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SCIFIPEDIA:Today's Featured Article/April 2008 <span class="SFPTagline"> From SCIFIPEDIA </span>
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 Terry Pratchett (b. April 28, 1948, Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, England, UK) is an English author of science fiction and fantasy. Pratchett is best known for his Discworld series. Other notable works include his The Bromeliad trilogy and his Johnny Maxwell trilogy. Pratchett won the Carnegie Medal for children's books for his novel The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents in 2001. In December, 2007, Pratchett was revealed to be suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Pratchett began writing at a young age. At thirteen he sold his story which allowed him to purchase a second-hand typewriter. He was a published author at fifteen. His first novel, The Carpet People was published in 1971 by Colin Smythe. Pratchett worked for several years as a journalist and press officer, writing novels in his spare time. He released the first in the Discworld . . .
 James Kyson Lee (b. Lee Jae Hyeok) can currently be seen as one of the stars on NBC's Golden Globe–nominated hit drama Heroes. James plays Ando Masahashi, sidekick and best friend to Hiro. Traveling from Japan to the United States, Ando begins his journey as a realist and is soon transformed into a believer, as he comes across supernatural events and begins to claim his place on the mission to save the world. James was born in Seoul, South Korea, then moved with his family to NYC at the age of 10, where he later attended Bronx H.S. of Science. He studied Communications at Boston University and New England Institute of the Arts, where he also began performing in music, dance, and improv. In summer of 2001, James sold his used car for $1,800, packed one suitcase, purchased a one way ticket, and jetted off to Los Angeles. There he began training in jazz singing, musical theater, and for the first time—acting. In his first ever television audition, he landed a guest-starring role on . . .
 A Chinese Ghost Story is a 1987 supernatural ghost story, a remake of Li Han-shiang’s Enchanting Shadow, which originally adapted The Magic Sword, a story by Pu Song-ling. Tsui Hark, largely credited with the reinvention of Hong Kong cinema in the 1980s, produced, with Ching Siu-Tung directing. The film holds an honored place as one of the best and best-beloved of Hong Kong supernatural fantasy action tales. A naive young scholar named Ning Tsai-shen (Leslie Cheung), working as a tax collector, comes to town to do his job. In a world of violent and greedy men, he is a gentle soul, unwilling to eat food from a murdering swordsman even though he's starving. In town, he fails miserably at collecting taxes, then finds abandoned Lan Ro temple to spend the night in—where he blunders into the middle of a sword battle between the swordsman from earlier and Taoist monk Yen Che-hsia (Wu Ma), who warns him not to stay at Lan Ro. The temple is haunted, of course, by restive spirit Nieh Hsiao-tsing (Joey Wong) who's enslaved to a thousand-year-old tree demon. Hsiao-tsing is supposed to seduce Ning and then consume his life essence for
 S.H.I.E.L.D. is a fictional paramilitary counterterrorism and intelligence organization that operates in the universe of Marvel Comics. It originated in Strange Tales #135 (1965) in a story created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Traditionally, the organization has been led by Nick Fury. It was created at a time when James Bond, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Secret Agent Man, and other fictional spies were the rage. The idea was to create a Marvel Comics version of this trend. The series title was officially Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. In those days S.H.I.E.L.D. stood for Supreme Headquarters International Espionage and Law-enforcement Division, and was a federal government agency. It featured characters that were prominent in the World War II military book Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandoes. Nick Fury, now wearing an eye-patch and . . .
 Janice Rand is a fictional character who appeared in the first season of the TV series Star Trek: The Original Series. She was portrayed by actress Grace Lee Whitney. Rand served as Captain James T. Kirk's yeoman and was seen for about six episodes during the first season of the series. Her character was then cut for budgetary reasons. Yeoman Rand was a young attractive woman, someone whom Kirk was sure to notice, but whose attraction to whom he could not acknowledge due to his position as her superior officer. Rand was attracted to Kirk as well, and admitted on one occasion that she would try to get the Captain to "notice her legs" in the episode "Miri." Rand later served as . . .
 Stargate Command (SGC) is the fictional, top-secret base of operations for the Stargate program on the TV series Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis. The SGC is located inside the Cheyenne Mountain Complex, in Colorado, several levels below NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command). The mission of the SGC is to acquire new alien technologies capable of defending the Earth against its enemies. The SGC is the embarkation point for all trips through the Stargate and is Earth's first line of defense against attacks via the Stargate. Its location, a thousand feet below the surface, adds a measure of protection, preventing any biological contaminants from escaping into the local population. The location also protects it against nuclear attack . . .
 Iron Man is a fictional superhero character owned by Marvel Comics. Anthony Stark is a technological genius, and has turned this genius into a multi-billion dollar corporation. He began designing weapons for the military, but now designs only non-lethal and defensive weapons in the hopes of making a better world. He has been known to withhold certain discoveries from the government that he feels would not be used for the common good. He has had many ups and downs in his life, many stemming from his recurring bouts with alchoholism. Iron Man's high tech armor is built with an amazing array of non-lethal high tech weapons and flight capacity. Weapons in the suit include "repulsor rays" and "transistors" that provide enhanced strength. Stark endlessly upgrades his armor, so the look and the capabilities are always changing. Iron Man was a founding member of the superhero team . . .
 Thomas Jeffrey Hanks is an Academy Award–winning American actor, producer, and director. Hanks's parents divorced in his youth and he spent his childhood moving around, changing schools and step-families. He eventually settled in Oakland, California, where he was drawn to acting in high-school plays. He attended Cal State in Sacramento, where he continued to act, but soon left college to pursue acting as a career.
 Ghosts are the earth-bound spirits of deceased entities. They are most commonly the spirits of humans, but ghosts of dogs, cats, horses, and so on have also been reported. Ghosts are often associated with hauntings, in which case they are associated with repeated appearances at a given location. However, single appearances have also been reported. The accounts of these hauntings are often referred to as ghostlore. From the early days of photography, and continuing into the present, people have taken "spirit photographs," which purport to show ghosts . . .
 Communion is a work of nonfiction by Whitley Strieber, documenting his experiences with alien abduction. On December 26, 1985, Whitley Strieber reportedly had an experience in which he thought he was abducted from his cabin in upstate New York by nonhuman beings of some kind. He wrote about these experiences in his first nonfiction book, the best-selling Communion (1987). Communion is generally interpreted as a claim of alien abduction, but Strieber says that he draws no firm conclusions about the nature or source of his experience. He refers to the beings as "the visitors," a name chosen to be as neutral as possible, and leaves open the possibility that they are not extraterrestrials and even that they exist only in his mind. He has repeatedly expressed his frustration with what he feels are fantastic claims incorrectly attributed to him. Strieber went on to write three more books about his experiences with the visitors, Transformation (1988), Breakthrough (1995), and The Secret School (1996). Each was commercially less successful than the last, and all three are now out of print. Other visitor-themed books of Strieber's include Majestic (1989), a novel about the Roswell UFO incident; The Communion Letters (1997, reissued in 2003), a collection of letters from readers reporting experiences . . .
 Clifford D. Simak (b. Clifford David Simak on August 3, 1904 in Millville, Wisconsin – d. April 24, 1988) worked as a newspaperman for most of his life, but wrote fiction on the side from 1931 forward, full time after his retirement. Although his earliest work was unabashed space opera, his fiction would grow increasingly thoughtful and un-melodramatic with the passage of time, and much of his work was set in rural settings, not surprising given that his best known early work was the cycle of stories that were eventually collected as City (1952), in which humanity matures beyond the need for urban centers, thanks in part to the assistance of genetically enhanced dogs and self-aware robots. "Desertion," probably his best-known story, was part of this series. Although Simak wrote several very fine novels, his short fiction is . . .
 David Bowie is a British singer, actor, and composer, born January 8, 1947 in London, England. His birth name was ... but he was forced to change his stage name to David Bowie to avoid confusion with Davey Jones, the lead singer for the pop rock group, The Monkees. He gained international attention in the 1970s with his science fiction glam rock album, Space Oddity, considered to be a masterpiece of the glam rock era. In it, he donned the persona of Ziggy Stardust, an androgynous alien. In 1976, genre fans got to see him in a role many thought suited him well: Thomas Jerome Newton, the sympathetic alien in The Man Who Fell to Earth. In the 1980s, Bowie moved into film acting. He was one of the leads in the goth classic film The Hunger with Susan Sarandon and Catherine Deneuve. Three years later, he had the lead male role in Jim Henson's . . .
 In the Star Trek universe, the Ferengi are a race of humanoid aliens who originate on the planet Ferenginar. Ferengi are known for being mercenary, a result of a civilization built on free enterprise, and are often portrayed as a greedy and selfish race. Ferengi are shorter than the average human and their most prominent feature are their large, sensitive ears. They also have four-lobed brains, sharp teeth, ascending ribs, and upper and lower lungs. They seem to be evolved from some kind of bugs or beetle-like creatures, and are most comfortable in a damp, swampy environment. Their most prominent physical feature are their ears, which are a source of sexual arousal as well as considered to be the source of male virility. The ideal male Ferengi is said to have the "lobes for business." This does not refer to brain lobes, as many humans assume, but to their ear lobes. The Ferengi made their first appearance in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode . . .
 Sophie Okonedo (born January 1, 1969, in London, England) is an Oscar-nominated English stage and film actress of Nigerian and Jewish-European descent. Okonedo may be remembered for her appearance in the film Æon Flux opposite Charlize Theron and her award-nominated performance as Tatiana Rusesabagina in Hotel Rwanda with Don Cheadle. Okonedo was drawn to acting by an advertisement for a writer's workshop. She discovered she was better able to dramatically present her classmate's work than her own and was encouraged by her writing coach to pursue acting. She gained experience at the Royal Court Theater and won a scholarship to the Royal Academy. Okonedo won critical acclaim as Cressida in Trevor Nunn's production of Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida at London's National Theater. She made her film debut in 1991, appearing in Young Soul Rebels and her television debut in the same year. She made guest appearances on television series but continued her career on the stage. In 1995, she appeared in her first notable American production, Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls. Okonedo's most notable appearances include The Jackal starring Bruce Willis, Dirty Pretty Things, Alibi . . .
 The F-302 is a spacecraft in the Stargate universe. It is also known as the X-302, which is the prototype of the F-302. The ship is completely Earth-designed but based largely on Goa'uld Death Gliders and designed to operate in space and atmosphere. The X-302 was unveiled in the episode "Redemption, Part 1". The use of naquadriah enabled the addition of a hyperspace generator. The naquadriah's instability resulted in a failure to generate a stable hyperspace window. Despite the problem, the ship and its hyperspace window generator proved a savior to Earth as it was able to generate a window for a short enough jump that Earth's stargate, attacked by Anubis, could be transported off the planet, where it exploded. The F-302 undertook its first mission in "Fallen". The ship was flown by Col. Jack O'Neill in a strike against Anubis' mothership. In "Lost City, Part 2", Col. Cameron Mitchell led a squadron of F-302s against . . .
 Niki Sanders' is a fictional character on the NBC series Heroes played by Ali Larter. Niki is the mother of a ten-year-old boy, Micah. They live together in Las Vegas where Niki struggles to make ends meet performing on an adult website. Her son, Micah, is a prodigy and Niki borrowed several thousand dollars to pay for his private school tuition. The school took the payment as a donation and, unable to provide more funds for his education, she is forced to withdraw Micah from school. She drops him off at a friends house, hoping to keep him safe while she returned home. Recently, Niki has been seeing a strange image of herself looking back at her from the mirror and can't fight the feeling she's constantly being watched. Her wariness is justified but for altogether different reasons. Her creditor, Mr. Linderman, has sent men to collect the money she owes him. They demand that she perform for them. Niki sees herself in the mirror covered in blood. It is the last thing she recalls before waking up in the midst of the bloodied bodies of her captors. She realizes she must have killed them but she doesn't know . . .
 Winona Ryder (b. October 29, 1971 is an Academy Award-nominated and Golden Globe award-winning American actress born Winona Laura Horrowitz in Winona, Minnesota. She grew up in northern California. Ryder began acting in her teens making her film debut in Lucas. She gained popularity in the late eighties in the genre films Beetlejuice, and Heathers in which she starred alongside Christian Slater. Ryder also made several more notable genre apeparances in 1990's Edward Scissorhands with Johnny Depp, Bram Stoker's Dracula with Gary Oldman and Keanu Reeves, Alien: Resurrection, S1m0ne and A Scanner Darkly. She will portray Amanda Grayson, the human mother of Spock, in the 2008 film Star Trek, a role originated by Jane Wyatt.
 Lt. Felix Gaeta (played by Alessandro Juliani), on The SCI FI Channel TV series Battlestar Galactica, is Senior Officer of the Watch in the Galactica CIC. As tactical officer, he monitors the long-range sensors in case of Cylon attack and serves as Adama's "jack of all trades." Gaeta is notable for his efficiency, attention to detail and reliability as well as his idealism. Gaeta also oversees the ship's FTL systems which includes calculating FTL jumps. He also manges the ship's computer systems. Gaeta served under Adama on board the Battlestar Valkyrie Gaeta studied biogenetics in college and joined the military to pay for his education. As a result of his studies, he was chosen to assist Dr. Gaius Baltar in his attempt to create a Cylon detector. Despite Baltar's strange behavior, Gaeta came to like him. When Shelly Godfrey visited Galactica to expose Baltar as a traitor, Gaeta worked on the photo still from a security camera and eventually discovered the image was faked. Despite the fact that the forgery was designed to be easily discovered as a fake, Gaeta . . .
 Blade: The Series is a TV series based on the Marvel Comics character Blade, portrayed on the big screen by Wesley Snipes. The series spin-off is likely a result of the success of the Blade Trilogy of films also based on the comic book character. The series premiered on Spike TV on June 28, 2006, with a two-hour pilot written by David Goyer, directed by Geoff Johns, and starring Kirk Jones (Sticky Fingaz) as the half-vampire, half-human Daywalker, Blade. The series picked up where the last film, Blade: Trinity, left off and added several new characters, including Jill Wagner as Krista Starr, Neil Jackson as Marcus Van Sciver, Jessica Gower as Chase, and Nelson Lee as Shen. Blade was SpikeTV's first original scripted series and was produced by New Line Cinema. Due to disappointing ratings, the series was not renewed for a second season. When Krista Starr returns home to Detroit from service in Iraq, she discovers her bother, Zack, has been murdered. Krista tries to hunt down her brother's killer and uncovers a world of vampires she never dreamed existed. She is soon captured by . . .
 Name: Luxury liner Type: Intersun passenger cruiser Registration: Various registries Specifications: L: 825' W: 130' H: 75' The luxury liner is a sleek vessel that ranks among the poshest ways to travel among the Twelve Colonies. Modeled after the sleek lines of a fish, they sail gracefully through planetary atmospheres and into space, making short hyperlight jumps with ease. The design was so successful that it was adopted by many Colonial starlines, and several different Colonies produced them under license. Many of these vessels travel with the Battlestar Galactica’s ragtag fleet. The Olympic Carrier is one of the more famous of these ships. Other such vessels in the fleet include the Cloud Nine and the Rising Star. Like most commercial ships, luxury starliners are completely defenseless, making them easy targets for enemy attack. This weakness resulted in the destruction of many of these famous ships during the Cylon conquest of . . .
 The Wraith are a hostile alien species from the TV series Stargate Atlantis. They are native to the Pegasus Galaxy. A vampire-like, hive-based humanoid species, the Wraith survive and thrive by using suckers in their palms to extract and consume the life force of humans. The Wraith are extremely long-lived, possibly immortal as long as they are able to feed. A recently fed Wraith is superior in strength to humans and very difficult to kill. The Wraith hibernate for hundreds of years between major culling periods, when they awaken to harvest humans, reducing the population to only enough to continue breeding. Minor culling happens in between the longer cycles, presumably to feed the guards and replenish their stock. When the Atlantis team arrived in Pegasus, the Wraith had been in hibernation for several thousand years. The team alerted the Wraith to their presence by entering an Ancient city. When Lieutenant John Sheppard kills the keeper of the hive, she awakens the entire species, and a new massive culling cycle . . .
 Immortality refers to the concept of eternal life. Throughout human history immortality has been sought after by religious followers, scientists, and anyone seeking to extend their time on Earth or achieve life beyond this one. Whether immortality can be truly attained and how it can be achieved is much debated, some believe reincarnation offers a measure of immortality and others still believe that technology will be the true means of achieving near immortality. In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the search for immortality through science seems increasingly attainable with ever advancing knowledge about human genetics and medical breakthroughs in the treatment of disease.
 The Man Who Turned to Stone: Every night that screams are heard by the detainees at the LaSalle Detention Home for Girls, someone dies. It's night time in the detention center. The girls in the dormitory hear screaming from outside. One of them looks out the window and says,
We see a girl struggling in the arms of Erik. She faints, and he carries her up the stairs to a laboratory. There are several people in the lab, and Erik is instructed to set the girl down. Two others take her. It's the next day. Two of the girls, Anna Sherman (who is new to the facility) and the Beverly Garland-esque blond, go to the dispensary. Anna couldn't keep her breakfast down that morning. A strict appearing woman, Mrs. Fort, checks Anna's record, and informs her that it says she has a heart murmur. Anna is shocked by the information and protests it. The other girl is there for a recheck on her knee: she's a wisecracker, and is cautioned against making jokes by the strict woman. Anna is told she have to go to the infirmary toget a complete check-up. The other girl argues against that, saying Anna just needs something to settle her stomach, and that she doesn't want to miss . . .
 Paul Edward Valentine Giamatti (b. June 6, 1967) is an Academy Award-nominated American actor born in New Haven, Connecticut. Equally well known in dramatic roles, Giamatti has appeared in such notable films as Cinderella Man, Donnie Brasco, and Sideways as well as the genre features Lady in the Water, The Truman Show and Paycheck. Giamatti is the youngest of three children born to Yale professor A. Bartlett Giamatti and former actress Toni Smith. His older brother, Marcus Giamatti, is also an actor; his sister, Elena, is a jewelry designer. Giamatti attended Choate Rosemary Hall boarding school and later Yale University where he majored in English. He received his Masters degree in Fine Arts from Yale School of Drama. He began his acting career on stage appearing in Broadway productions before moving on to television and film roles. After small roles in films such as Singles, Mighty Aphrodite, Sabrina, Donnie Brasco, and Breathing Room, he landed his breakthrough role as . . .
 Kristin Dawn Chenoweth (b. July 24, 1968, in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma) is an American Tony award-winning stage and screen actress and singer recognizable for her petite stature, bubbly personality and musical talents exhibited in her many Broadway musical appearances and on her albums Let Yourself Go and As I Am. Chenoweth studied drama while attending Broken Arrow High School and attended Oklahoma City University, where she earned her bachelor's degree in musical theater and a masters degree in opera performance. Chenoweth competed in the Miss Oklahoma pageant in 1991 and won first runner-up and later won a "most talented up-and-coming singer" at the Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions. She turned down the accompanying scholarship to the Philadelphia Academy of Vocal Arts after earning a spot in an off-Broadway production. Chenoweth made her Broadway debut in Molière's Scapin and, in 1997, won a Theatre World Award for her performance in the musical Steel Pier. Her other stage appearances include You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown which earned her a . . .
 Fairuza Alejandra Balk (b. May 21, 1974, in Point Reyes, California) is an American actress well known for her roles in The Worst Witch, and The Craft. Balk was born to musician Solomon Feldthouse and bellydancer Cathryn Balk. She was named Fairuza (Turquoise in Farsi) after the color of her eyes. Her parents divorced when she was a baby and Balk grew up on a San Francisco commune, before moving to Vancouver with her mother. There, she had her first break as an actor, at age nine. She moved to the UK at 11, where she studied dance and other performing arts. At 11, Balk landed the role of Dorothy in Return to Oz. She out-competed 1,200 other girls for the role. A year later, in 1986, she won yet another magical role, the starring role in the TV movie The Worst Witch. In 1988, she visited Paris and appeared in Valmont which also featured Colin Firth and Annette Bening. She then returned to Vancouver, where she attended high school and continued to perform in film. She finished high school by correspondence and appeared in several films including Gas Food Lodging, which won her . . .
 Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective character created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Holmes is one of the most iconic characters in literature. His use of deductive reasoning to solve crimes, his impatience with people who aren't as clever as he is, his devotion to logic, his loyal sidekick; many of these elements are well-known. His address, 221B Baker Street, is the most famous address in fiction. A successful series of movies based on the character and starring Basil Rathbone, as well as several popular radio and television series, further cemented the popular culture impact. While the Conan Doyle version is firmly in (and pioneering of) the detective genre, he does investigate an apparently supernatural being (based on British folklore) in The Hound of the Baskervilles. He also investigated a case of vampirism in Doyle's "The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire". Both of these cases turned out to have rational scientific explanations behind them. Doyle's other story, "The Adventure of the Creeping Man" however, seems to border on the Science Fiction realm. Once other authors began writing the character, particularly once it fell into public domain, Holmes began to appear in overtly sci-fi situations. Holmes has been inserted into classic horror and science fiction novels by various authors, such as Dracula, and the War of the Worlds. There have also been many a pastiche that has Holmes traveling through time, dimensions, and . . .
 A puppet is a figure created to represent something real or imaginary, and then moved by an operator (a puppeteer) to give it the appearance of life. There are many types of puppets, and the art has existed across cultures and continents, and for thousands of years. Common types include: hand puppets; finger puppets; rod puppets; shadow puppets; marionettes (which are moved by strings attached to an unseen controller above the puppet); and ventriloquist dummies (operated by a ventriloquist, who is visible on stage with the dummy, and who makes it appear that the dummy is speaking). Puppets are typically used to tell a story. The audience is aware of the artificiality of the puppet(s): the stories tend therefore to be symbolic rather than realistic. This willing suspension of disbelief on the part of the viewers has made . . .
 Sigourney Weaver (born Susan Alexandra Weaver October 8, 1949) is an American actress best known in the science fiction community for her role as Warrant Officer Ellen Ripley in the movies Alien (1979), Aliens (1986), Alien3 (1992), and Alien Resurrection. Weaver also had featured roles in Ghostbusters (1984), Ghostbusters II (1989), and Snow White: A Tale of Terror (1997). She played Gwen DeMarco/Lt. Tawny Madison in Galaxy Quest (1999), and was the voice of the Planet Express Ship in the Futurama episode "Love and Rocket" (2002). Weaver was born in New York City to British actress Elizabeth Inglis and TV producer Sylvester L. Weaver Jr. Weaver had a pampered childhood but life became a bit more difficult when, already 5'10'' at 13, she towered over her classmates. The Weaver family moved to San Francisco in 1962 but later returned to the East coast. In 1963, Susan became Sigourney, renaming herself after the character . . .
 Rachel Zawadi Luttrell is an actress best known in the role of Teyla Emmagan on the series Stargate Atlantis. She was born in Tanzania and moved to Canada at age five. Her mother is from Lushoto, Tanzania, and her father is from Louisiana and is of British heritage. Rachel studied ballet at the Russian Academy of Classical Ballet, and trained in voice and piano at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto with her father. She studied Shakespeare at Oxford University with the British/American Drama Association and has been acting since her teen years. She made her professional stage debut in the Toronto premiere of Miss Saigon. Before landing the role of Teyla on Stargate Atlantis, she guest starred on Forever Knight, Street Legal, Charmed Touched by an Angel, and . . .
2008, SCI FI. All rights reserved.
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