Monday, April 21, 2014

21 April 2014

Birthdays
Frank Dillane b. 1991 (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince)
Robbie Amell b. 1988 (The Tomorrow People, Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins [TV])
James McAvoy b. 1979 (X-Men: Days of Future Past, X-Men: First Class, Wanted, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Children of Dune)
Dominic Zamprogna b. 1979 (2012, Smallville, Flash Gordon, Bionic Woman, Battlestar Galactica, Blade: The Series, Supernatural, Stargate: Atlantis, Odyssey 5, MythQuest, Tales from the Cryptkeeper)
Brian White b. 1975 (Beauty and the Beast [2013], Cabin in the Woods, Moonlight)
Charlie O’Connell b. 1975 (Zombie Family, DateaHuman.com, Kraken: Tentacles of the Deep, Dude, Where’s My Car, Sliders, The Magician)
Jennifer Blanc b. 1974 (Malignant, Zombie Family, My Apocalypse, Dark Angel)
Sandy Jobin-Bevans b. 1972 (Run Robot Run, ReGenesis, Dawn of the Dead, PSI Factor: Tales of the Paranormal)
Joel de la Fuente b. 1969 (Hemlock Grove, The Adjustment Bureau, From Other Worlds, Space: Above and Beyond)
Kate Vernon b. 1961 (Heroes, Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek: Voyager, Kindred: The Embraced)
Andie MacDowell b. 1958 (Muppets from Space, Multiplicity, Groundhog Day)
James Morrison b. 1954 (The X-Files, Seven Days, Prey, Millennium, Space: Above and Beyond, White Dwarf, Quantum Leap, Monsters, Werewolf, Automan)
George DiCenzo b. 1940 died 9 August 2010 (M.A.N.T.I.S., The Exorcist III, Back to the Future, Starflight: The Plane That Couldn’t Land, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Space Academy, Dark Shadows [1970])
Reni Santoni b. 1939 (Quantum Leap, Manimal)
Charles Grodin b. 1935 (The Incredible Shrinking Woman, King Kong [1976], Rosemary’s Baby)
Silvana Mangano b. 1930 died 16 December 1989 (Dune, The Flying Saucer)
Gilbert Taylor b. 1914 died 23 August 2013 (cinematographer, Flash Gordon, Dracula, Star Wars, The Omen)

If I wanted to go with an Oh That Guy actor, I have several choices, but if we restrict to movie stars with iconic genre roles, James McAvoy is the logical choice. Frank Dillane played the young Tom Riddle in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince and the next most iconic actor in genre would likely be Kate Vernon from Battlestar Galactica, who had the Picture Slot last year. I was also considering a shot from a Gilbert Taylor film, but I used one in his obituary piece last August

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

 

Predictor: OMNI Future Almanac, published 1982

In the year 2000!

Prediction: (reality in parentheses, according to Wikipedia) The ten most populous countries in 2000

1. China 1,189,600 (1,242,6000)
2. India 1,036,700 (1,040,000,000)
3. USSR 311,800,000 (Russia ranks 6th at 147,000,000)
4. United States 260,400,000 (3rd at 281,400,000)
5. Indonesia 221,600,000 (4th at 206,300,000)
6. Brazil 212,500,000 (5th at 170,000,000)
7. Bangladesh 153,300,000 (8th at 130,000,000)
8. Nigeria 148,900,000 (10th at 110,000,000)
9. Pakistan 145,000,000 (7th at 140,000,000)
10. Mexico 132,300,000 (11th at 97,000,000)

Comment: All in all, not such a bad list. They missed Japan in 9th place, but they were put in 11th instead, not so far off. They also couldn't predict the fall of the Soviet Union, so we will give them a pass on that one. They undershot the U.S. population by 21 million (8% under) and overshoot a lot of the developing world, most notably Brazil (25% over), Nigeria (35% over) and Mexico (36% over).

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

The blog has put Ray Kurzweil to bed, so we'll meet our new Tuesday regular tomorrow. Exciting!

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

3 comments:

  1. The blog has put Ray Kurzweil to bed,

    Oh, if only. Well, at least he is siphoning cash from Google.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Addenda:
    Brian White: Moonlight (he played a human police lieutenant on the vampire series)
    Charlie O'Connell: The Magician (which had real magic, not just stage illusion)

    ReplyDelete

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