27 November 2013

Birthdays
Sharlto Copley b. 1973 (District 9, Elysium, Europa Report)
Tadanobu Asano b. 1973 (Thor, Battleship)
Chin Han b. 1969 (Arrow, Contagion, 2012, The Dark Knight, Blindness)
Fisher Stevens b. 1963 (Short Circuit, Lost, The Brother From Another Planet)
William Fichtner b. 1955 (Elysium, The Dark Knight , Contact, Armageddon, Invasion)
Kathryn Bigelow b. 1951(director, Strange Days)
Gerrit Graham b. 1949 (Star Trek: Voyager, Babylon 5, C.H.U.D. II – Bud the Chud)
Barbara Anderson b. 1945 (The Six Million Dollar Man, Star Trek)
Bruce Lee b. 1940 died 20 July 1973 (The Green Hornet, Batman)
L. Sprague de Camp b. 1907 died 6 November 2000 (author, A Gun For Dinosaur, Conan, Gavagan’s Bar, Viagens Interplanetarias)

Lots of good actors on the list today and the prolific writer L. Sprague de Camp, but to my mind, there is only one icon and you are looking at him. I was just out of high school when Bruce Lee died, and it really hurt to hear the news. I'm stretching a little to call The Green Hornet genre. It wasn't as campy as Batman, no weekly costumed villain to defeat, so I will invoke The First Rule of Blogging, which I first proposed earlier this year: It's My Blog and You Are Not the Boss of Me!

Many happy returns to the living.
 
 

Predictor: Norbert Wiener in The Machine Age, published 1949

Prediction: These new machines have a great capacity for upsetting the present basis of industry, and of reducing the economic value of the routine factory employee to a point at which he is not worth hiring at any price. If we combine our machine-potentials of a factory with the valuation of human beings on which our present factory system is based, we are in for an industrial revolution of unmitigated cruelty.  

Reality: Jeez, Professor Wiener was a cheery bastard, wasn't he? Lots of fun at a party, I'd wager.

There's no exact date on this prediction, which would usually disqualify it from the prediction list, but it's from the same era as a lot of Heinlein's stuff and I think he Weiner hits the nail much more squarely than our old pal Bob did on a regular basis.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

It's Turkey Day here in the Good Old U.S.A., but on the blog it's Thursday, so we will hear from our regular Isaac Asimov, with his own view of life in The Machine Age.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

11 November 2013

 Birthdays
Connor Price b. 1994 (Alphas, Carrie)
Leonardo Di Caprio b. 1974 (Inception)
Demi Moore b. 1962 (Ghost)
Stanley Tucci b. 1960 (The Hunger Games, Captain America)
Vincent Schiavelli b. 1948 died 26 December 2005 (Buffy, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Batman Returns, The X-Files, Buckaroo Banzai, Ghost)
Jonathan Winters b. 1925 died 11 April 2013 (Twilight Zone, Mork and Mindy)
John Guillermin b. 1925 (director, King Kong, King Kong Lives)
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. b. 1922 died 11 April 2007 (Slaughterhouse-Five, Breakfast of Champions, Cat's Cradle, The Sirens of Titan)
Stubby Kaye b. 1918 died 14 December 1997 (Doctor Who, Who Framed Roger Rabbit)

The Picture Slot choice was pretty easy today. As much as I love the work of Jonathan Winters, Stubby Kaye and Stanley Tucci, as big a movie star as Leonardo Di Caprio is, as pretty as Demi Moore is, the blog is still called This Day In Science Fiction and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. is the boss here.

I might switch up my decision next year, but right now I'm thinking I won't.

Many happy returns to all the living on the list.

Movies released
Immortals, released 2011

In the Year 2000!
 
Prediction: Americans will be working a 20 hour work week with seven weeks vacation

Predictor: A 1965 Senate subcommittee, according to the website Mental Floss.

Reality: OMG! America has become France!

Well... as much fun as it is to bash the French, this is the sort of prediction that made sense when labor unions actually held some power in the country.

And, just maybe, they might have cribbed their notes from The Jetsons a little bit.

Looking on day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

From a major motion picture, a look into the dystopic future that awaits us in 2019.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

2 November 2013

Birthdays
Brandon Soo Hoo b. 1995 (G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Ender’s Game)
Jon M. Chu b. 1979 (director, G.I. Joe: Retaliation)
Whit Hertford b. 1978 (Twilight Zone, Poltergiest II, Jurassic Park)
Michael Bailey Smith b. 1957 (The Hills Have Eyes, Men in Black II, Charmed, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The X-Files, Star Trek: Voyager, The Fantastic Four)
Dale Brown b. 1956 (writer, Sky Masters, Day of the Cheetah, Shadow Command)
Lois McMaster Bujold b. 1949
(won 1989 Nebula for Falling Free)
(won 1991 Hugo for The Vor Game)
(won 1992 Hugo for Barrayar)
(won 1995 Hugo for Mirror Dance)
(won 2004 Hugo and Nebula for Paladin of Souls)
Jerry Wasserman b. 1945 (I, Robot, Watchmen, Supernatural, Dark Angel, The X-Files)
Steve Ditko b. 1927 (artist, Spider-Man, Dr, Strange)
Warren Stevens b. 1919 died 27 March 2012 (Forbidden Planet, Star Trek, Land of the Giants, The Outer Limits, Twilight Zone)

The writers and graphic artist on today's birthday list are better known than the actors in general. Dale Brown writes military techno-thrillers, often setting the action in the near future, Steve Ditko was an important artist from the very beginning of Marvel Comics and Lois McMaster Bujold has more Nebulas and Hugos for novels than Heinlein got in his career.

As for the actors, Brandon Soo Hoo and Whit Hertford started as child actors, Michael Bailey Smith often plays monsters under a lot of make-up, Jerry Wasserman has a very long career guest starring on TV shows, a tough way to make a living, which also describes most of the late Warren Stevens' career, who gets the Picture Slot for the role of the alien Rojan on the original Star Trek series.

Many happy returns of the birthday to all the living on our list.

Movies released
Wreck-It Ralph released, 2012
Monsters, Inc. released, 2001
 

Predictor: Edgar Wilson "Bill" Nye, comic writer, founder of the Laramie Boomerang, columnist for the New York World, making predictions about the 20th Century in honor of the 1893 Columbian Exhibition held in Chicago.

Predictions (realities in parentheses):

Politically, there will be a lot less money expended in electing officials. (Strike one, Mr. Nye.)

The government should own both railways and telegraphs. (Some railways, no telegraphs.)

I see no reason to hope that money will not accumulate in the hands of a few in the future, even more than in the past. (A tough sentence to diagram, but he gets the modern situation right. Wealth accumulation is getting to be more uneven, though in the middle of the 20th Century, this prediction would have to be considered incorrect.)

The laboring classes will always be oppressed. (Things definitely got better for workers after 1893, with the end of child labor, the 40 hour work week, workplace safety laws, etc. That said, there are a lot of working people who are getting stiffed, as the whole debate about fast food workers shows today.)

Our soil, with improved agricultural methods, should grow enough for an increased population. (Good call. Of course, in 1893, Mr. Nye would have been hard pressed to see how much population growth was coming.)

American literature, I hope, will be more realistic in 100 years. (Once again, Mr. Nye gets it right.)

Music and drama will have grown rapidly. (Another good call.)

Women will never want the right of suffrage. (Oooh, and things were going so well.)

I look to the perfection of the flying machine. (In 1893, this is a bold prediction.)

Our greatest city will be on the present site of Chicago. (Sucking up to the hosts doesn't make this one right.)

As for the most honored American in 1993, the people will not have forgotten George Washington. (Not a bad call, though Lincoln and Jefferson give him a run for his money.)

And I am also putting up a delicate little tribute to myself in the way of a mausoleum, which will keep me as green in the memory of those from whom I am liable to be snatched away at any moment. (Nye died in 1896 from meningitis at the age of 45. Dying so young, his catalog of books is not extensive and no book of his is as well remembered as Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn or Ambrose Bierce's The Devil's Dictionary, humorists who were his contemporaries. Sorry, Mr. Nye.)

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Ray Bradbury tells us how things are progressing up on Mars in 2002.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

15 October 2013

Birthdays
Dominic West b. 1969 (300, Punisher: War Zone)
Tanya Roberts b. 1955 (Beastmaster, Sheena)
Virginia Leith b. 1932 (The Brain That Wouldn’t Die)
Mark Lenard b. 1924 died 11/22/1996 (Star Trek)

I was very close to having Virginia Leith in her iconic starring role in The Brain That Wouldn't Die in the Picture Slot, but I had to go with Mark Lenard, at least for this first year. Besides playing Sarek multiple times, he also is one of the few actors to play three different alien species on Star Trek, a Vulcan, a Romulan and a Klingon.

Many happy returns to the living on this list.

In the Year 2000!

Prediction:  October 15: Muster Day. All able bodied 21 year olds are called into the workforce and all 45 year olds are allowed to retire

Predictor: Looking Backward:2000-1887, Edward Bellamy, published 1888

Reality: Ah yes, retirement at 45, a chance to enjoy a few good years in peace before you died from the influenza or tuberculosis. I'm actually only being a little bleak here, as a 45 year old in 1890 was expected to live average to about 70. Now, if a man makes it to 45, the average life expectancy is to make it to 80.

Bellamy wrote about a socialist utopia that took place without any violent struggle. It seems unbelievable to us, but we should recall Mr. Bellamy never had the chance to listen to AM talk radio or read Ayn Rand, so he was oblivious to how vehement the opposition to his ideas would remain.

Looking one day ahead...  INTO THE FUTURE!

Yet another exact date, this time for the start of a bold mission into interstellar space in 1997 that doesn't turn out so well. 

Join us then...  IN THE FUTURE!

14 September 2013

Birthdays
Mark Wells b. 1980 (Narnia, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow)
Brian Klugman b. 1975 (writer, Tron Legacy)
Christopher McCulloch [a.k.a. Jackson Publick] b. 1971 (Venture Brothers, The Tick)
Robert Ben Garant b. 1970 (writer, Night at the Museum)
Michael Bollner b. 1958 (Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory)
Sam Neill b. 1947 (Jurassic Park)
Rowena Morrill b. 1944 (graphic artist)
Nicol Williamson b. 1936 died 16 December 2011 (Spawn, Excalibur, Return to Oz)
Walter Koenig b. 1936 (Star Trek, Babylon 5)

A great selection of birthdays today. I love a good exact same day pair and Nicol Williamson and Walter Koenig is very good indeed. We also have Sam Neill, so very good in a quiet little Australian comedy The Dish, and Michael Bollner, whose one role in film was as Augustus Gloop. Rowena is a graphic artist whose fantasy covers kind of look like romance novel covers, Klugman and Ben Garant both write and act and to round of the list, young Mr. Wells.

If I was going for best known in the Picture Slot, that's a three way race between Koenig, Williamson and Neill, with Ensign Chekov having the slight advantage given the genre. If I wanted Pretty Girl, I would have put up one of Rowena's many great cheesecake illustrations, but instead I went Full Tilt Nerd and put up a picture from my favorite work of all the ones mentioned on the list.

Go Team Venture!

Many happy returns of the day to all the living. 

Introduction: This Saturday is the inaugural of a list of predictions from the 1893 Columbian Exhibition, a World's Fair held in Chicago commemorating the 400th anniversary of the voyages of Christopher Columbus. A long list of prominent Americans were sent questionnaires about what they foresaw about life in 1993. 

Predictor: The Reverend Thomas De Witt Talmage (1832-1902)

Predictions: Cancer and tuberculosis cured... longevity improved such that 150 years will be no unusual age to reach... peace between capital and labor based on The Golden Rule... prisons with ventilation, sunlight, bathrooms and libraries.

Reality: Talmage gets hits with the cure for TB and the improvement in prison conditions, but curing cancer and peace in labor relations are tougher nuts to crack. The longest confirmed lifespan is the French woman Jeanne Calment who died at 122.

There was a recent National Geographic cover that had a picture of a baby and the prediction that the child would live to be 120. I certainly won't be around to write the Reality comment on that, but I highly doubt it. Men's life expectancy in the U.S. is improving markedly, the average increasing by about two years every decade, and nearly caught up to women's life expectancy. The female rate of improvement is much slower, about a year or less improvement every decade. Unless cancer is cured, my guess would be the upper limit for the average is between 90 and 100.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

The Third Martian Expedition lands in April 2000. It's Bradbury, so I hardly have to add this but I will.

Things don't go well.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!