Wikipedia:Main Page history/2013 May 14

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"Gender Bender" is the fourteenth episode of the television series The X-Files. The show centers on FBI special agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) who work on cases linked to the paranormal, called X-Files. In this episode, they investigate a series of murders following sexual encounters, and soon discover that a member of a religious sect living in Massachusetts may be responsible—and may not be human. Premiering on the Fox network on January 21, 1994, it was directed by Rob Bowman and featured guest appearances by Brent Hinkley and Nicholas Lea. The episode was inspired by producer Glen Morgan's desire for "an episode with more of a sexy edge"; however, the writers found it difficult to write a story that showed sex as scary. This difficulty led to the introduction of an Amish-like community as well. "Gender Bender" had mixed critical responses, facing criticism for its abrupt deus ex machina ending. Academic analysis of the episode has placed it within a science-fiction tradition that attributes a powerful, supernatural element to physical contact with aliens. It has also been seen as reflecting anxieties about emerging gender roles in the 1990s. (Full article...)

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From Wikipedia's newest content:

Model of the treasure ship on display at the Ibn Battuta Mall

... that Ming China's treasure voyages were undertaken by Admiral Zheng He's expeditionary fleet (ship model pictured), even though the 15th-century Portuguese thought that the unknown ships belonged to white Christians?

... that the 1960 North Indian Ocean cyclone season featured two tropical cyclones that struck East Pakistan three weeks apart, resulting in over 20,000 fatalities?

... that Greek-French winemaker Corinne Mentzelopoulos received the distinction of Officer of the Legion of Honor in 2012?

... that Xie Fuzhan, Governor of China's Henan province, is an award-winning economist who has studied at Princeton, Harvard, and Cambridge?

... that the proceeds from the Jackson Barnett No. 11 Oil Well led Jackson Barnett to be described as the world's richest native American?

... that Epstein's Rock Drill, a vivid illustration of the greatest function of life, was destroyed and recreated?

... that in "The Paddock and the Mouse", by the 15th-century Scottish poet Robert Henryson, the eponymous paddock may be either a frog or toad, as the animals are treated indifferently in medieval literature?

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In the news

Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria, led by Boyko Borisov (pictured), win a plurality in the Bulgarian parliamentary election.

A Guatemalan court finds former president Efraín Ríos Montt guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity.

At least 46 people are killed by a pair of car bombs in Reyhanlı, Turkey.

Measurements of carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere reach 400 parts per million, the highest level since the Pliocene epoch.

The Kurdistan Workers' Party begins to leave Turkey following a ceasefire agreement.

Roberto Azevêdo is announced as the next Director-General of the World Trade Organization.

Recent deaths: Bryan Forbes

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On this day...

May 14: Shavuot begins at sunset (Judaism, 2013); Feast day of Saint Matthias and Saint Mo Chutu (Roman Catholicism)

1796 – English physician Edward Jenner (pictured) began testing cowpox as a vaccine for protection against smallpox.

1804 – The Lewis and Clark Expedition led by explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark left Camp Dubois near present-day Hartford, Illinois, and began the first American overland expedition to the Pacific coast and back.

1868 – Boshin War: Troops of the Tokugawa shogunate withdrew from the Battle of Utsunomiya Castle and retreated north towards Nikkō and Aizu.

1925 – Mrs Dalloway, one the best-known novels of English modernist author Virginia Woolf, was first published.

1943 – Second World War: The Australian Hospital Ship Centaur was attacked and sunk by a Japanese submarine off the coast of Queensland, killing 268 people aboard.

1973 – The NASA space station Skylab was launched from Cape Canaveral.

More anniversaries: May 13 – May 14 – May 15

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It is now May 14, 2013 (UTC) – Reload this page

Today's featured picture

U.S. citizen Mark Satin (far left), director of the Toronto Anti-Draft Programme, counseling draft-age Americans at the Programme's offices in Toronto, August 1967. The Toronto Anti-Draft Programme was Canada's largest organization providing pre-emigration counseling and post-emigration services to American Vietnam War resisters.

Photo: Laura Jones

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