Showing posts with label marriage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label marriage. Show all posts

Saturday, December 6, 2014

6 December 2014

Birthdays
Kelly Paterniti b. 1987 (Griff the Invisible, Storm World)
Max Kasch b. 1985 (The X-Files)
Kelly Frye b. 1984 (The Flash)
Nora Kirkpatrick b. 1984 (Growth)
Ryan Kennedy b. 1982 (Defiance, Caprica, Super Hybrid, Sanctuary, V, SGU Stargate Universe, Smallville, Ogre, The Invisible, Blade: The Series, Category 6: Day of Destruction)
C.J. Thomason b. 1982 (The Monkey’s Paw, Transformers)
Ashley Madekwe b. 1981 (Salem)
Tommy Wirkola b. 1979 (director, Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, Dead Snow 1 & 2)
Angela Gots b. 1978 (Grimm, Touch, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles)
K.D. Aubert b. 1978 (Frankenfish, Buffy, The Scorpion King)
Lindsay Price b. 1976 (Eastwick, Stephen King’s Dead Zone, Purple People Eater)
Noel Clarke b. 1975 (Star Trek Into Darkness, Doctor Who)
Mike Coleman b. 1973 (Once Upon a Time, Paranormal Solutions Inc., Smallville, Fringe, Stargate, Supernatural, Eureka, Alien Incursion)
Vince Corazza b. 1972 (Stargate SG-1, I Downloaded a Ghost, Mythquest, Earth: Final Conflict, Universal Soldier III: Unfinished Business, PSI Factor: Chronicles of the Paranormal, Total Recall 2070, Bride of Chucky, Eerie, Indiana: The Other Dimension, TekWar)
Torri Higginson b. 1969 (Stonehenge Apocalypse, Stargate, Storm of the Century, Highlander: The Raven, PSI Factor: Chronicles of the Paranormal, TekWar, The Hidden Room, Forever Knight)
Sparky Marcus b. 1967 (The Man with Two Brains, Sigmund and the Sea Monsters)
Ulrich Thomsen b. 1963 (The Thing [2011], Fringe)
Colin Salmon b. 1962 (Arrow, Resident Evil, Annihilation Earth, Merlin, Blood: The Last Vampire, Punisher: War Zone, Doctor Who, Hex, Alien vs. Predator, Dinotopia)
Janine Turner b. 1962 (Fatal Error, Quantum Leap, Monkey Shines, Knight Rider, Mr. Merlin)
Nick Park b. 1958 (director, A Grand Day Out, Curse of the Were-Rabbit)
Edward Tudor-Pole b. 1955 (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets)
Tom Hulce b. 1953 (Jumper, Frankenstein [1994])
JoBeth Williams b. 1948 (Extant, TIMER, From the Earth to the Moon, Poltergeist I and II, The Day After, Endangered Species, The World Beyond)
James Naughton b. 1945 (Warehouse 13, Cat’s Eye, Planet of the Apes [TV series])
Wende Wagner b. 1941 died 26 February 1997 (Rosemary’s Baby, The Green Hornet, Destination Inner Space)
Leon Russum b. 1941 (Wolfpack of Reseda, Jericho, The X-Files, Strange World, Dark Skies, The Phantom, Alien Nation: Body and Soul, Deep Space Nine, Double Dragon, Space Rangers, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Hard Time on Planet Earth)
Colin Farrell [no, the other one] b. 1938 (Tales of the Unexpected, Blakes 7, The Land That Time Forgot)
Patrick Bachau b. 1938 (Big Ass Spider!, Glenn, the Flying Robot, 2012, Chrysalis, Stephen King’s Dead Zone, Carnivale, Vampires: The Turning, Kindred: The Embraced, Earth 2)
Declan Mulholland b. 1932 died 29 June 1999 (Time Bandits, Hawk the Slayers, Quatermass, Doctor Who, The Land That Time Forgot, Theatre of Blood)
King Moody b. 1929 died 7 February 2001 (Quantum Leap, Holmes and Yo-Yo, Mr. Terrific, Teenagers from Outer Space)
Lance Fuller b. 1928 died 22 December 2001 (The Andromeda Strain, Twilight Zone, This Island Earth, Voodoo Woman, The She-Creature, The Bride and the Beast, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man)
Wally Cox b. 1924 died 15 February 1973 (Lost in Space, Twilight Zone, Babes in Toyland [TV movie])
Agnes Moorehead b. 1900 died 30 April 1974 (Frankenstein: The True Story, Alice Through the Looking Glass, Bewitched, Twilight Zone, Shirley Temple’s Story Book)

Notes from the birthday list
1. The Picture Slot. Last year, it was Agnes Moorehead and this year, it's Nick Park represented by his greatest creations, Wallace and Gromit. Next year, I am not sure, but looking for iconic, I'd say Colin Salmon from Doctor Who, JoBeth Williams from Poltergeist, Patrick Bachau from Carnivale and maybe Wally Cox from Twilight Zone are the most likely.

2. Spot the Canadians! There are four and if you know the shows from both the 20th and 21st Century, it shouldn't be hard to find them.

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

Movie released 
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country released, 1991

Predictor: Annie Besant (1847-1933), socialist, theosophist, head of the Esoteric School.

Prediction: It is against brotherhood that millionaires and starving men and women should coexist in society. Hence I regard our present social system as doomed to collapse - as other systems have collapsed which were open to the same criticism.

Society should be organized for the production of wealth with the least possible expenditure of human energy and with the brotherly distribution of wealth produced.

In the society of the future, it seems to me that the sexes will co-operate for mutual service. Each will bring its special powers to the help of the race, without artificial restrictions on either. In the future, a marriage entered into without intellectual and moral affinities will be condemned as prostitution is now. And marriage will be permanent, as intellectual and moral character are permanent.

In this future society, brutal crime will have disappeared. Subtler evils will be met with brotherly compassion, not by vindictive penalty. Temperance legislation will be unknown because drunkenness will be as impossible as the readoption of the woad garments of our ancestors. 

Reality: Umm, yeah.... no. Billionaires and starving men coexist, human energy is not at its least possible expenditure though it often paid as little as possible, marriages aren't permanent (Ms. Besant's wasn't, she divorced Mr. Besant after six years of marriage in 1873), and after drinking four pints on Thursday night when two would have been much more prudent, I can say with confidence that drunkenness is not impossible, though I certainly wish it was.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

December will be the final month of our nuclear holocaust Sundays, so enjoy the weekly conflagration, destruction and pestilence while you can. Hardcore fans of conflagration, destruction and pestilence on Sundays will still have the NFL playoffs for another month after.


Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

Monday, April 28, 2014

28 March 2014

Birthdays
Jessica Alba, b. 1981 (Sin City, Spy Kids, Fantastic Four, Dark Angel, Venus Rising)
Penélope Cruz b. 1974 (Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Vanilla Sky)
Elisabeth Röhm b. 1973 (Mega Shark vs. Mecha Shark, Lake Placid: The Final Chapter, Heroes, Angel, The Invisible Man [TV movie])
Jorge Garcia b. 1973 (Lost, Once Upon a Time, Fringe)
Bridget Moynahan b. 1971 (Battle Los Angeles, I, Robot)
Kari Wuhrer b. 1967 (Sharknado 2: The Second One, Stargate: Atlantis, Berserker: Hell’s Warrior, King of the Ants, Eight Legged Freaks, Sliders, Anaconda, Thinner, Swamp Thing, Beastmaster 2: Through the Portal of Time)
Mary McDonnell b. 1952 (Battlestar Galactica, Donnie Darko, Independence Day)
Bob Rumnock b. 1953 (Divergent, World’s End, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Angel)
Stuart Gillard b. 1950 (director, Beauty and the Beast [TV], Charmed, Poltergeist: The Legacy, RocketMan, Creature, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III)
Marcia Strassman b. 1948 (Tremors [TV], Earth Minus Zero, Highlander, Honey I Shrunk the Kids, And You Thought Your Parents Were Weird, Brave New World, Time Express)
Terry Pratchett b. 1948 (author, Discworld, Hogfather)
Mike Newell b. 1942 (director, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire)
Carolyn Jones b. 1930 died 3 August 1983 (Wonder Woman, Batman, The Addams Family, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The War of the Worlds, House of Wax)
Robert Cornthwaite b. 1917 died 20 July 2006 (The Naked Monster, White Dwarf, Time Trackers, Beauty and the Beast, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Futureworld, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, The Six Million Dollar Man, Colossus: The Forbin Project, Land of the Giants, Batman, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, The Munsters, Twilight Zone, Destination Space, The War of the Worlds, The Thing from Another World)

The birthday list today has plenty of options for Pretty Girl = Picture Slot. Last year I went with Jessica Alba and no one could blame me. My first thought was to get yet another fabulous babe this year - probably going old school with Carolyn Jones - but instead, rummaging through imdb.com I found the late Oh That Guy actor Robert Cornthwaite, seen here in an early role as the doctor who tries to reason with The Thing from Another World and fails spectacularly. He had the hat on in most scenes, so you can't see he's bald and he usually did not have a beard. Here's a link to images of him on Google. Definitely an Oh That Guy.

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

 

Predictor: OMNI Future Almanac, published in 1982

Prediction (reality in parentheses): Marital status statistics in 1995

Men
Never married: 27% (27%)
Married: 59% (54%)
Separated/Divorced/Widowed: 15% (18%)

Women
Never married: 21% (24%)
Married: 54% (52%)
Separated/Divorced/Widowed: 25% (24%)

Analysis: These numbers are awfully damn close. One trend that may have been hard to catch is that the gap in life expectancies between men and women narrowed, which reduces the number of widows. Another surprise for me was that the number of never married men was higher in 1979 than it was in 1995, 31% to 27%. The women's rate stayed level. In the last eighteen years, the percentage of never married over the age of 14 has increased to 34% for men and 28% for women. This reflects two trends, people getting married later and an increase in people who never marry.

In any case, while a chi square test for goodness of fit would probably say this isn't a close estimate, I agree with Edwards Deming that a lot of hypothesis testing is flawed both by sample sizes too large and too small. I'm going to give OMNI Future Almanac credit for a good prediction this week.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

More fun with our new Tuesday regular Geoffrey Hoyle.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!