Sunday, July 21, 2013

21 July 2013


Birthdays
Rory Culkin b. 1989 (Signs)
Lana Wachowski b. 1965 (The Matrix, Cloud Atlas)
Robin Williams b. 1951 (Night at the Museum, Mork and Mindy)

Ms. Wachowski gets the Picture Slot because her career is more associated with genre films than are the careers of the two actors.

Many happy returns to all.

 

Prediction: "Within twenty years, more than half the population of the United States will be living in automobile trailers!"

Predictor: Statistician Roger W. Babson in 1935, published in the pages of Popular Mechanics

Reality: Yeah, half the country were hobos in 1955. Little known fact.

Okay, I'm kidding, of course. Even counting the trailer parks that aren't truly mobile at the drop of a hat, I couldn't find any estimates that were over 10% of the population.

This is not the first prediction from Babson that was found in Popular Mechanics that has been published here. His prediction from 1928 was much more accurate about life in 1978 than this one from 1935 resembled 1955.

And here's a link to the Popular Mechanics book if you'd like to get a copy for your own bad self. It's a lot of fun to thumb through.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

The third of four posts from OMNI Future Almanac on the future of medicine we can expect before the year 2000.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!
 

4 comments:

  1. Well, we seem to be getting closer to having half the population living in their AUTOS...

    Also, Robin Williams was in The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, although I suspect you had blotted that from your memory.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Actually ZRMcD, I'm keen on Munchausen, but I don't always name every instance.

      Delete
    2. OK, now I have confirmed that the Prof has a [url=http://youtu.be/CRm1yqSmsGY]weed card.[/url]

      Delete

Traveler! Have you news... FROM THE FUTURE?