Birthdays
Camilla Belle b. 1986 (10,000 BC, The Lost World: Jurassic Park)
Sting b. 1951 (Dune)
Persis Khambatta b. 1948 died 8/18/1998 (Star Trek: The Motion Picture)
Avery Brooks b. 1948 (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)
Vernor Vinge b. 1944
(won 1993 Hugo for A Fire on the Deep)
(won 2000 Hugo for A Deepness in the Sky)
(won 2007 Hugo for Rainbow's End)
Jack Finney b. 1911 died 14 November 1995 (author, Invasion of the Body Snatchers)
Alex Raymond b. 1909 died 6 September 1956 (artist, Flash Gordon)
Willy Ley b. 1906 died 24 June 1969 (author, Adventure in Space)
I always like to see a mix of authors and actors on the birthday list. Since Stephen Collins got the Picture Slot yesterday, it is only fair Persis Khambatta gets it today. Of all the writers, I remember we had some of Willy Ley's non-fiction about rockets in the house when I was a kid.
Many happy returns of the day to all the living on the list.
Prediction: ...[A]lcohol, as a beverage, must inevitably disappear. Not only because the price of intoxicants is an unproductive expenditure (and we shall have to be more and more thrifty as time goes on) but because the nerves of the new age would never stand them, must all alcoholic beverages be regarded as destined to obsolescence: and the legislative aspect of this question must presently be touched upon.
I think it quite likely that when alcohol is gone, the nerves of the future may find it necessary to place the sale of tea and of coffee under restrictions similar to those at present inflicted upon the trade in alcohol…
Predictor: T. Baron Russell in A Hundred Years Hence, published 1905
Reality: Hey, buddy, I gotcher future nerves right here. A lot of futurists from this era think alcohol will be frowned upon in the bright, shining age to come, but I haven't run across many who think coffee and tea need to be controlled. As for thrift, I'm personally happy to do without a car, cable TV and a cell phone, but my budget definitely has room for some wine and India pale ale.
Looking one day ahead.... INTO THE FUTURE!
Yet another prediction from H.G. Wells about the 20th Century, bleak but not entirely wrong.
Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!
