism"—an ideologically obsessive misreading of bourgeois dynamics and the nature and role of the state in post-WWII societies, including West Germany.


title: Red Army Faction

text: It is claimed that property destruction during the Watts riots in the United States in 1965 influenced the practical and ideological approach of the RAF founders, as well as some of those in Situationist circles. According to one former RAF member, in meetings with KGB in Dresden the group was also met by Vladimir Putin, then KGB resident in East Germany. In these meetings RAF members would discuss weapons that were needed for their activities, and pass a "shopping list" to the KGB.


title: Red Army Faction

text: The writings of Antonio Gramsci and Herbert Marcuse were drawn upon. Gramsci wrote on power, cultural, and ideological conflicts in society and institutions—real-time class struggles playing out in rapidly developing industrial nation states through interlinked areas of political behavior. Marcuse wrote on coercion and hegemony in that cultural indoctrination and ideological manipulation through the means of communication ("repressive tolerance") dispensed with the need for complete brute force in modern 'liberal democracies'. His "One-Dimensional Man" was addressed to the restive students of the sixties. Marcuse argued that only marginal groups of students and poor alienated workers could effectively resist the system. Both Gramsci and Marcuse came to the conclusion that the ideological underpinnings and the 'superstructure' of society was vitally important in the understanding of class control (and acquiescence). This could perhaps be seen as an extension of Marx's work as he did not cover this area in detail. , his mainly economic work, was meant to be one of a series of books which would have included one on society and one on the state, but his death prevented fulfillment of this.


title: Red Army Faction

text: Many of the radicals felt that Germany's lawmakers were continuing authoritarian policies and the public's apparent acquiescence was seen as a continuation of the indoctrination the Nazis had pioneered in society (). The Federal Republic was exporting arms to African dictatorships, which was seen as supporting the war in Southeast Asia and engineering the remilitarization of Germany with the U.S.-led entrenchment against the Warsaw Pact nations.


title: Red Army Faction

text: The ongoing events further catalyzed the situation. Protests turned into riots on 2 June 1967, when Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran, visited West Berlin. There were protesters but also hundreds of supporters of the Shah, as well as a group of fake supporters armed with wooden staves, there to disturb the normal course of the visit. These extremists beat the protesters. After a day of angry protests by exiled Iranian radical Marxists, a group widely supported by German students, the Shah visited the Berlin Opera, where a crowd of German student protesters gathered. During the opera house demonstrations, German student Benno Ohnesorg was shot in the head by a police officer while attending his first protest rally. The officer, Karl-Heinz Kurras, was acquitted in a subsequent trial. It was later discovered that Kurras had been a member of the West Berlin communist party SEW and had also worked for the Stasi, though there is no indication that Kurras' killing of Ohnesorg was under anyone's, including the Stasi's, orders.


title: Red Army Faction

text: Along with perceptions of state and police brutality, and widespread opposition to the Vietnam War, Ohnesorg's death galvanized many young Germans and became a rallying point for the West German New Left. The Berlin 2 June Movement, a militant-Anarchist group, later took its name to honor the date of Ohnesorg's death.


title: Red Army Faction

text: On 2 April 1968, Gudrun Ensslin and Andreas Baader, joined by Thorwald Proll and Horst Söhnlein, set fire to two department stores in Frankfurt as a protest against the Vietnam war. They were arrested two days later.


title: Red Army Faction

text: On 11 April 1968, Rudi Dutschke, a leading spokesman for protesting students, was shot in the head in an assassination attempt by the right-wing sympathizer Josef Bachmann. Although badly injured, Dutschke returned to political activism with the German Green Party before his death in a bathtub in 1979, as a consequence of his injuries.


title: Red Army Faction

text: Axel Springer's populist newspaper , which had run headlines such as "Stop Dutschke now!", was accused of being the chief culprit in inciting the shooting. Meinhof commented, "If one sets a car on fire, that is a criminal offence. If one sets hundreds of cars on fire, that is political action."


title: Red Army Faction

text: All four of the defendants charged with arson and endangering human life were convicted, for which they were sentenced to three years in prison. In June 1969, however, they were temporarily paroled under an amnesty for political prisoners, but in November of that year, the Federal Constitutional Court () demanded that they return to custody. Only Horst Söhnlein complied with the order; the rest went underground and made their way to France, where they stayed for a time in a house owned by prominent French journalist and revolutionary Régis Debray, famous for his friendship with Che Guevara and the theory of guerrilla warfare. Eventually they made their way to Italy, where the lawyer Mahler visited them and encouraged them to return to Germany with him to form an underground guerrilla group.


title: Red Army Faction

text: The Red Army Faction was formed with the intention of complementing the plethora of revolutionary and radical groups across West Germany and Europe, as a more class conscious and determined force compared with some of its contemporaries. The members and supporters were already associated with the 'Revolutionary Cells' and 2 June Movement as well as radical currents and phenomena such as the Socialist Patients' Collective, , and the Situationists.


title: Red Army Faction

text: Baader was arrested again in April 1970, but on 14 May 1970 he was freed by Meinhof and others. Less than a month later, Gudrun Ensslin wrote an article in a West Berlin underground paper by the name of "Agit883" ("Magazine for Agitation and Social Practice"), demanding a call to arms and a building of the Red Army. The article ended with the words, "Develop the class struggles. Organize the proletariat. Start the armed resistance!" Baader, Ensslin, Mahler, and Meinhof then went to Jordan, where they trained with Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) guerrillas and looked to the Palestinian cause for inspiration and guidance. But RAF organization and outlook were also partly modeled on the Uruguayan Tupamaros movement, which had developed as an urban resistance movement, effectively inverting Che Guevara's Mao-like concept of a peasant or rural-based guerrilla war and instead situating the struggle in the metropole or cities.


title: Red Army Faction

text: Many members of the RAF operated through a single contact or only knew others by their codenames. Actions were carried out by active units called 'commandos', with trained members being supplied by a quartermaster in order to carry out their mission. For more long-term or core cadre members, isolated cell-like organization was absent or took on a more flexible form.


title: Red Army Faction

text: In 1969 the Brazilian revolutionary Carlos Marighella published his "Minimanual of the Urban Guerrilla". He described the urban guerrilla as:


title: Red Army Faction

text: The importance of small arms training, sabotage, expropriation, and a substantial safehouse/support base among the urban population was stressed in Marighella's guide. This publication was an antecedent to Meinhof's "The Urban Guerrilla Concept" and has subsequently influenced many guerrilla and insurgent groups around the globe. Although some of the Red Army Faction's supporters and operatives could be described as having an anarchist or libertarian communist slant, the group's leading members professed a largely Marxist–Leninist ideology. That said, they shied away from overt collaboration with communist states, arguing along the lines of the Chinese side in the Sino-Soviet split that the Soviet Union and its European satellite states had become traitors to the communist cause by, in effect if not in rhetoric, giving the United States a free pass in their exploitation of Third World populations and support of "useful" Third World dictators. Nevertheless, RAF members did receive intermittent support and sanctuary over the border in East Germany during the 1980s.


title: Red Army Faction

text: When they returned to West Germany, they began what they called an "anti-imperialistic struggle", with bank robberies to raise money and bomb attacks against U.S. military facilities, German police stations, and buildings belonging to the Axel Springer press empire. In 1970, a manifesto authored by Meinhof used the name "RAF" and the red star logo with a Heckler & Koch MP5 submachine gun for the first time.


title: Red Army Faction

text: After an intense manhunt, Baader, Ensslin, Meinhof, Meins, and Raspe were eventually caught and arrested in June 1972.


title: Red Army Faction

text: After the arrest of the protagonists of the first generation of the RAF, they were held in solitary confinement in the newly constructed high security Stammheim Prison north of Stuttgart. When Ensslin devised an "info system" using aliases for each member (names deemed to have allegorical significance from "Moby Dick"), the four prisoners were able to communicate, circulating letters with the help of their defense counsel.


title: Red Army Faction

text: To protest against their treatment by authorities, they went on several coordinated hunger strikes; eventually, they were force-fed.


title: Red Army Faction

text: Holger Meins died of self-induced starvation on 9 November 1974. After public protests, their conditions were somewhat improved by the authorities.


title: Red Army Faction

text: The so-called second generation of the RAF emerged at that time, consisting of sympathizers independent of the inmates. This became clear when, on 27 February 1975, Peter Lorenz, the CDU candidate for mayor of Berlin, was kidnapped by the 2 June Movement (allied to the RAF) as part of pressure to secure the release of several other detainees. Since none of these were on trial for murder, the state agreed, and those inmates (and later Lorenz himself) were released.


title: Red Army Faction

text: On 24 April 1975, the West German embassy in Stockholm was seized by members of the RAF; two of the hostages were murdered as the German government under Chancellor Helmut Schmidt refused to give in to their demands. Two of the hostage-takers died from injuries they suffered when the explosives they planted detonated later that night.


title: Red Army Faction

text: On 21 May 1975, the Stammheim trial of Baader, Ensslin, Meinhof, and Raspe began, named after the district in Stuttgart where it took place. The Bundestag had earlier changed the Code of Criminal Procedure so that several of the attorneys who were accused of serving as links between the inmates and the RAF's second generation could be excluded.


title: Red Army Faction

text: On 9 May 1976, Ulrike Meinhof was found dead in her prison cell, hanging from a rope made from jail towels. An investigation concluded that she had hanged herself, a result hotly contested at the time, triggering a plethora of conspiracy theories. Alternative theories suggest that she took her life because she was being ostracized by the rest of the group. Other evidence, however, contradicts this hypothesis.


title: Red Army Faction

text: During the trial, more attacks took place. One of these was on 7 April 1977, when Federal Prosecutor Siegfried Buback, his driver, and his bodyguard were shot and killed by two RAF members while waiting at a red traffic light. Buback, who had been a Nazi member during WWII, was considered by RAF as one of the key persons for their trial. Among other things, two years earlier, while being interviewed by "Stern" magazine, he stated that "Persons like Baader don't deserve a fair trial." In February 1976, when interviewed by he stated that "We do not need regulation of our jurisdiction, national security survives thanks to people like me and Herold [chief of BKA], who always find the right way".


title: Red Army Faction

text: Eventually, on 28 April 1977, the trial's 192nd day, the three remaining defendants were convicted of several murders, more attempted murders, and of forming a terrorist organization; they were sentenced to life imprisonment.


title: Red Army Faction

text: A new section of Stammheim Prison was built especially for the RAF and was considered one of the most secure prison blocks around the world at the time. The prisoners were transferred there in 1975 (three years after their arrest). The roof and the courtyard were covered with steel mesh. During the night, the precinct was illuminated by 54 spotlights and twenty-three neon bulbs. Special military forces, including snipers, guarded the roof. Four hundred police officers along with the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution patrolled the building. The mounted police officers rotated on a double shift. One hundred more GSG-9 tactical police officers reinforced the police during the trial while BKA detectives guarded the front of the court area. Finally, helicopters overflew the area.


title: Red Army Faction

text: During the trial, accredited media correspondents had to pass a police road block 400 meters from the court. The police noted their data and the number-plate and photographed their cars. After that they had to pass three verification audits, and finally they were undressed and two judicial officials thoroughly searched their bodies. They were allowed to keep only a pencil and a notepad inside the court. Their personal items including their identity papers were withheld by the authorities during the trial. Every journalist could attend the trial only twice (two days). "The Times" questioned the possibility whether a fair trial could be conducted under these circumstances which involved siege-like conditions. wondered whether that atmosphere anticipated "the condemnation of the defendants who were allegedly responsible for the emergency measures".


title: Red Army Faction

text: While the trial progressed, the prisoners received visits from lawyers (and on rare occasions relatives; friends were not allowed). For those visits, three jailers were always present to observe the conversations between prisoners and visitors. The prisoners were not allowed to meet each other inside the prison, until late 1975 when a regular meeting time was established (30 minutes, twice per day), during which they were guarded.


title: Red Army Faction

text: The judges and their pasts are considered important by supporters of the accused. Judge Weiss (Mahler's trial) had judged Joachim Raese (president of the Third Reich's court) as innocent seven times. When he threatened Meinhof that she would be put into a glass cage she answered caustically, "So you are threatening me with Eichmann's cage, fascist?" (Adolf Eichmann who was an in the SS, was held inside a glass cage during his trial in Israel.) Siegfried Buback, the RAF's main trial judge in Stammheim, had been a Nazi Party member. Along with Federal Prosecutor Heinrich Wunder (who served as senior government official in the Ministry of Defense), Buback had ordered the arrest of Rudolf Augstein and other journalists regarding the affair in 1962. Theodor Prinzing was accused by defense attorney Otto Schily of having been appointed arbitrarily, displacing other judges.


title: Red Army Faction

text: At several points in the Stammheim trial, microphones were turned off while defendants were speaking. They were often expelled from the hall, and other actions were taken. It was later revealed that the conversation they had between themselves as well as with their attorneys were recorded. Finally it was reported by both the defendants' attorneys and some of the prison's doctors that the physical and psychological state of the prisoners held in solitary confinement and white cells was such that they could not attend the long trial days and defend themselves appropriately. By the time the Stammheim trial began in early 1975, some of the prisoners had already been in solitary confinement for three years.


title: Red Army Faction

text: Two former members of the RAF, Karl-Heinz Ruhland and Gerhard Müller, testified under BKA's orders, as revealed later. Their statements were often contradictory, something that was also commented on in the newspapers. Ruhland himself later reported to that his deposition was prepared in cooperation with police. Müller was reported to "break" during the third hunger strike in the winter of 1974–1975 which lasted 145 days. The prosecution offered him immunity for the murder of officer Norbert Schmidt in Hamburg (1971), and blamed Baader, Meinhof, Ensslin, and Raspe instead. He was eventually freed and relocated to the US after getting a new identity and 500,000 Deutschmarks.