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- May 1
Ayiana is a fictional character on the TV series Stargate SG-1 played by Ona Grauer.
Several million years ago, the Ancients left Earth on their city-ship Atlantis for the Pegasus Galaxy. They left behind a single woman, Ayiana for unknown reasons. Ayiana was discovered a short distance from the location where the second stargate was discovered. She was buried deep in the ice and thawed at the Antarctic outpost under the watch of Dr. Janet Fraiser and Captain Samantha Carter. They were stunned to discover she was still alive. Though it's unknown exactly how she survived, it's possible she entered an Ancient stasis unit she was not however found in the Atlantus Outpost and no unit was discovered nearby. Another possibility is that her Ancient healing abilities helped her survive.
Ayiana was unable to speak when she awoke but she began communicating with . . .
- May 2
Full Metal Alchemist (Hagane no Renkinjutsushi) has become an extremely popular entry among anime offerings, driven by a complex, well-developed world and engaging characters, coupled with consistently excellent animation and stories by turns harrowing and comedic. A 51-episode television show based on a manga of the same name, Full Metal Alchemist (FMA) was created by Hiromu Arakawa. The anime, produced by studio Bones and directed by Seiji Mizushima, debuted in Japan in 2003 and was introduced to North American audiences by Cartoon Network's Adult Swim in 2004. The storyline of the anime diverges from that of the manga in about the middle of the series, and ends differently from the ending planned by the manga's creator.
Set in an alternate universe with some resemblance to Europe in the 1900s, the world of FMA, rife with civil unrest, an oppressive military, prejudice, and hardship, is also steeped in alchemy. Edward and Alphonse Elric, young sons of an alchemist father who's been missing for most of their lives, are left alone in the world when their mother dies. When they attempt to bring her back—the single most forbidden act of alchemy—the resulting . . .
- May 3
A Particle Accelerator is a device that propels electrically charged particles to high speeds using electric or magnetic fields.
In the Stargate universe, Samantha Carter built a particle accelerator inspired by the one Sokar used against Earth's iris to project an image of himself. The device gradually heated the iris and would ultimately have destroyed it had they not been able to dial out once the gate shut down after reaching its 38 minute limit. Sokar hoped to convince Stargate Command to give up Apophis to him.
Earth's particle accelerator was used by the SGC in the episode "A Hundred Days" to break through the rock that buried the Stargate on Edora.
While the show generally tries to stay within the realm . . .
- May 4
A TARDIS is a time-travel vehicle commonly used by the Time Lords, including the Doctor, on the television program Doctor Who.
The name TARDIS is an acronym for Time And Relative Dimension (or Dimensions) In Space, and it is typically written in all uppercase letters. Whether the "D" in TARDIS stands for Dimension or Dimensions is an open question. The singular form was used in the first episode of the program. Since then, however, the Doctor has used both versions almost interchangably.
In the first episode of the "classic" series, "An Unearthly Child" (1963), the Doctor's granddaughter, Susan, claims that the name TARDIS was her own invention. The idea that TARDIS is not the official designation for Gallifreyan time machines is supported by the fact that Time Lord officials usually refer to them as . . .
- May 5
Astrophysicist Lt. Colonel Samantha Carter is played by Amanda Tapping on The SCI FI Channel's hit TV series Stargate SG-1. The character combines scientific expertise with a cool head under fire, and Tapping's statuesque blonde beauty and vulnerable smile have made her a perpetual fan favorite.
The character of Sam Carter has a wonderfully rich and deep backstory that was developed and interwoven into many episodes of the ten seasons of Stargate SG-1. Of the four original main characters, Sam Carter was the one who originally dreamed of traveling to the stars before she ever heard of the Stargate. Her life aspirations included becoming an astronaut. Following a path similar to many of the real-world men and women who became astronauts over the past many decades, Sam Carter joined the Air Force in pursuit of her dreams of exploring space.
The character is one of the two original . . .
- May 6
- "Generous funding doesn’t make scientists smart . . . Nor are they able to detect trickery without help."
- —James Randi
Project Alpha came about after the announcement in 1979 that noted engineer James S. McDonnell, board chairman of McDonnell-Douglas Aircraft and devotee of the paranormal, had awarded a $500,000 grant to Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, for the establishment of the McDonnell Laboratory for Psychical Research.
James Randi and parapsychologist Trevor Finch decided to introduce magicians into the testing under the guise of being real psychics.
Steve "Banachek" Shaw, an English immigrant hospital employee in Washington, PA, and part-time mentalist, and Michael Edwards, a student in Marion, Iowa, and well known there as a magician, were the only McDonnell lab subjects chosen from the rather large group of applicants. They were 18 and 17 years old, respectively, when they began the project.
Both Mike and Banachek . . .
- May 7
Erica Durance is a Canadian actress best known for playing Lois Lane on the series Smallville. She was born on June 21, 1978, in Calgary, Alberta, to Joel and Gail Durance. She has two older siblings, a brother and a sister and grew up on a turkey farm in Three Hills, Alberta.
After graduating high school, Durance moved to Vancouver to pursue an acting career. She first appeared in the horror film The Untold. She has also had roles in House of the Dead and Devil Winds. Other feature film appearances include Stranded and The Butterfly Effect 2.
She guest-starred on several sci-fi series, including Tru Calling, Stargate SG-1, and Andromeda before landing the role of Lois Lane on Smallville. She first appeared in 2004 during the series' fourth season, continuing in subsequent seasons. In 2007, she . . .
- May 8
The Korolev is a Russian battleship in the Stargate universe. It was the third ship in the Daedalus (Stargate) Deep Space Carrier class. The Korolev was commanded by Colonel Chekov from Russia.
The ship was given to Russia under pressure from the Russian government to comply with the terms of agreement that allow Stargate Command to use the Russian Stargate. At first the Russians wanted to end the agreement because they did not get one bit of technology from the USAF. Soon Daniel Jackson was able to . . .
- May 9
The long range acoustic device (LRAD) is a crowd-control and combatant-deterrent sonic weapon developed by American Technology Corp. of San Diego, California.
The device was intended to be used by American warships to warn incoming vessels approaching without permission, but it has come into use more generally as part of America's nonlethal force arsenal.
The cruise ship Seabourn Spirit employed an LRAD to repel pirates who attacked the vessel with RPGs off the coast of Somalia in early November 2005. The effectiveness of this device during the attack is not completely clear, but the pirates did not succeed in boarding the vessel and eventually fled. The device was also used by police in New York City during protests of the 2004 Republican National Convention.
The LRAD device is 33 inches in diameter, weighs 45 pounds, and can emit sound in . . .
- May 10
Invisibility is the state of being imperceptible to sight.
The adjective is "invisible."
Many sci-fi works feature the element of invisibility. This might be a constant state, or it might be achieved intermittently. It most commonly occurs voluntarily, although stories featuring involuntary invisibility exist.
The invisibility may be brought about through:
- May 11
Tomorrow, When the War Began (published in 1994 by Pan Australia) begins a series of books by Australian writer John Marsden. The narrator is Ellie, one of a tight-knit group of friends that has gone on a small camping trip in the Australian bush. But while the teenagers were busy building bonfires and telling ghost stories in a hidden canyon, their country has been invaded. They return to find their world overturned, their homes empty and their families incarcerated by the invaders.
The story proceeds at a rapid pace, as Ellie, Homer, Robyn, Corrie, Fiona, Lee, and Kevin determine to fight back guerrilla-fashion. They have no adults to guide or rescue them. They survive by stealing, on the run, picking up what they need to know about explosives and other techniques along the way. Their struggles are not whitewashed. They kill people. They find some small comfort in sexual involvements. They are brave enough to risk and even sacrifice their own lives. They are injured . . .
- May 12
Odyssey 5 is a 2002 TV series created by Manny Coto for Showtime. Despite high ratings, the series was cancelled due to a change in direction for the network, which decided to move away from science fiction. Only 20 episodes were aired, the first 14 in 2002, and the remaining six in 2004.
"We saw the Earth destroyed, and in a heartbeat everything and everyone we knew was gone. There were five of us, the crew of the space shuttle Odyssey and we were the only survivors. A mysterious being who called himself The Seeker rescued us and sent us back in time. And now we have five years to live over, five years to discover who or what destroyed the Earth, five years to stop it from happening again . . .
- May 13
Peter Jackson (b. October 31, 1961) is an Academy Award-winning New Zealand director, producer, and screenwriter best known for his work on the acclaimed Lord of the Rings film trilogy. All three films earned Oscar nominations and three wins for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. His directing work on the film also earned him three Saturn Awards. He is also well known for his work on the 2005 remake King Kong. Jackson is also the owner the special effects company, Weta Digital.
Jackson was raised in Pukerau Bay, North Island, New Zealand, the only child of Bill and Joan Jackson, both originally from England. As an only child, he depended on his imagination for entertainment. His interest in film began when his parents bought him an 8mm camera. His first amateur film was a WWII drama filmed in his garden with his friends. As a child, he was a fan of Thunderbirds and at nine, he fell in love with King Kong, which he remade using stop-motion . . .
- May 14
Adam West (Billy West Anderson), was born September 19, 1928, in Walla Walla, Washington. His first film appearance was in 1956, in Voodoo Island.
West would star as a stranded astronaut in 1964's Robinson Crusoe on Mars. He would play another astronaut that year in the memorable Outer Limits episode, The Invisible Enemy. The "sand sharks" he faced are an image that would stay with many baby boomers for the rest of their lives. But his most memorable role was yet to come.
Although he was not the first actor to don the mask of Bob Kane's comic book superhero Batman, his role in the live-action television series Batman made Adam West an enduring star.
The series was shown twice a week for the first two years, with a cliffhanger ending between episodes. Filmed in color, often employing weird camera angles, and interspersing action scenes with titles such as BAM! and POW!, the show had a campy charm that . . .
- May 15
Contact, released by Warner Bros. in 1997, stars Jodie Foster, Matthew McConaughey, and David Morse. The film is based on the novel by Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan, with a screenplay by James V. Hart and Michael Goldenberg. Robert Zemeckis directed.
A fairly faithful adaptation of the only novel by astronomer and astrobiologist Carl Sagan, Contact tells the story of humanity's first contact with an extraterrestrial intelligence. Sagan wanted his story to be as plausible scientifically as he could make it, and so the technologies and motives of the extraterrestrials are more rational and reasonable than, say, those of the invaders in Independence Day. Where the story delves into heavier science fiction (faster-than-light travel via wormholes), the movie at least sticks with the potentially . . .
- May 16
Oliver Reed in
The Curse of the WerewolfWerewolves, as in a human who changes into a wolf, whether partially (as in the example on the right) or completely, are a myth found primarily in Northern and Eastern Europe; the people of that region having felt most threatened by the wolf. The word derives from Old English wer meaning "man", and wulf, "wolf". The term "werewolf" should not be used when referring to all shapeshifters; the more appropriate blanket term encompassing all such beings is therianthrope from Greek therion (beast) and anthropos (man). Despite folkloric heritage, the werewolf lacks the sort of mythos-establishing novel the vampire received with Bram Stoker's Dracula (1898).
The werewolf did, however, make fictional appearances. Sutherland Menzies published Hughes, The Wer-Wolf, a fantasy about werewolves in the Kent countryside in 1838. There is a female werewolf from Transylvania who eats children in The Phantom Ship (1839) by Captain Fredrick Marrayat. In the 1840s, G. W. M. Reynolds contributed 77 sensational serial chapters of . . .
- May 17
| Stargate Atlantis Character
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| Radek Zelenka
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|
| Status
| {{{Status}}}
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| Gender
| Male
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| Species
| Human
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| Origin
| Czech Republic, Earth
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| Portrayed by
| David Nykl
|
| First Appearance
| "Thirty-eight Minutes'"
|
| Profession
| Scientist, Engineer
|
| Relatives
| unknown
|
| Special Features
|
|
|
|
Dr. Radek Zelenka is a fictional character on the TV Series Stargate Atlantis played by David Nykl. Zelenka is a brilliant Czech scientist and engineer hand-picked by Dr. Elizabeth Weir to join the expedition to the lost city of Atlantis.
Zelenka is much abused by Dr. Rodney McKay, the expedition's lead scientist who often insults Zelenka and his work even as he depends on his help. Fortunately Zelenka, the more patient and understanding of the two, understands McKay's bluster. Zelenka has proven a dependable asset for the expedition and a lifesaver for McKay on several occasions.
Zelenka is responsible for the creation of a computer virus designed to destroy . . .
- May 18
Anansi Boys, published in 2005, added another success to Neil Gaiman's multimedia empire of hits (comic books, novels, children's books, screenplays). Gaiman, a former journalist, has become an overwhelmingly popular fantasy author.
The book is the journey of Charlie Nancy, a man known to everyone—even to himself—as Fat Charlie. The thing Fat Charlie doesn't realize, until it's much too late to be safe anymore, is that he is the son of a god—Anansi, the trickster god. So, although he has spent his life wrapping himself safely away from risks, Fat Charlie is about to be immersed in some fairly searing water. He will lose his job, his fiancée, and the woman he loves (the latter two not necessarily being identical), and become a weapon in an age-old tug-of-war between rival gods. At stake, of course, is the future of humanity.
Fat Charlie can't be expected to face off against his murderously evil . . .
- May 19
Sydney Bristow (b. April 17, 1975) is the main character on the series Alias played by Jennifer Garner. Sydney is the daughter of agent Jack Bristow and KGB spy Irina Derevko. She was recruited by the agency SD-6 which claimed to be a part of the CIA, as a field agent. She proved to be an excellent agent talented in the martial arts and numerous languages. On her various assignments, she has made use of English, Russian, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Dutch, Portuguese, Swedish, Romanian, Hungarian, Hebrew, Uzbek, Arabic, Urdu, Indonesian, Cantonese, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, Hindi, Vietnamese and Czech. Sydney's family is unique in that all members have been involved in espionage.
Sydney lost her mother at a young age. She was believed to have been killed in a car accident but Sydney later discovered she had faked her death. Her father, Jack, worked with the CIA and was taken into custody following the death of his wife on suspicion of treason when the CIA discovered Irina was a KGB operative. While her father was incarcerated, Sydney . . .
- May 20
Wonder Woman is a super-heroine character owned by DC comics. Created by comc book husband and wife team, William Moulton Marston and Elizabeth Holloway Marston, Wonder Woman first appeared in the December 1941 issue of All Star Comics (#8).
The character has appeared in comics, graphic novels, movies and TV.
Nicknames: The Amazon Princess
Secret Identity: Diana Prince
Powers: Super-Strength, very fast: able to block bullets shot at her with her femininium bracelets; magic unbreakable lasso that forces people to tell the truth. In some versions, she has the power of limited flight, in others she possesses an invisible airplane.
Origin: She is a native of Paradise Island, and is actually an Amazon princess. The Amazons are a race of immortal warrior women with roots in Greek Myth, who paradoxically believe in peace and love. Centuries ago, they fled to Paradise Island to live in seclusion to be free of all male domination. Eventually Queen Hyppolyta prayed to the Gods for . . .
- May 21
Jimmy Palmiotti is a writer and award-winning character creator with experience in advertising, production, editorial, film-writing, development and production, media presentation, and video game development. His clients include Nike, Nickelodeon, Disney, Warner Brothers, Lion's Gate, Vidmark, Starz, Fox Atomic, Alliance Films, New Line, 2kgames, Activision, and THQ Games.
As the co-founder of such companies as Event Comics, Black Bull Media, Marvel Knights (a division of Marvel Comics), and Paperfilms, Palmiotti has participated in creating numerous universes, series, and characters including the New West, Monolith, 21 Down, The Resistance, The Pro, Gatecrasher, Beautiful Killer, Ash, Cloudburst, Trigger Girl 6, Thrill Seeker, The Twilight Experiment, and Painkiller Jane.
His work in comics includes . . .
- May 22
Number Six (played by Tricia Helfer) is a humanoid model of Cylon on The SCI FI Channel TV series Battlestar Galactica. With drop-dead looks and a perfect body, her every move and gesture is smooth and precise, her eyes keenly intelligent. And God talks to her. . . .
Six is the first humanoid Cylon model seen in the series. Her work seducing Gaius Baltar and gaining access to the Colonial defense mainframe through him eased the destruction of the colonies and the ensuing Cylon invasion. The Number Six model, working with Gaius was killed in the nuclear attack on Caprica City and saved Baltar's life in the process.
Six has a certain amount of sympathy for humans . . .
- May 23
James Eugene Carrey (b. January 17, 1962) is a Canadian actor born in Newmarket, Ontario to Percy and Kathleen Carrey. He is the youngest of their four children. He began doing standup routines at a young age to entertain his classmates and did well in school. During his early teen years, the family's economic situation took a turn for the worse, and all the family went to work, the children after school, working security and janitorial jobs at the Titan Wheels Factory. The family was homeless for a while until they regained their footing and moved back to Toronto.
Carrey dropped about of school at sixteen to focus on his comedy act and celebrity impersonations. He made his television debut in a small role on an episode of Happy Days in 1975. He moved to Los Angeles in 1979 where his performance at The Comedy Store impressed veteran comic Rodney Dangerfield, who then signed him as his opening act for his run.
Carrey made his film debut in Rubberface in 1983. In 1984, he landed his first starring role, in the sitcom The Duck Factory, in which he played the straight man in a group of eccentric . . .
- May 24
American science fiction writer Poul William Anderson (November 25, 1926 – July 31, 2002) began his career writing short stories during the 1950s and soon established himself as a reliable source of action-based hard science delivered with sophisticated literary sensibilities. Although he is primarily known for his SF, Anderson also wrote a considerable body of fantasy, including at least one genre classic, Three Hearts and Three Lions (1961), and others based on Norse legends, as well as straight historical fiction and even detective stories.
Much of Anderson's fiction falls into one or another of several series. The Dominic Flandry novels follow the career of a military spy in service to a corrupt and faltering human interstellar empire. Flandry recognizes the faults of the government he serves but considers them preferable to the alternative, chaos and disorder, and repeatedly outwits . . .
- May 25
Humans. The dominant vertebrate on planet Earth. Safe within our homes, protected by our technology, the bone-crushing muscles and flesh-tearing fangs of our co-habitant competitors are rendered impotent. Our mind-driven abilities to create and combine have more than made up for our physical inferiorities.
But.
What if there is another intelligence, equal to or greater than our own, to whom our alarm systems, fences, and even the solid walls of our bedrooms are meaningless? What if they can enter our most private areas at will, extract us for their own purposes, and there is nothing we can do about it?
That is the fear that comes from reports of alien abductions.
People say that nonhumans take them (often from bedrooms, but from many other places), against their will, typically to an unknown environment (which they may perceive as a spaceship) . . .
- May 26
| Aquaman
|
|
| Gender
| Male
|
| Publisher
| DC Comics
|
| Origin
| Atlantis
|
| First Appearance
| More Fun Comics # 73
(November, 1941)
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| Creator(s)
| Paul Norris
Mort Weisinger
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| Alter ego
| Arthur Curry
|
| Aliases
| Dweller-In-The-Depths
The Sea King
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| Abilities
| Breathe under water; telepathy; super strength
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| Affiliations
| Justice League
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Aquaman is a superhero at DC Comics. He has had different revamped origins. The one from the 60s version of the character is that he is the son of a Atlantean outcast and a human light house keeper. Named Arthur Curry, he found that he could breath underwater, swim like a fish, and communicate telepathically with sea creatures. He eventually became King of the underwater city of Atlantis, and married Mera, a water-breathing princess from another dimension. He also adopted an orphaned Atlantean named Garth, who became his side-kick Aqualad. This was the Aquaman depicted in the campy cartoon series that many remember from the 1960s. Aquaman became a founding member of the Justice League of America, and was known as the King of the Sea. He and Mera eventually had a son nick-named Aquababy. But the ideal life of a happy-go-lucky superhero came to an end when one of his enemies, Black Manta, murdered . . .
- May 27
No object can travel faster than light, according to Einstein's theory of relativity. The theory prohibits material objects as well as energy or information from moving at any velocity greater than the speed of light.
Many works of science fiction propose that future advances in science will discover some (as yet unknown) new theory to allow a loophole in the theory, allowing faster-than-light travel to be possible. It has been proposed that such a theory might involve an as-yet undiscovered type of particle that moves faster than light ("tachyon"), "warping" of the geometry of space (tagged a "warp drive"), use of a fourth (or higher) spatial dimension (often called hyperspace), use of quantum mechanical effects such as entanglement, or travel through a wormhole.
Faster-than-light travel is often abbreviated in science fiction as "FTL." Many other terms have been used, including "warp engines" (Star Trek), "folding space," (Dune), "jump to lightspeed" (Star Wars), "overdrive," "hyperdrive," and . . .
- May 28
Promicin is a fictional neurotransmitter on the series The 4400.
The body of normal humans produces four neurotransmitters that relay signals between neurons and other cells. The 4,400 produce a fifth neurotransmitter, promicin, which enables them to access areas of their brains inaccessible to regular people. These parts of the brain are responsible for the powers the 4,400 develop, including telepathy, telekinesis, and clairvoyance.
Even after being released from quarantine, the 4,400 were charged with returning to NTAC for routine medical checkups. During these checkups they were dosed with a mysterious substance indicated on their charts as PI.
When the 4,400 became severely ill, Agent Diana Skouris sought . . .
- May 29
Daredevil, "The Man Without Fear," is blind, but has a radar sense and the other four senses so enhanced that he can recognize if a person is lying by listening to their their heartbeat, read a regular book by touching the print with his fingers, and so on. Daredevil is an incredible gymnast and fighter. He carries a "billy club" which shoots out a cable that Daredevil can use to swing around the city, almost like Spider-Man and his web. His senses can detect the perfect place and way to fight for maximum effect. The irony of his powers is that he is said to be fearless because of the peculiar nature of his power. Or, as he remarked in an early episode, "If I could see what I was doing, I'd be scared to death."
Origin: Matt Murdock's father was "Battlin Jack Murdock", an aging boxer. He wanted his son Matt to become a lawyer and fight with words. Matt, wanting to please his father, studied law by day, but practiced boxing with his father's equipment by night. Matt was in an accident when, trying to save someone from getting hit by a truck, he accidently came into contact with its radioactive cargo, and was blinded. His sight was replaced by a radar sense and enhanced senses. When his father was murdered for not taking a dive in a fight, Matt . . .
- May 30
Jennifer Anne Garner (b. April 17, 1972) is an American actress born in Houston, Texas, to Patricia Ann English, a teacher and William John Garner a chemical engineer. She was raised in Charleston, West Virginia, after her father's job with Union Carbide necessitated the move. She is best known in the role of Sydney Bristow on the ABC series Alias.
Early roles include Sasha, in Danielle Steel's Zoya, Sarah Troyer in the TV Movie Harvest of Fire and guest appearances on Swift Justice, Law & Order and Spin City. She also appeared in the feature films The Player, Deconstructing Harry, Mr. Magoo', and starred in the TV movie . . .
- May 31
The movie adaptation of Jurassic Park is based on the novel written by Michael Crichton, was directed by Steven Spielberg, and launched into theaters in 1993. Crichton, along with David Koepp, received screenplay credit. The cast includes Sam Neill as Dr. Alan Grant, Laura Dern as Dr. Ellie Sattler, Jeff Goldblum as Dr. Ian Malcolm, Richard Attenborough as John Hammond, and a pre-Pulp Fiction Samuel L. Jackson, as Ray Arnold.
The underlying what-if question of the movie is "What if scientists could extract dinosaur DNA from the blood contained in mosquitoes fossilized in amber thousands of years ago?" And if they did, to what use would they put this miraculous resuscitation of vanished life forms?
The best use of genetically reconstructed dinosaurs would, of course, be in entertainment: A theme park that houses cuddly triceratops, clever velociraptors, and magnificent tyrannosaurus rexes.
Goldblum, as chaos theory mathematician Dr. Ian Malcolm, does . . .
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