21 June 2013

Movies released
Minority Report released, 2002

I know it's Tom Cruise, but it's also Steven Speilberg and Philip K. Dick, so I don't that bad saying I actually liked Minority Report, though it did feel like it could have ended thirty minutes earlier than it did. The world looked both futuristic and a little run down, which adds to the realism.

The action is supposed to take place in 2054, which is too far into the future for me to consider it to be verifiable or falsifiable.
 

In the year 2000!

Prediction: People in diving suits will ride giant mutant sea horses for entertainment.

Predictor: French postcards published in 1900

Reality: In a recent comment thread, I said that John Elfreth Watkins was good but tended to be on the cautious side, and his record is better than the later sci-fi writers who are making predictions decades later about 2000 because of his caution and not being enamored of space travel like Clarke, Niven and Heinlein. Space travel didn't exist and did not even look like an option in 1900, and Watkins was not a fiction writer who enjoyed flights of fancy.

I could compare him to the French and German postcards, who are making predictions from 1900 about 2000.

Watkins whips them like red-headed stepchildren.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

We get a look at a racist's future wet dream.

No, I'm not talking about Paula Deen on a sugar and butter rush.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

22 March 2013

Birthdays
Matthew Modine b. 1959
William Shatner b. 1931

Mr. Modine has done a lot of work, very little of it in genre films, but he was in The Dark Knight Rises. Mr. Shatner, of course, is best remembered for his work on T.J. Hooker.

I kid. I'm a kidder.

Many happy returns to both gentlemen.
 

In the year 2000!

Prediction: Humans living underwater will "fish" for seabirds, setting bait on the surface of the water and then dragging the creatures down until they suffocate.


Predictor: French postcards published in 1900

Reality: We are not living underwater for the most part, what with our lungs being built to extract oxygen for the air instead of the water. As for fishing for seabirds, the hook in the food would have to pierce through the bird's bill, not an easy task. More than that, if this actually worked it would be an extremely cruel way to kill these poor creatures, dragging them underwater until they drown.

Of course, it is just as cruel to kill a fish using similar methods. In fishing's defense, let me say that lots of fish make mighty good eating. I've read enough Patrick O'Brian novels to know that except for mutton birds, most seabirds are way too lean and stringy and not worth killing for food.

All of this is the roundabout way of saying we have another example of the French being jerks.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE! 

We got some Snake Plissken last weekend and now we are going back for seconds, this time escaping from Los Angeles instead of New York.
 
Join me then... IN THE FUTURE!
 

18 January 2013

 Birthdays
Jay Chou b. 1979  (Kato in the reboot of The Green Hornet)
Robert Anton Wilson b. 1932 died 1/11/2007
(never won a Hugo or Nebula)
(the blackballing bastards)

Okay, sue me. I liked his Illuminatus! books.

In the year 2000!

Last week, a 1900 German postcard imagined what it would be like if we had the power of flight. It was a world of pleasant weekend outings for well dressed people.

In this drawing from a 1900 French postcard, small flying hooligans are trying to steal eaglets from an aerie, beating back the understandably distraught mother eagle with a small stick.

This is just one of many of the French postcards that will make people who hate the French feel justified.


Looking one day... INTO THE FUTURE! Mind control becomes the seed for the apocalypse just around the corner.

Join me then... IN THE FUTURE!