Harry Melling b. 1989
Tim Story b. 1970
Joe Johnston b. 1950
William H. Macy b. 1950
Roger Zelazny b. 1937 died 6/14/1995
(won 1966 Hugo for … And Call Me Conrad)
(won 1968 Hugo for Lord of Light)
We've got actors and directors on the birthday list today. Melling was in the Harry Potter series, Story and Johnston are on the other side of the camera. Macy doesn't have a lot of work in genre films, but he was in the third Jurassic Park.
But I gave the picture to Zelazny, who won Hugos for two of his novels.
In the Year 2000!
Prediction: No Mosquitoes nor Flies. Insect screens will be unnecessary. Mosquitoes, house-flies and roaches will have been practically exterminated. Boards of health will have destroyed all mosquito haunts and breeding-grounds, drained all stagnant pools, filled in all swamp-lands, and chemically treated all still-water streams. The extermination of the horse and its stable will reduce the house-fly.
Predictor: John Elfreth Watkins in the Ladies' Home Journal, 1900
Reality: Yeah, well... It pains me somewhat when Watkins swings and misses. As regular readers must already know, I have a man crush on old John Elfreth. Sometimes I even imagine he had a lovely speaking voice.
To be fair to him, while these pest insects still exist, the problem is much smaller than it was back in 1900. The biggest goof here is "the extermination of the horse". He was right that they were on their way out as essential beasts of burden, but even the human race that had wiped out the passenger pigeon and Steller's sea cow wouldn't be so callous as to kill all the horses. I mean, how would we have that cute Budweiser ad if we killed all the Clydesdales?
Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!
Thursday means Arthur C. Clarke, and tomorrow he gets one right when predicting what we'll know... in the Year 2000!
Join me then... IN THE FUTURE!
Also, killing off all those insects would really screw up the environment. Was there a poor understanding of the roles they play in 1900?
ReplyDeleteYeah, the whole idea of eco-systems wasn't well understood until the middle of last century.
DeleteAnd filling in what is rather broadly termed 'swamp-lands' has really done Florida and Louisiana no favors.
ReplyDelete