Ariel Winter b. 1998 (Speed Racer, Jericho)
Will Poulter b. 1993 (The Maze Runner, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader)
Calum Worthy b. 1991 (Caprica, Stormworld, Smallville, Supernatural, Kyle XY, Stargate: Atlantis, Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, Mysterious Ways)
Alexandra Krosney b. 1988 (iZombie, Lost)
Elijah Wood b. 1981 (The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, Sin City, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Spy Kids, The Faculty, Deep Impact, Back to the Future Part II)
Rosamund Pike b. 1979 (The World’s End, Wrath of the Titans, Surrogates, Doom)
Crystal Dawne b. 1977 (War of the Worlds)
Lee Ingleby b. 1976 (Sinbad [2012 TV], Being Human, First Men in the Moon [2010 TV], Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban)
Ty Olsson b. 1974 (Nerds and Monsters, Supernatural, Twilight, Arrow, Falling Skies, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Eureka, V, 2012, Battlestar Galactica, Smallville, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Flash Gordon [TV], Stargate SG-1, Andromeda, X-Men 2, Jeremiah, Dark Angel, Lake Placid, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids [TV], The X-Files)
Melody Perkins b. 1974 (Power Rangers, Planet of the Apes, Charmed, NightMan)
Gillian Vigman b. 1972 (Supernatural, Dragonfly)
Ashley Artus b. 1971 (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Tales from the Crypt, Judge Dredd)
Kathryn Morris b. 1969 (Paycheck, Minority Report, A.I Artificial Intelligence, Hell Swarm, Xena: Warrior Princess, Poltergeist: The Legacy, W.E.I.R.D. World)
Lynda Boyd b. 1965 (Supernatural, Hot Tub Time Machine, Sanctuary, Smallville, Level 9, Mysterious Ways, Mission to Mars, So Weird, The Crow: Stairway to Heaven, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show, Millennium, The X Files, Highlander [TV])
Keith Hamilton Cobb b. 1962 (Andromeda, BeastMaster [2000 TV], Total Recall 2070)
Frank Darabont b. 1959 (writer/director, The Walking Dead, The Green Mile, The Mist, Frankenstein [1994], Tales from the Crypt, The Fly II, The Blob [1988], A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors)
Harley Jane Kozak b. 1957 (Stargate SG-1, Dark Planet, The Android Affair, The Hidden Room, Arachnophobia)
Susan Howard b. 1944 (The Sixth Sense [1972 TV], The Immortal, Land of the Giants, I Dream of Jeannie, Star Trek)
John Beck b. 1943 (Dark Planet, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Audrey Rose, Sleeper, Cyborg 2087, Rollerball, The Time Machine [1978])
Lewis Wilson b. 1920 died 9 August 2000 (Batman [1943])
John Banner b. 1919 died 28 January 1973 (Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Adventures of Superman, Topper [1955], Rocky Jones, Space Ranger)
Notes on the birthday list.
1. The Picture Slot. In previous years, the Picture Slot was given to Elijah Wood, clearly iconic as Frodo, and John Beck, iconic to a geezer like me as Moonpie from Rollerball. (While his iconic status in genre may be debatable, Beck is undeniably in the 1970s Porn-stache Hall of Fame.) With those two off the list, the choice is not as easy. John Banner is likely the best known face other than Elijah Wood, but he is known as Sgt. Schultz from Hogan's Heroes, which isn't genre. Lewis Wilson was Batman in the 1943 serial, so he was a possibility, but I went with Susan Howard, best known for her role on Dallas, in her one appearance on the original Star Trek as a Klingon officer. I could also have gone with a poster of The Walking Dead to honor Frank Darabont, but this week has been short on fabulous babes.
2. Canuck Swarm! Oh so many Canadians, though one, Crystal Dawne, has done so little work her resume does not give her nationality away. As for the others, just appearing on Supernatural is not enough, and Gillian Vigman is in fact born in New Jersey. But showing up on both Smallville and Supernatural is usually a dead giveaway, and in fact all the actors here with those credits - Lynda Boyd, Ty Olsson and Calum Worthy - were born in The Great White North.
3. The Guy at the Door. Every birthday list has its quirks, and today's demographic oddness is the long stretch between the late Lewis Wilson, born in 1920, and the next youngest person, John Beck born in 1943. Moonpie is the oldest person on today's list who is still alive, which makes him The Guy at the Door at the tender age of 72. I always feel a little morbid pointing this out, and I always give a special best birthday wish to anyone who has this odd distinction.
4. MST3K, thanks to ZRMcD for spotting it. The TV series Rocky Jones, Space Ranger had a few episodes lumped together into Crash of the Moons, which got the Best Brains treatment, so John Banner's participation means we use the label, and thanks to Zombie Rotten McDonald for pointing it out.
Many happy returns to all the living on the list, especially John Beck, and to the dead, thanks for all the memories.
Prediction: The petroleum engine, as applied to the automobile, does its work in a series of jerks which provide for the unequal degrees of power required to cope with the unevenness of a road. As against this, however, there are certain grave defects, due mainly to the use of highly inflammable oils vaporized at high temperatures; and these have impressed a large proportion of engineers with a belief that, in the long run, either electricity or steam will win the day.
Reality: Longtime readers will know that I form strong opinions about our regular predictors. Some I love, most notably my man crush John Elfreth Watkins, and others I dislike, including Ray Kurzweil and the unlamented FM-2030, a.k.a. FroMo, short for Frozen Moron.
About some things Sutherland will be very prescient and on other occasions, such as today, he will be dead wrong. I will never make fun of Sutherland. He was a serious, well informed engineer and understood what was the state of the art in 1901. He thinks in terms of evolutionary steps and his errors in prediction stem from an inability or possibly an unwillingness to see many revolutionary developments that are just a few years away.
Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!
Another clunker from The Experts Speak.
Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!
Battery technology did not advance as quickly as did internal combustion technology. Also, at the time gasoline and oil were basically though of as useless and were really really cheap and easy to use.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the needs of technology have rapidly advanced batteries, and I think electricity as motive power is moving up fast. The Peak Oil phenomenon will make gas increasingly expensive, and increasingly destructive and dangerous to extract and transport. As portable as oil is, electricity is even more portable.
An interesting tidbit that surprised me is that diesel train engines do not actually drive off the diesel engines. The engines drive a generator, that powers electric motors mounted in the wheel assemblies. So technically, diesel trains are electric motive...
also, John Banner was MSTed in the Rocky Jones movie. Crash Of The Moons?
ReplyDeleteSuffice to say the Rocky Jones movies were early pioneers in adding an annoyingly precocious and useless-to-the-plot moppet to the cast.
ZRM, I believe the huge savings for diesel-electrics is the absence of a transmission. Picture how big that mechanism would have to be for a huge locomotive... now, throw it out the window. The electric engine can operate from 0.001 RPM up to any practical speed, with no power band problems.
ReplyDeleteyeah, that makes sense.
DeleteInteresting conversation. Thanks for teaching me stuff I didn't know.
DeleteI forget who it was who said "if you didn't learn something new today, you wasted the day."
DeleteIn any case, consider this day seized, Prof, knock off for the day and go get a cocktail!