Wednesday, August 20, 2014

20 August 2014

 Birthdays
Andrew Garfield b. 1983 (Amazing Spider-Man, Never Let Me Go, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Doctor Who)
Ben Barnes b. 1981 (The Chronicles of Narnia, Dorian Gray, Stardust)
Ali Liebert b. 1981 (Lost Girl, Apollo 18, Fringe, Kyle XY, Fallen [TV mini-series], The 4400, Dead Like Me)
Amy Adams b. 1974 (Man of Steel, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, Enchanted, Smallville, Buffy, Charmed, Psycho Beach Party)
Chaney Kley b. 1972 died 24 July 2007 (Darkness Falls, Buffy)
Jonathan Ke Quan b. 1971 (Encino Man, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom)
David Walliams b. 1971 (Doctor Who, Stardust)
Colin Cunningham b. 1966 (Falling Skies, Impact, Stargate, The 4400, Stephen King’s Dead Zone, Elektra, Andromeda, Smallville, Dark Angel, Strange Frequency, The 6th Day, The X-Files)
James Marsters b. 1962 (Metal Hurlant Chronicles, Warehouse 13, Three Inches, Supernatural, Smallville, Caprica, Moonshot, Torchwood, Angel, Buffy, Strange Frequency)
Sophie Aldred b. 1962 (Doctor Who)
Geoffrey Blake b. 1962 (Beauty and the Beast [2014], The Event, Charmed, Mighty Joe Young, Contact, Apollo 13, Deep Space Nine, Critters 3, Alien Nation [TV], ALF, The Last Starfighter)
Joan Allen b. 1956 (Pleasantville, Twilight Zone [1986])
Jay Acavone b. 1955 (InAlienable, The Hills Have Eyes II, Stargate SG-1, Terminated 3, Charmed, The X Files, The Invisible Man, Sliders, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show, Dark Skies, Independence Day, Beauty and the Beast [1990], Werewolf [TV])
Peter Horton b. 1953 (Thoughtcrimes, Brimstone, From the Earth to the Moon, T-Rex: Back to the Cretaceous, Children of the Corn)
Greg Bear b. 1951 (won 1995 Nebula for Moving Mars and 2001 Nebula for Darwin’s Radio)
Patrick Kilpatrick b. 1949 (The Zombinator, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Minority Report, Roswell, Dark Angel, The X Files, Angel, Star Trek: Voyager, Charmed, Deep Space Nine, Timecop [TV mini-series], Beastmaster III, Babylon 5, The Stand, Lois & Clark, Time Trax, Class of 1999, The Toxic Avenger)
John Noble b. 1948 (Sleepy Hollow, Fringe, Stargate SG-1, Lord of the Rings, The Lost World, Time Trax)
Ray Wise b. 1947 (Big Ass Spider!, Nuclear Family, X-Men: First Class, Dollhouse, Pandemic, Reaper, Cyxork 7, Jeepers Creepers II, Charmed, Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: The Next Generation, RoboCop, Cat People, Swamp Thing)
Sylvester McCoy b. 1943 (The Hobbit, Doctor Who. Leapin’ Leprechauns!, Starstrider, Dracula [1979], Roberts Robots)
Anthony Ainley b. 1932 died 3 May 2004 (Doctor Who, The Land Time Forgot, The Blood on Satan’s Claw, The Champions)
Bernard Archard b. 1916 died 1 May 2008 (Krull, Doctor Who, The Horror of Frankenstein, Village of the Damned)
H.P. Lovecraft b. 1890 died 15 March 1937 (author, The Call of Cthulhu, The Dunwich Horror)

This year, I decided to give special status to actors who starred in Doctor Who, which saves me from a very tough Picture Slot choice based solely on the merits. Last year it was H. P. Lovecraft and next year I have no idea who I'll choose, because there are a lot of actors with iconic roles on the list. Will it be Short Round or Spike or Dr. Bishop? Heck, I might choose a role from Ray Wise, just because he's one of my favorite Oh That Guy actors.

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

Predictor: Herman Kahn in the 1972 book Things to Come, published by the Hudson Institute.

Prediction: The chronic confrontations will continue at least through 1985.
1. US vs. USSR
2. USSR vs. China
3. China vs. US
4. The Germanies
5. China-Taiwan
6. Korea
7. Vietnam
8, Arab-Israeli
9. India-Pakistan
10. Japan-China


Reality: Kahn gets at least 8.5 of 10 on this one. He gets a complete whiff on Vietnam, missing that the United States would give up on that one, not such a hard prediction in 1972. In my opinion, Japan-China wasn't at the level of belligerence as the other nine in the early 1970s and the United Kingdom vs. IRA would have been a more apt replacement. East vs. West Germany vanished as well, but since that happened after Kahn's 1985 cut-off date, he gets full credit for listing them.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Thursday means Lee de Forest, the "father of radio" and a hit or miss predictor looks at the year 2000.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

1 comment:

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