Thursday, March 6, 2014

6 March 2014

 Birthdays
Elise Eberle b. 1993 (Salem, The Astronaut Farmer)
Dwayne Boyd b. 1972 (Resurrection, Sleepy Hollow, The Walking Dead, The Hunger Games, Surface)
Connie Britton b. 1967 (American Horror Story, A Nightmare on Elm Street)
Shuler Hensley b. 1967 (Odd Thomas, After.Life, Van Helsing)
Jonathan Scott-Taylor b. 1962 (Damien: Omen II, 1990)
Richard Schenkman b. 1958 (director, Abraham Lincoln vs. Zombies, The Man from Earth)
Larry Cedar b. 1955 (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, National Treasure: Book of Secrets, Charmed, Stargate SG-1, Star Trek: Enterprise, Honey, I Shrunk the Kid [TV], Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, C.H.U.D. II, Dreamscape, Battlestar Galactica [1978])
Anna Maria Horsford b. 1948 (Minority Report, The Chronicle)
Rob Reiner b. 1947 (director, The Princess Bride)
Martin Kove b. 1946 (Alien Lockdown, The Black Scorpion, Timelock, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Future Shock, Hard Time on Planet Earth, Twilight Zone, Beyond Westworld, The Incredible Hulk, Death Race 2000)
Ben Murphy b. 1942 (The Genesis Code, The Twilight Zone, Time Walker, Gemini Man)
Allison Hayes b. 1930 died 27 Feb. 1977 (The Hypnotic Eye, Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, The Unearthly, The Undead, Zombies of Mora Tau)
William F. Nolan b. 1928 (author, Logan’s Run)
Gordon Cooper b. 1927 died 4 October 2004 (astronaut)
Will Eisner b. 1917 died 3 January 2005 (author and illustrator, The Spirit)
Virginia Gregg b. 1916 died 15 September 1986 (Project U.F.O., Man From Atlantis, The Six Million Dollar Man, Bewitched, The Addams Family, My Favorite Martian, Twilight Zone, Kiss of the Vampire)
Lou Costello b. 1906 died 3 March 1959 (The Thirty Foot Bride of Candy Rock, Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy, Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Jack and the Beanstalk, Abbott and Costello Go to Mars, Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man)
Frank Hoban b. 1870 died 12 June 1943 (illustrator)
Cyrano de Bergerac b. 1619 died 28 July 1655 (author, The Comical History of the States and Empires of the Moon and Sun)

Last year, when I hadn't done as much research, Allison Hayes from The Attack of the 50 Foot Woman was in the Picture Slot for several reasons, but as much as possible I try to mix things up. The illustrators Frank Hoban and Will Eisner are certainly iconic and so is Jonathan Scott-Taylor was Damien in the second installment of the Omen series. But this year I'm going to honor the astronauts when I can, so we get a publicity photo of Gordon Cooper, one of the original Mercury Seven. Space travel still exists but the newness has worn off long ago, which is a shame. There are still places to explore and challenging technical problems to be overcome.

Many happy returns to the living on the list, and to the dead, thanks for all the memories.

Movies released
Watchmen released, 2009

I saw on Facebook that Zach Snyder and Terry Gilliam are in a pissing contest. That's too bad, I like them both.


Predictor: Lee de Forest, the self-proclaimed "father of radio", predicting the world of 2000 in the 17 January 1960 edition of the Sunday supplement American Weekly.

Prediction: You will have portable telephones no larger than a king-size cigarette pack (transistor radios of that size already are being built). Walking down a street in Boston, you can call your family at home, or phone a friend in Los Angeles or even abroad.

Reality: De Forest gets full marks for this one. While he mentions transistor radios, the big step forward in miniaturization comes in the 1970s with microprocessor chips. This means he is predicting something where basic technology necessary is still several advances away, both with phone size and worldwide wireless telecommunication.

No snark here. This is an extremely accurate description of the state of the art in 2000.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

The first prediction from Paul Ehrlich, author of The Population Bomb

You know all that snark I didn't use today? I'm storing it up for tomorrow. Ehrlich's stuff is pretty bad.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!
  

2 comments:

  1. I was watching old eps of the Bob Newhart show last night, and the thing I kept laughing at was the big clunky phones with cords people had to drag everywhere. And they were upper middle class with an extension in the bedroom!

    Yeah, definitely on the money. Now if he could just do something about that mustache...

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  2. Sometimes, I look up at the moon and realize that it was over 40 years ago that the last man to walk on the moon so far (Eugene Cernan) was there. I wonder, now, if he will be known as the last man who EVER walked on the moon.

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