Spelling Rules, OK?

SPELLING RULES , OK? 

Every tried looking up a science fiction name? Couldn’t find it? Well here are some of the reasons we can’t spell sci fi words! 

1.       They spell existing words funetically : 

Abe’s Oddysee (game) (Odyssey); Abe’s Exoddus (game) (Exodus); Cyberia (game) (Siberia); Sibonetics (Fiend without a Face),(cybernetics);  Kamelion (Doctor Who: the King’s Demons) (chameleon); Kameo (Gunsword) (cameo), Karbunkle (BMM) (Carbuncle) , Karibdis (BG Murder on the Rising Star)(Charybdis) , Kheel (Kyle XY: What’s the Frequency Kyle?) (Keel; ,Knute (Appleseed (Canute), Koofoo (Butt Ugly Martians) (Khufu), Koopa (Super Mario Brothers)(Cooper); Kosmonaut (game) (cosmonaut);  Kowalsky (Stargate) (Kowalski) ; Kreed (game) (creed);  Superman: Shadow of Apokolips (title) (Apocalypse);   Toombs (Chronicles of Riddick) (tombs); Xerconian Ceramic Armour  (Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind)(Zirconian)  ; Z Krypt (Starblazers) (Crypt)  

2.       They add an apostrophe, anywhere in the word : 

      Ba’ku (Star Trek: Insurrection);  G’Kar (Babylon 5), Goa’uld (Stargate); Jem’Hadar (Deep Space 9); Loque’eque (Enterprise:  Extinction);  Raa’Keel ( Farscape:  Lava’s a Many Splendored Thing);  Rya’c (Stargate SG1: Bloodlines);Teal’c (Stargate SG1);  T’raltixx (Farscape: Crackers Don’t Matter),

3.       They use lots of consonants with few or no vowels: 

       Kcrackic (Farscape: The Flax), Kltpzyxm (Smallville: Jinx); Zdyb (Earth Final Conflict: If You Could Read My Mind);  ZZyzx Labs (KXY The List is Life); [Refer to the blog : Sesquipaedialisms Or: the longer is not the Better).

4.       They spell words starting in ‘C’ with ‘K’ : 

        Kandy Man (Doctor Who: the Happiness Patrol) (candy); Krystal (Star Foxx Adventures)(Crystal);  Krypt (Starblazers (Crypt); Klone (Blackstar) (clone); Kosmonaut (game) (cosmonaut);

5.       They swap ‘ph’ and ‘f’  :    

Phage (Star Trek Voyager); Zixx Phunkee Zee  (Zixx Level One ) Funky  

6.       They spell words ending in ‘ck’ with ‘k’: Chik (Black Mask); Jak (Jak and Daxter) ; Nik (The Girl from Tomorrow); Zak (Deep Water Black)

7.       They double X : 

LeLexx (series title/ ship); Rixx (Star Trek Next Generation : Conspiracy); Vexx  (Game/character); Zaxxon (Game); Zixx: Level One (Game).

8.       They change ‘I’ to ‘y’ : 

G    Gryffen (K-9 Regeneration); Kryss (Earth Final Conflict: The Fields);  Klytus (Flash Gordon);Sybok (Star Trek: The Final Frontier); Trychus (Operation Neptune);  Trykers (The Saga of Ryzom); Trymon (The Colour of Magic), Zyra (When Worlds Collide);

9.       They change ‘u’ to ‘oo’ : Koofoo (Butt Ugly Martians) (Khufu),

10.   They double ‘a’ for no good reason, without an apostrophe to change emphasis : 

       Kaarvok (Farscape), Raahm  (Tracker: Roswell ), Raaja (Earth Girl Arjuna);   Raakin  (E Borderland), Raatib Singh (The Phantom 2009 ), Raalgon Empire (Irresponsible Captain Taylor); Saahm (Tracker: Roswell); Skaara (Stargate SG1); Staanz (Farscape); Traag (Fantastic Planet); Zaat  (Film, 1972); Zhaan (Farscape)

11   They double ‘I’ for no valid purpose: Hiigaran (Homeworld 2);  Vidiian (Star Trek Voyager); Viinerine (TNG Face of the Enemy);

12   They double ‘u’ when not necessary: 

      Gomtuu (Star Trek: Tin Man);

13   They add a gratuitous ‘h’ :

       Kharak (Blakes’ 7: the City at the Edge of the World); Kheel (Kyle XY: What’s the Frequency Kyle?); Khefka IV (Deep Space 9: Invasive Procedures); Rhaam  (Jeff Hawke, First citizen of the Space Age, 1956),  Rhed Thorrn (Farscape: A Bug’s Life), Rhee (Tracker: Pilot), Rho-ha (Earth Final Conflict: The Secret of Strand Hill), Ruby Rhod  (Fifth Element), Rhondium  Particles (Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead), Rovhu (Farscape: Eat Me);

14 They put capital letters anywhere:

       eXtinction (game); Hypersonic eXtreme (Game); MegaMan xTreme (game); Space HoRSE (game); seaQuest DSV (series title); tranCendenZ (eXistenZ), Wormhole X-Treme! (Stargate SG1: Wormhole X-Treme!);

15    They're inconsistent 

 Jack and Jak;   

Kryten (Red Dwarf), Kriton (Star Trek: Elaan of Troyius), Crichton;

Komar (Star Trek Voyager Cathexis),    Komarr (Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Series), Comarre (Clarke: The Lion of Comarre),

Rhys (Torchwood), Reece, Reese

16 They use X for Z : 

Xander Bly (Power Rangers Mystic Force) ; Xanxia   (Doctor Who: The Pirate Planet ); Xarai           

(Farscape: Eat Me ); Xax (Andromeda:  Rose in the Ashes ); Xybo, Mr (Slider’s The Return of Maggie Beckett ); Xylok (Sarah Jane Adventures:  The Lost Boy)

17 They use ‘z’ for ‘s’ : Gruntz (game) ; Toolzz (The Bots Master);

Sci fi newspapers

Sci Fi Newspapers 

In film media newspapers are a useful plot device. They are used regularly in sci fi to provide information to the audience or to advance the narrative by giving the characters information. A quick look through the following list shows that a series like Sliders and Quantum Leap relied heavily on the newspaper motif to provide the characters with information about the world/time they had landed in. The Star Trek franchises on the other hand are nearly all absent from the list. Information in that Universe is imparted from above or in social situations.  The news from back home is generally given by relatives or Admirals.  

It doesn’t seem to occur to anyone in the Sci Fi universe that newspapers are moving online. Spinning headlines,  multiple viewpoints shown by successive front pages, useful papers wrapped around your fish and chips or blowing down the street, are all things of the past.  If all the power goes out now in an apocalyptic scenario, there won’t be any old papers to read. The news will all be stored in those non-operational computers in dark rooms with no air con.

Still, there will normally be papers online for characters to read, some of the print papers we have now are moving online and there will surely be new ones. What sort of names will we expect  them to have?

A short survey of sci fi movies and TV series reveals five categories of newspaper names,  with newspapers grouped by their purpose: 

Archival, Broadcasting, Investigative, Protective and Reflective.

Most of the names used in these categories will be prefixed by a town or city name, or the word ‘Daily’. There are very few imaginative names. 

Archival:

Some newspapers see themselves as the means of recording events to store them for the future. These papers  are the daily back up services, presumably looking for news that is worthwhile in both local and broad historical terms. Other papers may also keep back copies and see themselves as responsible for a daily record, but these papers take it very seriously: 

Chronicle : Daily Chronicle (Bride of the Monster/ Slider’s : Rules of the Game/ The Invaders: The Experiment/ The Twilight Zone: Time Enough at Last/ The Twilight Zone:  And When the Sky Was Opened); Herbertville Chronicle, The (Read All About It : The First Edition); Hunstanton Chronicle (Torchwood: From Out of the Rain); Los Angeles Chronicle (Slider’s : California Reich);  New York Chronicle (When Worlds Collide ); San Francisco Chronicle (Slider’s: Post Traumatic Slide Syndrome ); The Chronicle (The Invaders: The Organization /Iron Man);

Copy Hard Copy (Sliders: In Dino Veritas);

 Gazette :  Baton Rouge Gazette (Quantum Leap: For Your Love); Crown Point Gazette (Quantum Leap:  The Leap Back ); Daily Gazette (Outer Limits: I Hear You Calling/ The Quatermass Experiment: Persons Reported Missing);  Hackney Gazette (Goodnight Sweetheart: Turned Out Nice Again ); Minot Progress Gazette (The Lone Gunmen: Like Water for Octane ); New Gotham Gazette (Birds of Prey: Primal Scream ); Midland Gazette (Stepford Wives 2 ); New York Gazette (When Worlds Collide ); South Florida Gazette (Farscape:  Kansas ); Weehawken Gazette(Lois and Clarke: Neverending Battle );

Journal: Tallahassee Journal (The Invaders: Vikor ); Times Journal (SGA Outcast ); Washington Journal (The Atomic Submarine );

Ledger: Smallville Ledger (Smallville);

Monthly: News Monthly (Slider’s:  Obsession/ The Young and the Relentless );

Record: Dallas Record (Iron Man 2 ); The Record (The Day the Earth Stood Still 2 );

Register: San Francisco Register (Slider’s :The Prince of Wails );

Report:  Hawks Report, The (Slider’s:  A Current Affair); 

Text: Times Text (seaQuest DSV:  alone ); 

Tribute: Roswell Tribute (A Roswell Christmas Carol );

Weekly: Artists’ Weekly (Dark Angel: Medium is the Message); Lakeview Weekly (Quantum Leap:  A Portrait for Troian); Racegoers Weekly (The Infinite Worlds of H.G. Wells );

Broadcasting

There is a range of names used for real papers and sci fi ones that indicate the news should be broadcast around like a paper boy at his stand yelling it out. These names rely on metaphors of sound , bright light or running. There are no secrets with these papers around because even a whisper travels quickly: 

Bee: Modesto Bee (Jericho: Condor);

Bugle: Daily Bugle (SMAC/ Spiderman 1,2,3); Elgin Bugle  (The Twilight Zone : The Fever);  Dallas Bugle, The (Lexx: P4X );

Clarion: Charlemont Clarion (Quantum Leap: Star Light, Star Bright); 

Courier: San Francisco Courier (The Invaders: Wall of Crystal ); Seattle Courier, the (Kyle XY: Kyle Got Game /4400 Becoming ); Wheeling Courier (The Invaders: Panic);

Dispatch: Braxton Dispatch (Threshold: Vigilante  ); Daily Dispatch and Business (Slider’s : Please Press One); DC Dispatch (Outer Limits: Birthright ); New York Dispatch (When Worlds Collide ); Peoria Dispatch (Quantum Leap: Good Morning, Peoria ); The Star Dispatch (The Invaders: Counter-attack );

Echo: Blackbury Echo (Johnny and the Bomb: Mrs. Tachyon and the Bags of Time ); Liverpool Echo (Goodnight Sweetheart: The Leaving of Liverpool);

Express: Daily Express (Goodnight Sweetheart: Turned Out Nice Again); 

 

Herald: City Herald (Underdog);  Daily Herald (Slider’s : The Return of Maggie Beckett ); Los Angeles Herald (Slider’s:  A Current Affair ); Miami Herald (Lexx: Stan Down ); Richmond Herald (The Lone Gunmen: Three Men and a Smoking Diaper ); Roswell Daily Herald (Roswell: Pilot ); San Francisco Herald (Star Trek The Next Generation: The Big Goodbye ); The National Herald (Doctor Who : The Unicorn and the Wasp ); Washington Herald (X-files: Piper Maru);

Mail: Daily Mail (Bride of the Monster); Western Mail (Doctor Who: Boom Town );

Post: Bristol Post (Torchwood: Captain Jack Harkness);  Capitol City Post (Underdog); Daily Dallas Post (The Astronaut Farmer ); Palisadian Post (Betaville ); Smallville Post (Lois and Clarke: The Man of Steel Bars);  Washington Post (Return from Witch Mountain);

Star: Daily Star (Slider’s:  Fever/ Quantum Leap: Blind Faith); Metropolis Star (Lois and Clarke:  Neverending Battle/ The Rival ); New York Daily Star (Lois and Clarke:  Pilot); Sandy Point Star (The Invaders: The Condemned ); Halfway Across the Galaxy Turn Left)  Zyrgon Morning Star. 

Sun: Los Angeles Sun (My Favourite Martian:  Pilot);  

Telegram: Fort-Worth Star Telegram (Roswell: The Summer of ’47 );

Telegraph: Metro City Telegraph (Megamind ); Daily Telegraph (Doctor Who:  Love and Monsters/ Goodnight Sweetheart: Wish Me Luck);

 

Torch: Smallville High Torch (Smallville);

Voice:  London Voice (Lois and Clarke: Pilot); 

Whisper: Daily Whisper (Lois and Clarke:  I’m Looking Through You ); National Whisper (Lois and Clarke:  Pilot );

Investigative

Some newspapers see their role as locating hidden information to give to the reader  as a scoop. There is a danger this function can fall into the scurrilous category, particularly if there is a need to invent secrets and conspiracies (because there are none). It can also be seen as unpatriotic or illegal, as is the case with The Lone Gunmen, even though the journalists would argue they are very patriotic, and only want to protect their homeland from its enemies, including itself. In the extreme this form of journalism can be accused of treason or terrorism, as is the case with a certain online publication. 

Examiner : Cardiff Examiner (Torchwood: Ghost Machine/ Captain Jack Harkness ); Examiner (X-files: The Blessing Way); The Washington Examiner (StargateSG1 : 2010); 

Focus (Day of the Triffids, serial 2 );  

Informer: The Informer (X-files: Pusher/X-files: Small Potatoes/ Earth Final Contact: Subterra);

Inquirer/Enquirer : Philadelphia Inquirer (The Happening ); The Enquirer (Doctor Who :The Unicorn and the Wasp );

Inquisitor: Inquisitor (Smallville); 

Monitor: Metro City Monitor (Megamind);

Observer: Guadalupe County Observer (K-Pax);

Reflective

Lots of newspapers see themselves as ephemeral. They reflect the day’s events and then move on, with nothing permanent or significant in their function, a lot like the office ‘round tuitt’. These papers have the most boring names. 

Bulletin:  New York Bulletin (When Worlds Collide ); Paris Bulletin(Lois and Clarke: Pilot ); 

Globe: New York Globe (When Worlds Collide );

Life: Caprican Life (Battlestar Galactica 2); 

Mirror: Daily Mirror (Doctor Who:  Silver Nemesis ); 

Network: Business News Network (Slider’s:  The Good, the Bad and the Wealthy );

News: Ann Arbor News, The (The Lone Gunmen: The Cap’n Toby Show ); Daily News (BG1980: Galactica Discovers Earth/ The Day the Earth Stood Still 2/The Birds ); Metro City Daily News (Megamind); Santa Fe Daily News (First Man into Space ); South Wales News (Torchwood: Captain Jack Harkness ); News (9); The New York News (Iron Man 2 );

Newspaper: Data Universal Daily Newspaper (Slider’s : Please Press One);  

Paper: Baton Rouge Paper (Quantum Leap:  So Help Me God);  

Planet : Weekly World Planet (The Tick 1994);  The Daily Planet (Superman/Lois and Clarke/Smallville); 

Press: The Pittsburgh Press (Quantum Leap: Mirror Image );

Standard: Evening Standard (Doctor Who:  World War Three/ Day of the Triffids, serial 2  ); The Standard (K-9 and Company );

Times: Herald Times (Dark Angel:  Dawg Day Afternoon ); Los Angeles Times (The Thirteenth Floor ); New Alexandria Times (Slider’s:  Slide Like an Egyptian ); New York Times (Timecop); Taelon Times (Earth Final Conflict:  First Breath ); Times, The (Slider’s:  Murder Most Foul );

Today: Universe Today (Babylon 5:  Divided Loyalties); USA Today (Timecop/Transformers the Movie/2 ); BSA Today (Slider’s:  The Prince of Wails ); 

View: World View, the (Slider’s: The Exodus);  

Worker: Daily Worker (Quantum Leap: Lee Harvey Oswald ); 

Protective

This is a very disappointing category. The role of the Press is increasingly seen as protecting the reader’s right to know the Truth. In the USA this means protecting the first amendment , guaranteeing Freedom of Speech. This Freedom is not always self evident , it constantly needs to be re-examined and assessed to ensure it remains intact. Australians only have the implied right to Freedom of Speech so there is less pressure on newspapers to be seen as guardians of  Democracy.

There are not many names here.

Guardian:  Boston Guardian (Iron Man 2 ); The Guardian (K-9 and Company );

Sentinel: Eastern Sentinel (Quantum Leap: Return of the Evil Leaper); 

Tribune:  Oakland Tribune (Quantum Leap:  Jimmy ); Richmond Daily Tribune (Stargate SG1 : Ex Deus Machina);  (Tribune roughly equates to a protector. There were several types of Roman Tribunes: One type were Army Officers who worked in the capacity of bodyguards. Another type was the Tribune of the Plebs who protected working class people against the decisions of judges, but could also prosecute people who attacked the state. )

Odds n’ Sods

There are a few newspapers that don't fit any category

Advance: Seattle Advance (4400 As Fate Would Have It ); Times Advance (4400 Rebirth);  

Advertiser Advertiser, the (Finders Keepers ); 

Business: Globe Business (Stargate Atlantis:  Outcast ); Texas Business Day (Slider’s : The Good, the Bad and the Wealthy );

Glob (Monsters, Inc.); 

Stars and Stripes, the (Slider’s: The Exodus );

So where might names for news go on the Internet?  Google Investigator? Amazon Storehouse? Yahoo Echo? Bing Today? The challenge is to be more imaginative, but let’s hope there will still be some Guardians and Sentinels for all of us.

acronyms and initialisms

Smarten up -  Acronyms  and Initialisms

It’s trendy at present to complain about the difficulty of interpreting text speak, but shortening up phrases has been going on for a long time. See if you can decode this discussion I had with a teacher recently:

In the morning during roll call I supervise RATS, then if I’m off class I’ll go to the ILC and see my ESL student . She’s working on the HSC after checking out the VCE in Melbourne and the International Baccalaureate OS. She wants a good UAI so she asks the STLA lots of questions. Yesterday she had an assessment using AV so she wanted to know the DPI on the TV’s LCD screen. She got confused between this AV and TV and the same initials on her DSLR camera. She had previously had a problem with FF on the remote control and ff in her music script. Now she was also having a problem with her SIM card for her phone. Then she asked a question about the ALP so I went on the QT as we’re not allowed to do political Q and A. When the bell rang for RI I went back to the staffroom for some R&R before PGD, but then I had to set up the DVD for the C of E teacher. (Decodings at the end of the blog).  

These groups of letters can be defined as acronyms or Initialisms depending on how they are pronounced by speakers. This however is not always clear. AV is recognizable as an initialism, but it is pronounced as a word. This problem can be complicated by dialect and social strata. 

Initialisms: Groups of letters formed from the first letters of words in a phrase, often military or technological. 

Acronyms

These are words formed from the initial letters of other words e.g. KISS or AIDS. Beware! Where a writer is using word play to create an acronym they may be using other word plays as well e.g. Homophones: BMEWS = Bemuse

Considering then that we use a lot of Initialisms and acronyms in our daily life, we would expect science fiction writers to use them as well. The questions are – in what way? And do es the use of acronyms differ from that of initialisms?

1.       Designations for groups of people, countries or planets.

Acronyms: AFRIC (Lexx: Moss)American Freedom Rangers of the Idaho Convention; B.A.T. (B.A.T.)

Bureau of Astral Troubleshooters; CONSENT( Gundam Savior The Congress of  Settlement Nations);

ESTA(Star Hyke) Exploration of Space and Time Agency; K.I.F.T. (Knight Rider 2000) Knight Industries 

FourThousand ; K.I.T.T.  (Knight Rider 1982) Knight Industries Two Thousand; MIST (Parasite Eve)

Mitochondrian Investigation and Suppression, organization investigating this ;  MUFON (X-files:

Memento Mori) Mutual UFO Network, Inc.; S.E.T.I. (X-files: Little Green Men/My Favourite

Martian/Starman/Alien Hunter/Lexx: Tex Lexx) Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence; SHIELD (Iron

Man) Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement Logistics Division; UNIT (D? Aliens of London/World

War Three) United Nations Intelligence Taskforce; WARP (Lexx: Texx Lexx) World Association of

Research Physicists;  

2.       Other life forms: Robots, Cyborgs, Aliens and Computer Intelligences 

ALF (ALF) Alien Life Form; BOYZZ (Bots Master) Brain Operated Young Zygoetopic Zoids; D.I.C.E

(D.I.C.E.)DNA Integrated Cybernetic Enterprises; FRANS 1. (W.E.I.R.D. World)   Free Roving Android 

NeutralisingSystem.  2. (W.E.I.R.D. World)  Robot created by Noah Lane as a security device; F. R. E. D.( 

Stargate SG1:Children of  the Gods ) Field Remote Expeditionary Device;    HoRSE (Space HoRSE)  

Holistic Robotic SlaveEngineers ;  K9 (K9 and Company)Pun for canine ;  M.A.L.P. (Stargate SG1:  

 Mobile, Stargate Atlantis)Mobile Analytic Laboratory Probe; MEGAS (Megas XLR) Mechanized Earth \

Guard Attack System;  M.I.N.D. (Blakes’  7:  Afterlife) Machine Induced Neural Directions;

RALF (Flight of the Navigator) Robotic Assistant Labor Facilitator; S.E.R.C.H. (Star

Hyke ) Ship’s Emergency Recovery Computer Hologram; VICI (Small Wonder) Voice Input Child 

Identicant; V.I.N.CENT  (The Black Hole) Vital Information Necessary CENTralized; V.I.K.I. (I, Robot) 

VirtualInteractive Kinetic  Intelligence; ZAFT  (Gundam Seed ) Zodiac Alliance of Freedom Treaty;

3.       Weapons and other pieces of technology

BMEWS (War Games) Ballistic Missile Early Warning System; DRADIS (Battlestar Galactica 2: 

Fragged Aka  Direction, Range and  Distance); I.C.E. (Babylon 5 : Born to the Purple/Eye of the Storm) Intrusion Countermeasures Electronics; P.O.P.  (The Jetsons: Invasion of the Planet Pirates) Pneumo Osmatic Precipitator; TIA (The Last Enemy) Total information awareness; ZEAF (Terra Hawks) Zelda Earth Atmospheric Fighter

4.       And the Left Overs

AQUARIUM (Earth Final Conflict:  Guilty Conscience ) A quiet ubiquitous Atavus reveals its

 underhanded motives; CAG (Battlestar Galactica 2) Commander Air Group ;  CREAM  (Dark Angel:  

 C.R.E.A.M. Cash  rules everything around me.);  F.E.A.R. (game) First Encounter Assault Recon;

F.R.E. (Island City)  First Rule of Engagement;  PLANT (Gundam Seed) Productive Location Ally on Nexus Technology; SETI (PEP  comics #1) Sacrum, Heart, Innervation, Eyes, Lungs and Derma;  WAG (Weber) Wild Assed Guesses;   W.A.R.S. (Transformers: Robots in Disguise)not defined ;

Initialisms

The same categories work for initialisms as for acronyms, with a different balance between the categories. There are a lot more entries in the initialism category for groups  than in acronyms, partly thanks to the use of various forms of ‘united’ in the naming of groups. It’s not just that easy to make words out of the letters for groups. Perhaps we also like the formality of letters, letting ourselves stand back from groups, keeping a bureaucratic distance.

However, there are about the same number of initialisms and acronyms for other life forms. The initialisms for robots etc.  are more generic, less personalized than acronyms. Writers like to give a name to most other life forms, acknowledging that they have some form of life rather than just being machinery. Humans also like to feel superior to their creations, so using a familiar name demotes the non-human to its rightful child-like status.

There are also more entries for weapons and technology under initialisms. Who wants to feel warm and cuddly with a gun or a weapons defense platform? These need to be distanced by the formality of letters.

A  trick here is that existing Initialisms may be used with different meanings for the letters e.g. C.I.A.

1.       Designations for groups of people, countries or planets.

ACS (Weber) Astro-Control Service; A E U G (Zoids Genesis) Anti-Earth Union Government; AOSS '

(Space Conquest: A Galactic Odyssey)Association of Solar Systems ; CDA (Monsters Inc) Child '

Detection Agency; CDC (X-files: One Son/Medusa;  Threshold: Vigilante) Center for Disease Control;  

C.I.A. (Doctor Who: TheDeadly Assassin ) Celestial Intervention  Agency;  CIC (1. McCaffrey, Pegasus 

in Space  CentralIntelligence Control  2. Weber, Field of Dishonor  Combat Information Centre); CNC  

(Babylon 5: Midnight on  the  Firing Line) Command and Control ;   CPB  (Total Recall 2070)  Citizens 

Protection Bureau; C.P.S. (Hex) Centre for Paranormal  Studies; CRP (Weber, The Short Victorious War) 

Citizen’s Rights Party; CRU (Weber, The Short Victorious War)  Citizen’s Rights Union; CUFON (The 

Silencers) Citizen’s UFO Network; ENSA (Goodnight Sweetheart: How I Won the War) Entertainments 

National Service Association; ESS ( Jupiter Moon)European Space Service; FCA (Deep Space 9:  Bar 

Association) Ferengi Commerce Association; FSA (Blake’s 7: Dawn of the Gods) Federation Space 

Academy;    FSP(McCaffrey, Sassinak ) Federation of Sentient Planets; FSA (Blake’s 7: Dawn of the 

Gods) Federation Space Academy;    FSP(McCaffrey, Sassinak ) Federation of Sentient Planets; FSA 

(Blake’s 7: Dawn of the Gods) Federation Space Academy;    FSP(McCaffrey, Sassinak ) Federation of 

Sentient Planets; IPC (Mars) Interplanetary Mining Corporation; IPX Crusade/ Babylon 5 :Third Space) 

Interplanetary Expeditions;  ISA (Babylon 5 : Rising Star) Interstellar Alliance /(Alien Worlds )International 

Space Authority. ; ISC (Mercy Point ) Inter Species Council 2. (Time Runner ) Intelligence Security 

Command;  N.E.B. (Screamers) New Economic Block ; NCA (2001: A Space Odyssey) National Council 

of Astronautics;

NCIC (Earth Final Conflict: Truth)Group not identified;

RAFTA (Sliders:  The Return of Maggie Beckett) Reticulum American Free Trade Agreement; RCA

(McCaffrey The Ship Who Sang) Race Conservation Agency; TCS (Armitage III) Technological Criminal

Squad; UCM  (Zone of the Enders: Dolores I)  United Colonies of Mars ; U.E.O.(SeaQuest 2032: Brave

New World)  United Earth Oceans; UHR  (Cyber Tracker) Union for Human Rights; UPSF (Irresponsible

Captain Tylor) United Planets Space Force; USG (Legends of the Galactic Heroes) Abbreviation of 

United Space Government; USM  (Alien Resurrection) United Systems Military; USMC (Freedom)   

United States Military Council; USR  (I, Robot ) United States Robotics (company); USSD  (Bubblegum 

Crisis)  United Nations Strategic Space Defence Forces; W.A.A.F. (Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons) 

World Army Air Force ;

2.       Other Life Forms: Robots, Cyborgs, Aliens  and Computer Intelligences 

 AFM’s (Scott: The Empress of Earth) Automatic Farm Machines;  AHW (Pilot Candidate) Automatic

Humanoid Weapon;  CAL (Doctor Who: Silence in the Library) Charlotte Abigail Lux; CMDF   

(Fantastic Voyage) Combined  Miniature Deterrent Forces; C.O.C.(Cyber Chase) Chief Operating 

Cyborg;  CRPR’s (Shadow Raiders) Combat Ready Processing Rigs; DHP (Silent Mobius) Dummy 

Humanity Projection; EBE  (X-files E.B.E.) Extraterrestrial Biological Entity ;  EMH (Deep Space 9: Dr. 

Bashir, I Presume?/Star Trek Voyager); Emergency Medical Hologram ; GMO (Threshold) Genetically 

modified organisms; IL (Battlestar Galactica 1: Lost Planet of the Gods) Illustrious Leader; LMH (Deep 

Space 9:  Dr. Bashir, I Presume?) Long term medical hologram; MM (McCaffrey The City Who 

Fought)Mutant Minorities;  P P A (Star Fleet)  Perfectly Programmed Android; RAI (Teknoman) Robotic 

Artificial Intelligence; U A V  (Stargate SG1 :One False Step)   Unmanned Aerial Vehicle; ULF (Sphere)  

Unknown Life Form;  WOPR (Wargames) War Operation Plan Response;    Z.A.R. Zones for Artificial 

Resources.

3.       Weapons and Other Pieces of Technology

CELSS (Pegasus in Space) Controlled Environment Life Support System; CTR Drive (Starlost) Controlled

Thermonuclear Reactor; DHD (Stargate SG1: Solitudes etc.) Dial Home Device ; EMB (Chameleon 3)

Electro Magnetic Bomb ; EMD (Primeval 4/1 ) Electro -magnetic disruptors; E.S.S. ( E.S.S. Mega) 

European Space Simulator.  IC (2099) Ident-Chip; IEM (Mars) Image Enhancement Module ; IFTL

(McCaffrey Sassinak) In Faster Than Light; MPPT (Time Trax) Miniature Pellet Projecting Tube; RDD

(Doctor Who: The Robots of Death) Robot Deactivation Device; RDS (Doctor Who:  The Invisible Enemy)

Relative Dimensional Stabiliser; UART (K-9 and Company) Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter;

UXB  (Johnny and the Bomb: Déjà Voodoo) Unexploded bomb; ZPM Stargate Atlantis:  Movie Zero Point

 Module;

4.       And the Left Overs 

ATC (Weber: On Basilisk Station)Advanced Tactical Training School ;  ATF (Lexx)Alcohol, tobacco and firearms ; BCFMO (Babylon 5 : Secrets of the Soul) Brightly Coloured Fast Moving Object ; CME( Solar Attack Coronal Mass Ejection); CRS (Earth Final Conflict: Floats Like a Butterfly(  Companion Reaction Syndrome ;

EBO (X-files: Unusual Suspects) Engineered Biological Operation ; ECRO ( Silver Sun) Emergency Close Retrieval Orbit ;  ECT (Stargate SG1: Family)Electro-convulsive therapy ; ECU (Jupiter Moon)European Currency Unit ;

FCF (McCaffrey, Partnership) First Contact Form; FRT  (Space Camp ) Flank Readiness Test; F.T.  (Attack of the Killer Tomatoes) Fuzzy Tomato; FTL (Battlestar Galactica 2)Faster than Light; FUBAR (Stargate SG1, Dark Angel, Battlestar Galactica 2) Fucked up beyond all recognition.

GNS (Weber) Grayson naval ship ;  IKS (Deep Space 9: Sons of Mogh ) Imperial Klingon Ship;; I.L.F. (Doctor Who: Kinda) Intelligent Life Form; IOA (Stargate) ; ISN (Babylon 5 : And Now for a Word..) Interstellar Network News;  

JOAT (McCaffrey: The Ship Who Fought) Jack of All Trades;

MBS (Knight Rider) Molecular Bonded Shell ; MIB (X-files: Jose Chung’s From Outer Space)Men in Black ; MJ (Spiderman) Mary Jane; MPS (Weber The Honor of the Queen)Miles per second ; MRI (Doctor Who: Smith and Jones) Magnetic Resonance  Imaging Chamber;

NDE (Earth Final Conflict: The Sleepers) Near Death Experience;  NDS (Absolon) Neurological Degeneration Syndrome; NEA (Real) Near Earth Asteroid.

P.O.A. (Stargate SG1: Within the Serpent’s Grasp) Point of Arrival ;  RC (Legends of the Galactic Heroes)

Reich Calendar; RDX (TCSC The Riddle of Astro) not defined;

T.I.V. (Red Dwarf:  Better Than Life) Total immersion video games ; TKO (Quantum Leap:  The Right Hand of God/Babylon 5 episode title] The Knock Out

UC ( Legends of the Galactic Heroes)  Universal Calendar ; UFO (UFO) Unidentified Flying Object/(The Abyss) Underwater Flying Objects; UGO (Wargames) Unidentified Grounded Objects; UNN (System Shock 2) Unified National Nominate ; URJ  (New Eden)   Unrecyclable Junk;

VR.5 Series title Virtual Reality; VTF  (Chronicles of Riddick) Visible Thermal Front;  

Z.P.G. (Z.P.G.) Zero Population Growth

ALP – Australian Labor Party;AV – audio visual/ aperture value; C of E – Church of England ; DPI – Dots per inch; DSLR – Digital; DVD – Digital video drive ; ESL – English as a Second Language; FF – fast forward; ff – fortissimo; HSC – Higher School Certificate;  ILC – Independent Learning Centre; OS – Overseas; PGD – Playground Duty; Q and A – Questions and answers; QT – quiet; R&R – Rest and relaxation; RATS – Reading Across the School; RI – Religious instruction; SIM – Subscriber Identification module; STLA – Support teacher learning activities; TV – television/ time value; UAI – Universities Admission Index; VCE – Victorian Certificate of Education;