30 September 2013

 Birthdays
Lacey Chabert b. 1982 (Lost in Space)
Marion Cotillard b. 1975 (The Dark Knight Rises, Inception)
Monica Bellucci b. 1964 (Matrix Reloaded, Matrix Revolutions)
Eric Stoltz b. 1961 (Caprica)
Nicola Griffith b. 1960 (won 1997 Nebula for Slow River)
Dan O’Bannon b. 1946 died 17 December 2009 (writer, Alien, Aliens, Total Recall, Dark Star)

Interesting birthday list today. I follow the obits fairly regularly but I had forgotten that O'Bannon was dead.  I'm not a big fan of horror, but I went to Alien because it was billed as sci-fi. Scared the hell out of me.

As for the Pretty Girl = Picture Slot formula, it's hard to go wrong with Monica Bellucci, and once you see the second picture today, you'll thank me for giving you something nice to look at here.

Many happy returns to the living on today's list.

Prediction:30 September 1990: Trashcan Man interrupts a public execution in front of the MGM Grand with a nuclear device he found. The weapon magically explodes, wiping out the demon Randall Flagg and his followers.

Predictor: Stephen King in The Stand, complete and uncut, published 1990

Reality: There are a lot of exact dates in The Stand, but I only use the ones that are major plot points. I realize this could be considered a spoiler, but the book is 23 years old and the mini-series is 19 years back, so it's not like I'm spilling the beans on what happened in the last episode of Breaking Bad last night.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Isaac Asimov has more to say about the year 2014 from his vantage point in 1964. Once again, it's about architecture and once again, pretty far off the mark.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE! 

29 September 2013

Birthdays
Zachary Levi b. 1980 (Thor: The Dark World)
Alexis Cruz b. 1974 (Stargate)
Mackenzie Crook b. 1971 (Pirates of the Caribbean, Game of Thrones)
Luke Goss b. 1968 (Hellboy II, Blade II)
Ken Weatherwax b. 1955 (The Addams Family)
Cindy Morgan b. 1954 (Tron)
Martin Ferrero b. 1947 (Jurassic Park)
Ian McShane b. 1942 (Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Snow White and the Huntsman)
Madeline Kahn b. 1942 died 3 December 1999 (Young Frankenstein)

Another all actor day on the birthday list. If I was going with my favorite artist, that would be a toss-up between the two born in 1942, Ian McShane and Madeline Kahn, but they are both much better known for their work outside of genre than inside. The person who is best known for a genre role has to be Ken Weatherwax as Puggsley, but I used the Pretty Girl = Picture Slot rule and put up a still of Cindy Morgan from the original Tron.

Many happy returns of the day to the living.
 

Prediction: President Barack Obama will be overthrown on November 19, 2013 for defrauding voters with a fake birth certificate.

Predictor: Larry Klayman, founder of Judicial Watch

Reality: Kinda hard to use the word "reality" when talking about guys like this. A "citizen's grand jury" brought the charges, a "citizen judge" presided - and I'm sure he was completely impartial - and a bunch of people who have turned their psychotic breaks from reality into a full-time hobby think an uprising will occur seven weeks and two days from now because the whole world is going to wake up and believe the flimsy nonsense on which they have based their pathetic lives.

I mean seriously, the birth certificate? Haven't most of the loons moved onto BENGHAZI!!!1!! by now?

While this doesn't count as science fiction, I loves me an exact date in the foreseeable future, so Larry Klayman gets added to the list of predictors, and he joins our not very exclusive list of proud bigots and knuckle draggers under the catch-all label "scumbags".

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

An exact date prediction from Stephen King interrupts our regular schedule.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

28 September 2013

Birthdays
Kirsten Prout b. 1990 (Elektra, Twilight)
Naomi Watts b. 1968 (King Kong, The Ring)
Mira Sorvino b. 1967 (Mimic)
John Sayles b. 1950 (Brother From Another Planet, The Secret of Roan Inish)
Jeffrey Jones b. 1946 (Sleepy Hollow, Invader ZIM, The Twilight Zone, Beetlejuice, Howard the Duck)
J.T. Walsh b. 1943 died 27 Feb. 1998 (Pleasantville)
Marshall Bell b. 1942 (Total Recall, Starship Troopers)
Ronald Lacey b. 1935 died 15 May 1991 (Raiders of the Lost Ark, Red Sonja, Buckaroo Banzai)
Janet Munro b. 1934 Died 6 December 1972 (Darby O’Gill and the Little People, The Day the Earth Caught Fire)
William Windom b.1923 died 16 August 2012 (Star Trek, The Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman (remake))
Prosper Mérimée b. 1803 died 23 September 1870 (Le Venus d’Ille, Lokis, La Chambre bleue)

Wow, that's a long list of birthdays. Any of the actresses are easily pretty enough for the Pretty Girl = Picture Slot formula and if we were going with my favorite artist it would likely be the writer and director John Sayles, one of the true independent filmmakers working. Heck, William Windom in Star Trek wouldn't be such a bad choice, either, but instead I went with Ronald Lacey from Raiders of the Lost Ark because, if I can spoil a massive hit from thirty two years ago, the guy's a frickin' Nazi and his frickin' face melts, easily the most satisfying face melt in cinema history.

And then there's Prosper Mérimée, most famous for the story Carmen which became an iconic opera, but who also wrote horror stories and was involved in hoaxes, not unlike Edgar Allan Poe.

Many happy returns to all those still living.

Movies released
Looper released, 2012
 

Predictor: W.R. Grace, capitalist, answering a questionnaire sent out from the organizers of the 1893 Columbian Exhibition, the world's fair held in Chicago.

Predictions: American farmers must find new places to grow wheat or we will be an importer instead of an exporter of wheat... American genius is going to show Europe how nutritive and desirable American corn is when properly cooked... but the greatest commercial developments will be in the relations between this country and the South American continent... in the next century, it may be possible to enter a palace car in New York City and ride it to Lima, Santiago, Rio de Janiero or Buenos Aires.

Reality: Grace was a big shot in the import/export business and one of his major concerns was imports from Peru, where he grew up when his father moved the family from Ireland. He was also the first Catholic mayor of New York City.

He's on the money about the growing of wheat. We found new lands for cultivation and we are not an importer. It's a little odd to read someone get defensive about the tastiness of corn, but it is originally a New World crop and the Portuguese introduced it to Africa before they brought it to Europe, though that was many centuries ago.

As for the Intercontinental Railroad, not so much, and certainly not staying in the luxurious comfort of a single palace car. Grace made his fortune trading between the Americas, but it wasn't the blueprint for most wealth in the 20th Century.

Looking on day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

We interrupt our regular weekly schedule of predictions to tell you of an exact date for the end of the despotic reign of Barack Hussein Obama, the usurper who will be made to face the rule of law before the end of the year, oh, happy day!


(Seriously, there's some goofball who got quoted in an article who believes this.)

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

27 September 2013

Birthdays
Thomas Mann b. 1991 (Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters)
Anna Camp b.1982 (True Blood)
Zita Görög b. 1979 (Underworld)
Gwyneth Paltrow b. 1972 (Iron Man, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow)
Tamara Taylor b.1970 (Serenity)
Patrick Muldoon b. 1968 (Starship Troopers)
Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa b. 1950 (Mortal Kombat, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Heroes)
Tom Braidwood b. 1948 (The X-Files)
Denis Lawson b. 1947 (Star Wars)
Roger C. Carmel b. 1932 died 11 November 1986 (Star Trek)

An all-actor list of birthdays today. Putting Gwyneth Paltrow in the Picture Slot can be justified by the Pretty Girl rule and the fact she is the only A-list movie star in this group. If the decision was instead based on most iconic sci-fi roles, Denis Lawson was Wedge in the original Star Wars and Roger C. Carmel was Harcourt Fenton Mudd on Star Trek.

Many happy returns of the day to those still alive.
 

In the Year 2000!

Prediction: A machine will turn eggs into chicks almost immediately.

Predictor: French postcards from the first decade of the 1900s predicting the year 2000.

Reality: From what I can gather, artificial incubators get eggs to hatch at about the same speed as do the eggs that hens sit on. It's about the rates at which cells grow and split, a process humans have done very little to change. This illustration is one of many that appear to be whimsical, like the one about modern educational processes.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

We are back in 1893 asking prominent folk to look 100 years into the future, and tomorrow we hear from a fellow whose fame has survived because of the company he founded, W.R. Grace.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE! 

26 September 2013

Birthdays
David Slade b. 1969 (director, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse)
Jim Caviezel b. 1968 (The Prisoner, Outlander)
Linda Hamilton b. 1956 (Terminator)
Victoria Vetri b. 1944 (Star Trek, When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth, Invasion of the Bee Girls)
Helmut Bakaitis (The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions)
Martine Beswick b. 1941 (One Million Years B.C.)
Winsor McCay b. 1867 died 26 July 1934 (Little Nemo in Slumberland)

In terms of fame in genre films, Linda Hamilton earns the Picture Slot, though I was tempted to use an illustration from Little Nemo in Slumberland, such beautiful stuff.

Many happy returns to the living.
 

Predictor: H. G. Wells from The Shape of Things to Come, published 1933

Prediction: Because of the increasing financial paralysis in 1960 no plants capable of producing material for gas warfare on a sufficiently abundant scale were operating.

Reality: 1933 wasn't as bad economically in Britain as it was in the United States or some other parts of the world, but Wells writes a future history from that year that is really glum. He foresees wars, some of the dates and combatants are incredibly accurate, but he also assumes financial depression for generations and the end of capitalism.

Didn't quite turn out like that. No matter how bad the economy gets, someone somewhere will find the cash to make weapons, usually at a profit.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Friday is still French Postcard day, so we will get yet another whimsical vision of the year 2000, a nice antidote to the grimness that Wells promises every Thursday for the time being.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!
 

25 September 2013

Birthdays
Joel David Moore b. 1977 (Avatar)
Clea DuVall b. 1977 (Buffy, The Faculty, American Horror Story)
Will Smith b. 1968 (Men in Black, I,Robot, I am Legend)
Christopher Reeve b, 1952 died 10 October 2004 (Superman)
Colin Friels b. 1952 (Dark City, Darkman)
Marc Hamill b. 1951 (Star Wars)

Today's birthday list is strong on star power. Putting either Reeve, Smith or Hamill in the Picture Slot is completely defensible, but I chose Reeve for three reasons.
1. He was so damn pretty.
2. Respect for the dead.
3. His first two Superman movies are the last two movies made about characters from the DC Universe that really felt optimistic.

Many happy returns to the living.
 

Predictor: T.Baron Russell in A Hundred Years Hence, published in 1905

Prediction: That impatient age will certainly not tolerate the inconvenience of having to send out to post its letters and parcels, or the tardiness of having these articles sorted and passed on for delivery only at intervals of half an hour or so. We may take it for granted that every well-equipped business office will be in direct communication, by means of large-calibred pneumatic tubes, with the nearest post-office.

Reality: As we know, our impatient age is not run on the convenience of pneumatic tubes, but I still remember the first time I saw one as a kid and thought, "Wow, that's the future!" We've opted instead for the Internet, which the late Senator Ted Stevens explained to us back in 2006 was "not a truck, but a series of tubes".  So, kinda the same thing.

Or not.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Thursday is H.G. Wells' day, most of his predictions taken from him glum 1933 book The Shape of Things to Come. Last week his prediction was about a particularly grim use of poison gas, but tomorrow he gives us a ray of hope about the end of the use of such weapons, though even that is wrapped in a glum package.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!
 

24 September 2013

Birthdays
Jessica Lucas b.1985 (Cloverfield)
Marc Guggenheim b. 1970 (writer, Green Lantern, Arrow, Percy Jackson)
John Logan b. 1961 (writer, Hugo, Star Trek:Nemesis)

Kevin Sorbo b. 1958 (Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Andromeda)
Brad Bird b. 1957 (director, The Incredibles, The Iron Giant)
Ian Stewart b. 1945 (writer, The Science of Discworld)
Jim Henson b. 1936 died 16 May 1990 (The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth)
John Brunner b. 1934 died 26 August 1995 (won 1969 Hugo for Stand on Zanzibar)
Horace Walpole b. 24 September 1717 died 2 March 1797 (The Castle of Otranto)

Most days the birthday list is dominated by actors, but today writers and directors take up most of the positions, including the late Jim Henson in the Picture Slot. I included Horace Walpole because The Castle of Otranto is considered the first Gothic novel.

Many happy returns to the living on this list.

Movies released
Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga-Hoole released, 2010
 

Predictor: Isaac Asimov, making predictions in 1964 about 2014

Prediction:Windows need be no more than an archaic touch, and even when present will be polarized to block out the harsh sunlight. The degree of opacity of the glass may even be made to alter automatically in accordance with the intensity of the light falling upon it.

Reality: Uh, no. We are seeing a little of the nerd boy "Ooh! Ick! Nature!" side shining from old Isaac here, but the idea that architecture would divorce itself from windows is just crazy talk. Everywhere I've worked, a windowless office is seen as a punishment and a house or apartment without a window is very rare indeed.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

T. Baron Russell gives us his view of the 21st Century from his vantage point in Edwardian England.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!
  

23 September 2013

Birthdays
Anthony Mackie b. 1978 (The Adjustment Bureau, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter)
Alex Proyas b. 1963 (director, Dark City, I, Robot)
Jason Carter b. 1960 (Babylon 5)
Rosalind Chao b. 1957 (Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine)
Peter David b. 1956 (Star Trek, Babylon 5, Marvel Comics)
Mickey Rooney b. 1920 (Twilight Zone)
Walter Pidgeon b. 1897 died 25 September 1984 (Forbidden Planet)

Last Monday, the Picture Slot went to Anne Francis, so it is only fitting that a week later it goes to the man who played her dad in Forbidden Planet. My favorite work listed here is Dark City, but for my money Proyas hasn't made anything else as good as that very strange film.

Predictor: OMNI Future Alamanac, published 1982

Prediction: Since the Industrial Revolution, the amount of carbon dioxide has increased by 10%; increases have been noted even in remote areas of Hawaii. Many scientists believe that the amount of carbon dioxide in the air will double in the next fifty to seventy years.

Reality: The "remote areas of Hawaii" refers to the Mauna Loa Observatory, a very important observation station for carbon dioxide levels.

I have no idea where they got the 10% number since the Industrial Revolution number. It went from 320 to 350 parts per million (ppm) from the late 1950s to the late 1980s. That's 10% right there, so they way undershot that number.

On the other hand, it was at about 340 ppm when this was written and has climbed about 60 points in the last 30 years, while it only climbed about 30 points in the 30 previous years. Still, if we are counting 340 ppm as the baseline number in 1982, getting to twice that (680 ppm) by 2050 at the latest is not what this graph looks like at all.

Long story short, these numbers are all wacky. The pre-industrial levels of carbon dioxide are hard to measure since we have to use air samples trapped in ice, but the general agreement is between 200 and 300 ppm was normal back then. We are now at about 400 ppm, twice the low end of previous normal. It's going up steadily and the rate of increase is slowly increasing. (That's the second derivative for any mathy types who wander by.) We could easily be at 450 or maybe even 500 ppm by 2050, and that's not going to help, but 700 ppm is both unlikely and truly catastrophic.

I'm not a "climate skeptic" as the paid flunkies of the petroleum industry like to call themselves, but I do like people to get the numbers right, and these numbers aren't close.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Tuesdays belong to Isaac Asimov's predictions from 1964 about 2014. Tomorrow, he continues a speculation about architecture and goes completely off base.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!
 

Looking one day

22 September 2013

 Birthdays
Tom Felton b. 1987 (Harry Potter)
Tatiana Maslany b. 1985 (Orphan Black)
Godfrey Gao b. 1984 (The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones)
Laura Vandervoort b. 1984 (Smallville, V, Ted)
Billie Piper b. 1982 (Doctor Who)
MyAnna Buring b. 1979 (Twilight: Breaking Dawn)
Daniella Alonso b. 1978 (Revolution)
Mireille Enos b. 1975 (World War Z)
Frazer Hines b. 1944 (Doctor Who)
Toni Basil b. 1943 (Village of the Giants)
Samuel A. Peeples b. 1917 died 26 August 1997 (writer, Star Trek)

Today's birthday list has a bunch of choices for Pretty Girl = Picture Slot. Every female on the list qualifies. If I was going to go with the face best known to the public, it would probably by Tom Felton as Draco Malfoy. But I chose Tatiana Maslany, who is so good in the Canadian sci-fi show Orphan Black that airs on BBC America, playing a remarkable number of roles very effectively. If you haven't seen the show, I recommend finding it. I bought it on iTunes and I'm looking forward to the second season, which will air next year. 

Many happy returns of the day to all the living on this list.
 

Prediction: In June 2001, the Fourth Martian Expedition lands and this one survives, because the Martian population has been wiped out by the chicken pox.

Predictor: Ray Bradbury in The Martian Chronicles, published in 1950

Reality: Bradbury gave the Martians magical powers and an implacable hatred for humans, so if the stories were going to move beyond "crew lands, sees amazing things, gets killed", the Martians had to be out of the picture and Bradbury decided on chicken pox as the culprit, brought unwittingly by previous expeditions, which he plays as both tragic and slightly ridiculous.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

What with preemptions and such, it's been over a month since we heard from the folks who brought us The OMNI Future Almanac, that 1982 treasure trove of predictions that should have already happened or are just around the corner. While they aren't always correct, they are big on exact years, which makes them a favorite of mine.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!
 

21 September 2013

Birthdays
Christian Serratos b. 1990 (Twilight)
Maggie Grace b. 1981 (Lost)
David Wenham b. 1965 (Lord of the Rings)
Bill Murray b. 1950 (Ghostbusters, Groundhog Day, Zombieland)
Stephen King b. 1947 (Carrie, The Stand, The Shining, Under the Dome)
Jerry Bruckheimer b. 1943 (Armageddon, Pirates of the Caribbean)
Tracy Reed b. 1942 died 2 May 2012 (Dr. Strangelove)
Larry Hagman b.1931 died 23 November 2012 (I Dream of Jeannie)
H. G. Wells b. 1866 died 13 August 1946 (War of the Worlds, The Time Machine)

If the Picture Slot was chosen today based on influence in the genre, I'd have to give the nod to Wells, but we see his picture regularly enough, so I put up the picture of Stephen King instead. Any of the women on the list - Serratos, Grace or Reed - easily qualifies for the Pretty Girl = Picture Slot criteria. Maybe next year.

Many happy returns to the living on today's list. 
 

Predictor: James William Sullivan, American labor leader, making his predictions on the occasion of the 1893 Columbian Exhibition in Chicago.

Predictions: The future is a fancyland palace whose portals I cannot enter... yet, let us listen to today's visionaries and dreamers. For they are pleasing fellows.

One cent mail delivery across the country and free within counties... cheap national telegraph and telephone service... all the electors across the country will vote on the tariff, silver coinage, a national banking system and restriction of immigration... All railroads under a single management... the consolidation of all the coal industry, from extraction to delivery... national distribution of meat and oil... efficient public markets reducing the prices to the consumer by 20%.

Reality: For a labor leader, old Sully sure took the side of the vulture capitalists of his day way too often. I'd give him no points for the mail delivery or the election predictions, and industry consolidation didn't go quite as far as he predicted. Also, in 1893 he would have to be slightly askew to predict the telegraph would be on its way to obscurity within 100 years.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Sundays belong to Ray Bradbury's Martian Chronicles, his famous but depressing work. The Fourth Martian Expedition is the one that finally survives, but even the reason for that is pretty grim.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

20 September 2013

Birthdays
Spencer Lock b. 1991 (Resident Evil)
Charlie Weber b. 1978 (Buffy)
Moon Bloodgood b. 1975 (Terminator Salvation)
N’Bushe Wright b. 1970 (Blade)
Ben Edlund (writer, Angel, The Tick)
Kristen Johnson b. 1967 (Third Rock from the Sun)
Michael Hurst b. 1957 (Hercules, Xena)
Brinke Stevens b. 1954 (Bad Girls From Mars)
Steve Gerber b. 1947 died 10 February 2008 (writer, Man-Thing, Howard the Duck)
George R.R. Martin b. 1946 (The Song of Ice and Fire)

Any of the actresses on the list meets the Cute Girl criterion for the Picture Slot, but I'm handing it to the guy who is the best known name on the list as of 2013, George R.R. Martin. I'm a bit surprised that none of the books in the series that is the basis for Games of Thrones has yet won a Hugo or Nebula, but I get the feeling he'll get one or maybe both when the next one comes out, given how much the popularity of the books has been enhanced by the TV series.

I was not aware until I researched this that Steve Gerber was dead. I really liked the Howard the Duck comic books, but the movie was one of the biggest missteps of George Lucas' career, and that's saying something.

Many happy returns to the living on the list.

Holiday
Unification Day. In the universe of Firefly and Serenity, this is the day that celebrates the end of the long civil war. My main problem with this is that the people in the new solar system would probably would have to redefine a year based on the orbits of the various planets in the system.

In the year 2000!

Prediction: Planes will be used in battle to drop bombs on the enemy.

Predictor: One of the series of French postcards released in the decade of the 1900s

Reality: I'm guessing this artist's rendering is done pre-Kitty Hawk, so the design of the plane is not actually a thing that could get airborne, but this is the most accurate of all the ideas the German and French postcards had about what we would do once heavier than air flight was possible. The high ground has been understood as an advantage in battle for a very long time, and planes take that height advantage one step further.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

On Saturdays, we travel back to 1893 to see what they thought 1993 would look like. Tomorrow we'll hear from labor leader James William Sullivan.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

19 September 2013

 Birthdays
Kevin Zegers b. 1985 (The Colony, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones)
Sanaa Lathan b. 1971 (Alien vs, Predator, Blade)
Tanith Lee b. 1947
Adam West b. 1928 (Batman, Robinson Crusoe on Mars)
Rosemary Harris b. 1927 (Spider-Man)
Damon Knight b. 1922 died 15 April 2002

I started the list of birthdays last year before the blog debuted, but I also go each day to imdb.com for actors and directors I might have missed and the Internet Speculative Fiction Database for names of authors. Keven Zegers is the most popular actor on imdb with this birthday, and it's a sign of how old I am that I had never heard of him.  Again, it may likely be my age that makes me think this, but I put Adam West in the Picture Slot today because I consider him the most recognizable name on the list.

Many happy returns of the day to the living.

Prediction: Kovoet’s invention of the permanent Death Gas in 1934. Use of it cuts off East Prussia in the 1940s and it is uninhabitable until the 1960s.

Predictor: H. G. Wells in The Shape of Things to Come, published 1933

Reality: Is World War I in living memory anymore? It started 99 years ago and ended 95 years ago, so anyone who lived through it wouldn't have been an adult at the time. But in 1933, when Wells was in his sixties, the horrors of the war were still clearly set in people's minds. Countries across Europe sent huge numbers of young men, rich and poor, educated and illiterate, into the service and their collective experience formed the ideas of what should not be allowed even in warfare, humanity's most vicious pastime. It was from the experience in the trenches that poison gas was decided to be an unacceptable method and in World War II, even the German troops didn't use it against the enemy. While Hitler was not often constrained by any international law, this particular law his country obeyed. His own personal experience in the trenches may well have been the reason.

The topic of poison gas is germane today as people make the argument whether Syria broke this law and should be punished. If punishment comes, it will likely be in the form of drone strikes, a new barbarity that no one is discussing making illegal. Unlike one hundred years ago, rich countries don't send the majority of their young into a war and generations don't have that widely shared experience. As war on a world scale fades into the past, one wonders if modern leaders will remember the lessons or slip back into the idea that the largest industrial nations can afford to go into battle with a nation of equal capability.

Looking one day... INTO THE FUTURE!

After this depressing prediction and before we get our Sunday dose of misery from Ray Bradbury, at least Friday will have a French postcard.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

18 September 2013

 Birthdays
Chris Riggi b. 1985 (Vampires Suck)
James Marsden b. 1973 (X-Men)
Jada Pinkett Smith b. 1971 (Matrix)
Jack Warden b. 1920 died 19 July 2006 (Twilight Zone)
June Foray b. 1917 (Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Twilight Zone)

The Picture Slot today belongs to my favorite actor on the list, June Foray, who turns 96. She is best known for her work on Jay Ward cartoons as the voice of Rocky, Natasha, Nell Fenwick and nearly every other female character, but she also worked for Warner Brothers and Hanna-Barbera and several other studios as well.

Many happy returns of the day to the living.

Predictor: T. Baron Russell in A Hundred Years Hence, published in 1905

Prediction: There is nothing to daunt the engineers of a hundred years hence in the project of erecting on the sea a vast floating city, fully as convenient as the present cities of terra firma, and, while vastly more healthful, quite substantial enough to resist storm and every motion of the sea, except the tides on which the city will rise and fall tides which will no doubt furnish the motive power of many conveniences in ocean cities.

Reality: Actually, there is plenty to daunt the engineers of the 21st Century to producing vast floating cities. Sea water does a great job over time of wearing away the things humans build and storms at sea can be much worse than storms after landfall. One big change from 1905 to today is the container ship, so there would be a chance for import and export from a floating city, provided that city could have a safe harbor big enough to take in a container ship and with waters calm enough to facilitate loading and off-loading.

I gotcher daunt right here, buddy.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

For about a month now, the regular Thursday predictor has been pre-empted by exact dates and the like, but tomorrow we will hear again from one Mr. Herbert George Wells.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!      

17 September 2013

Birthdays
Neill Blomkamp b. 1979 (District 9)
Ian Whyte b. 1971 (Game of Thrones, Clash of the Titans, Prometheus)
Malik Yoba b. 1967 (Alphas)
Bryan Singer b. 1965 (X-Men)
James Urbaniak b. 1963 (The Venture Brothers)
Cassandra Peterson b. 1951 (Elvira)
Bruce Spence b. 1945 (Mad Max, Legend of the Seeker)
Paul Benedict b. 1938 died 1 December 2008 (Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman[1993], the Twilight Zone, The Addams Family)
Roddy McDowall b. 1928 died 3 October 1998 (Planet of the Apes, Twilight Zone)
Ib Melchoir b. 1917 (Angry Red Planet, Reptilicus)

The Pretty Girl = Picture Slot rule should go into effect with Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, but this year I'm on a Venture Brothers kick, so James Urbaniak's character Doc Venture (a.k.a Rusty) gets the picture slot instead.

Many happy returns to the living.
  

Prediction: One thought that occurs to me is that men will continue to withdraw from nature in order to create an environment that will suit them better. By 2014, electroluminescent panels will be in common use. Ceilings and walls will glow softly, and in a variety of colors that will change at the touch of a push button.

Predictor: Isaac Asimov in 1964, predicting what life would be like in 2014


Reality: Asimov's predictions have been published several places recently and many writers have described them as "uncanny". The word that springs to my mind is "spotty".

Luminescent panels exist but they are not in common use. Light bulbs are still the standard. The "withdraw from nature" tendency exists, but it is counterbalanced with a "back to nature" movement. As someone who was alive in 1964, I would say that people are more withdrawn from reacting with their environment now, particularly with cell phones, but we also understand the advantages of nature better, such as the effect of sunlight on treating depression. He gets points for the general premise, but not so much on the exact methods.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Instead of a prediction from 1964, we get our weekly does of the view of the future from 1905 by T. Baron Russell.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!
 

16 September 2013

 Birthdays
Alexis Bledel b.1981 (Sin City)
Kurt Busiek b. 1960 (Conan, Avengers, Superman, Astro City)
Mickey Rourke b. 1952 (Sin City, Iron Man II)
Anne Francis b. 1930 died 2 January 2011 (Forbidden Planet)
Jack Kelly b. 1927 died 7 November 1992 (Forbidden Planet)
Peter Falk b. 1927 died 23 June 2011 (The Princess Bride, Wings of Desire)
Morgan Woodward b. 1925 (Star Trek)


Lots of actors on today's list with Busiek being the only writer. The Cute Girl = Picture Slot rule is in effect, though the picture of Anne Francis is a publicity still from her TV show Honey West and not Forbidden Planet.

Prediction: Saturday, September 16: Nuclear war in Europe quickly spreads. At 3:38 pm, Kansas City and much of the Midwest are hit with nuclear bombs, causing widespread devastation.

Predictor: The Day After, ABC mini-series, aired 1983

Reality: No year is specified, but the next year when the 16th of September would fall on a Saturday would be 1989. It could also be 1978 if it supposed to have happened before the air date, but Jason Robards’ character says his daughter was conceived during the Cuban missile crisis, and she is clearly a twentysomething out on her own, not a teen still in high school.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

While I still have a few predictions left from Robert A. Heinlein, tomorrow will be our first time to hear from our new Tuesday regular Isaac Asimov with his list of predictions for 2014 made on the occasion of the 1964 World's Fair.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!
 

15 September 2013

Norman Spinrad

Birthdays
Jonathan Liebesman b. 1976 (director, Battle Los Angeles)
Tom Hardy b. 1977 (The Dark Knight Rises, Inception)
Kenneth Hite b. 1965 (Lost in Lovecraft)
Colin McFarlane b. 1961 (Batman Begins, The Dark Knight)
Ed Solomon b. 1960 (writer, Men In Black)
John Reynolds b. 1941 died 16 October 1966 (Manos: The Hands of Fate)
Tommy Lee Jones b. 1946 (Men In Black, Captain America)
Norman Spinrad (Star Trek, Bug Jack Barron, The Iron Dream)
Henry Darrow b. 1933 (Star Trek, Babylon 5)
Jackie Cooper b. 1922 died 3 May 2011 (Superman)
James Fenimore Cooper b. 1789 died 14 September 1851 (The Monikins)

Eleven birthdays today, no fabulous babes, nearly equally split between actors and writers/directors. I nearly went with poor John Reynolds in the Picture Slot, whose only role on film was as Torgo in Manos: The Hands of Fate. He died at 25 the same year the film was made, and movie is best known to fans of the TV show Mystery Science Theater 3000. Instead, today's picture is of Norman Spinrad, because I still recall fondly his book The Iron Dream. The conceit of the story was that it was written by a young Adolph Hitler and for me, the story lived up to the premise.

I was also surprised to find James Fenimore Cooper's name on the list at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database. His story The Monikins is about intelligent monkeys who can speak and the trip to their homeland.

Many happy returns of the day to the living.

Prediction: The Third Martian Expedition lands on the red planet in the month of April, 2000. They find a small town in the style of the early 20th Century Midwest, populated with family members of the crew.

Predictor: Ray Bradbury in The Martian Chronicles, published in 1950

Reality: Small town Midwestern life from the early 20th Century is often portrayed by Bradbury as idyllic bordering on paradise, but just as often there is some aspect that acts like the serpent in Eden. Long story short, the Third Expedition does not survive.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

An exact date for nuclear annihilation taken from a TV movie.

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!

13 September 2013

Birthdays
Colin Trevorrow b. 1976 (Safety Not Guaranteed)
Clyde Kusatsu b. 1948 (Star Trek: The Next Generation, Godzilla)
Frank Marshall b. 1946 (Raiders of the Lost Ark, Back to the Future, Amazing Stories)
Richard Kiel b. 1939 (The Twilight Zone, Eegah)
Don Bluth b. 1937 (The Land Before Time, The Secret of Nimh)
Barbara Bain b. 1931 (Space: 1999)
Roald Dahl b. 1916 died 23 November 1990 (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory)
Daniel Defoe b.1660 died 24 April 1731 (Memoirs of Sundry Tranactions from the World of the Moon)

On today's birthday list, only one person is younger than I am and Trevorrow's Safety Not Guaranteed is the only film or TV show on the list produced this century. As for the Cute Girl = Picture Slot rule, Barbara Bain has no competition here, but while I was looking for photos on Google, I saw this picture of her action figure, mint in box no less, and I just had to use it.

Many happy returns of the day to the living mentioned here.

Prediction: 13 September 1999: Nuclear waste stockpiled on the far side of the moon detonates in an enormous thermonuclear explosion, pushing the moon out of earth orbit and into deep space at colossal speed.

Predictor: First episode of Space: 1999, first aired 04/09/1975

Reality: Okay, multiple problems here.


1. Turning radioactive waste into a bomb doesn’t just magically happen.

2. If the storage is on the far side of the moon, any resulting force should push the moon closer to the earth, not farther away.

3. Moon = big. One big explosion could change its orbit, but knocking it out of both the earth’s and the sun’s gravitational pull would take some doing, because gravity is working 24/7.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

A new regular feature for Saturdays debuts tomorrow, with a whole mess of folks from 1893 predicting what life will look like in 1993.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

 (Note: This post has been fixed. An earlier version said the first date is 13 September 2000, but it was instead 1999. I likely mistyped it in my notes, since a quick check of my usual sources for such a date all agree on the 1999 date. I also slandered Gerry and Sylvia Anderson for shoddiness when the fault was mine. While this does not improve my opinion of the show in retrospect, the error was completely mine and I apologize. I would also like to thank Tom Singleton for sending the comment that let me correct this error. I am so happy people are reading this blog and the folks who send comments have been first rate without exception.)

12 September 2013

 Birthdays
Alfie Allen b. 1986 (Game of Thrones)
Emmy Rossum b. 1986 (The Day After Tomorrow)
Hans Zimmer b. 1957 (Batman Begins, Pirate of the Caribbean, Inception, Man of Steel)
Joe Pantoliano b. 1951 (The Matrix)
Ian Holm b. 1931 (Lord of the Rings, Alien)
Freddie Jones b. 1927 (Dune, Krull)
Stanislaw Lem b. 1921 died 27 March 2006 (Solaris, The Futurological Congress)
Edward Binns b.1916 died 4 December 1990 (Twilight Zone)

While Ms. Rossum is certainly cute enough to get the Picture Slot, she only has the one role in a genre movie, so instead I lead with a picture of the author Stanislaw Lem. It does all start with the writing.

Many happy returns of the day to the living.

Prediction: 12 September, 2000: Julian West and Edith Leete listen to the 5:00 pm concert in Boston, live artists conveyed by telephone.

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

Reality:  Bellamy writes his story after the invention of the telephone but before the invention of radio. Musicians in various locations are playing twenty four hours a day. There is a German chocolate postcard that extrapolates on this idea, adding a projected movie as well.

It can’t be hard to create full employment , but I don’t envy the guys playing Souza at 3:00 a.m.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Yet another exact date, this time from a TV show that first aired in 1975.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

11 September 2013

Birthdays

Ariana Richards b. 1979 (Jurassic Park, Tremors)
Virginia Madsen b. 1961 (Dune, Star Trek: Voyager)
Roxann Dawson b. 1958 (Star Trek: Voyager)
Michael Sacks b. 1948 (Slaughterhouse-Five)
Brian De Palma b. 1940(Carrie, Mission to Mars)
Charles Dierkop b. 1936 (Star Trek, Land of the Giants, Batman, Lost in Space, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea)
Ian Abercrombie b. 1934 (Army of Darkness, Jurassic Park: The Lost World, Star Trek:Voyager, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Babylon 5)
Earl Holliman b. 1928 (Forbidden Planet)
Herbert Lom b. 1917 died 27 September 2012 (Mysterious Island, Count Dracula, The Dead Zone)

While I put Ms. Dawson in The Picture Slot because her time under the turtle forehead may be her best known role, we have a great selection of character actors who are probably better known for other work. This includes Dierkop from Butch Cassidy and The Sting, Holliman in Police Woman and a passel of Westerns, Lom from The Pink Panther films and Abercrombie, who played Mr. Pitt on Seinfeld. We also have Michael Sacks, who was the lead in Slaughterhouse-Five and Ms. Richards, the child star from the first Jurassic Park, and Virginia Madsen. All the women on the list deserve the Picture Slot based on fabulosity.

Many happy returns of the day to the living.

Prediction: We may consider it as practically certain that the pleasures of the new age will be largely intellectual in their nature. The stupidity of merely sensual pleasures will revolt the intelligence of the future. Athletic sports of some kind, facilitated by certain inventions which can easily be foreseen, will no doubt be a source of much enjoyment, though the growing gentleness of mankind will abolish, as barbarous, games which take the form of modified assault, as football, boxing, wrestling, fencing and the like.

Predictor: T. Baron Russell in A Hundred Years Hence, published 1905

Reality: Russell does some great predictions, but he does have a tendency to be a moralistic scold.

Or put more succinctly,

FUCK YOU!!!! GO NINERRRRRRRRRRS!!!!!1!
 Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Another exact date, this time from the early boss of Victorian utopian futurism, Edward Bellamy.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!
    

10 September 2013

Birthdays
Chris Columbus b. 1958 (Gremlins, Harry Potter)
Harry Groener b. 1951 (Star Trek: The Next Generation, Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
Edmond O’Brien b. 1915 died 9 May 1985 (1984, Fantastic Voyage)
Robert Wise b. 1914 died 14 September 2005 (Star Trek: The Motion Picture, The Andromeda Strain, The Day the Earth Stood Still)

Two guys known for their work in front of the camera and two guys known for their work behind it today in the birthday list, and I give the Picture Slot to Robert Wise, though probably his best known work are two musicals West Side Story and The Sound of Music.

Best wishes to the living.

Movies released
Resident Evil: Afterlife released, 2010

Back in the day, I wrote video games for a living, but I am not that loyal to the genre. I don't even known how many Resident Evil computer games or movies have been made and I have no intention of ever playing or watching even one.
 

Prediction:10 Sept, 1988: Gabriel Weltstein, newly arrived in New York City, begins to write a series of letters to his brother Heinrich in Uganda. The population of New York City is 10,000,000, the largest city that has ever been in the world.

Predictor: Caesar's Column by Ignatius Donnelly (writing as Edmund Boisgilbert, M.D.), published 1890

Reality: New York was just over 7,000,000 in the late 1980s and is not the largest city in the world by population, well behind several cities in Asia and even Mexico City.

Caesar's Column was an "answer novel" to Edward Bellamy's popular work Looking Backward: 2000-1888. We will be getting another exact date prediction from Bellamy later this week. Looking Backward saw a socialist utopia, while Caesar's Column saw a dystopia of a corrupt wealthy class and the downtrodden masses. Donnelly was a successful writer in his day, but little remembered now. His most famous invention is the lost continent of Atlantis. While I can't be certain of his motives, he wrote Caesar's Column under a pen name probably to avoid the controversy that would arise from the book's deeply anti-Semitic nature. The cruel rich are almost entirely Jewish and even the uprising against them is seen as being incapable of Christian charity because the second in command is a Jew. As for a tale of exciting adventure, I'd give this one a pass. The hero is just too damned stupid to live, but the author lets him live anyway.

Not my favorite hours of research for this blog.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

We are back to our regularly scheduled weekly fare tomorrow, another prediction about the 21st Century from T. Baron Russell, who was writing from the perspective of an Edwardian gentleman in 1905 London.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!
 

9 September 2013

 Birthdays
Henry Thomas b.1971 (E.T.)
Jeffrey Alan Combs b. 1954 (Deep Space Nine)Angela Cartwright b. 1952 (Lost in Space)
Topol b. 1935 (Flash Gordon)
Margaret Tyzack b. 1931 died 25 June 2011 (2001, A Clockwork Orange)
Cliff Robertson b.1923 died 10 September 2011(Amazing Spider–Man)
Neil Hamilton b. 1899 died 24 September 1984 (Batman)

Several actors on the list today are best known for their work in genre, and in that group I would include the young man in the picture slot, Henry Thomas who played E.T.'s pal Elliott.

Many happy returns to the living.

Prediction: Homes will have inches deep "lakes" on the roof as a device for air conditioning.

Predictor: Popular Mechanics in 1928

Reality: We never got around to this. If you have 2500 square feet of roof surface, each inch of water adds about 1,000 pounds of weight, not inconsequential but not a deal breaker, either. The major problem I would imagine would be how much  difficulty this would add to the mosquito abatement problem.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

This week we get some exact dates from futurist novels of the 19th Century.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!
 

8 September 2013

 Birthdays
Martin Freeman b. 1971 (The Hobbit, The World's End)
Thomas Kretschmann b. 1962 (King Kong)

Air date of first episode
Star Trek, 1966

No disrespect to either Mr. Freeman or Herr Kretschmann, but today is the 47th anniversary of the words "Space, the final frontier..." being spoken, and in science fiction history, that is indeed a Big Damn Deal. If someone in 1966 predicted that Star Trek would be the most important TV show Desilu Studios ever produced, that person would have been called mad. Star Trek could never eclipse I Love Lucy in the history of television, right?

Well, that's at least partly right. Star Trek left the small screen and became a movie franchise or more accurately, three movie franchises, the original cast, the Next Generation cast and now, the reboot.


Many happy returns to Mr. Freeman and Herr Kretschmann, and here's hoping the reboot series can get around to making a good movie instead of just successful ones.

 

Prediction: In August 1999, the telepathic Martians begin to sense the thoughts of Second Expedition. When the four men land, they are assumed to be figments of the imagination of some insane individual, one of the aspects of insanity on Mars.

Predictor: Ray Bradbury in The Martian Chronicles

Reality: I didn't read The Martian Chronicles when I was a lad. I did read Bradbury's Golden Apples of the Sun and R is for Rocket. I think if I had read this one back then, I would have soured on Bradbury completely. This is a really depressing work.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

There have been several interruptions of our regularly scheduled features over the past few Monday, but tomorrow we get another prediction from the pages of Popular Mechanics.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!
  

7 Septmber 2013

Birthdays
Evan Rachel Wood b.1987 (True Blood)
Alex Kurtzman b. 1973(writer, Transformers, Star Trek)
Toby Jones b. 1967 (Harry Potter)
Mira Furlan b. 1955 (Lost, Babylon 5)
Michael Emerson b. 1954 (Lost)
John Phillip Law b. 1937 died 13 May 2008 (Barbarella, The Golden Voyage of Sinbad)

Given my age and interests, I think of Mira Furlan as the best known name on this list in terms of genre, but Babylon 5 has been off the air so long, it's becoming famous for being obscure. Younger fans will likely think of Michael Emerson from Lost as being the most recognizable person here. For outright pretty, you can't go wrong with Even Rachel Wood, who sits in the Picture Slot, but if I'm going to check my male heterosexual privilege, John Phillip Law was incredibly pretty in his heyday. He made his best known films after he was 30 and film makers did everything they could to make sure he took his shirt off.


Many happy returns to the living.
 

Prediction: Aliens called "Vulcanids" have monitored the Earth for millenia, occasionally capturing people and meddling in human affairs, to the extent of building the pyramids. On September 7, 1973, the human race is destroyed, along with most other life, by the premature detonation of Professor Vogel's thorium bomb.  

Predictor: World in Eclipse by William Dexter, published 1955

Reality: It's bad enough destroying humanity and most life on Earth, but by premature detonation? That's gotta be embarrassing.

So far, all the predictions I have used from the fictional nuclear holocausts found in the extensive research done by Professor Paul Brians have been on exact dates. Soon enough, his work will get a day of the week of its own, probably Saturdays. A problem with this is if he has Saturdays and Bradbury's Martian Chronicles has Sundays, the weekends are going to be incredibly depressing.  Regular readers will be waiting in hope of Mondays for Popular Mechanics or OMNI Future Almanac.

Thank Odin, Vishnu and the little baby Jebus I have predictions from the 1890s and T. Baron Russell in 1905 just to keep things optimistic.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Once again, it's Ray Bradbury's turn to tell us about the early encounters of Earthlings and Martians. If you haven't read the book, here's a general spoiler: Things don't go well.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

6 September 2013

Birthdays
Idris Elba b. 1972 (Prometheus, Thor)
China Miéville b. 1972 (won 2010 Hugo for The City & the City)
Patti Yasutake b. 1953 (Star Trek: The Next Generation)
Max Schreck b. 1879 died 20 February 1936 (Nosferatu)

Elba is likely better known as Stringer Bell on The Wire and Ms. Yasutake was Nurse Ogawa, but I gave the Picture Slot to Max Schreck in his iconic role in the silent vampire movie that pre-dated Dracula.

Many happy returns to the living.

 

Prediction and predictor: In 1992, Harold Camping publishes a book 1994? that predicts a strong likelihood Christ will return in September 1994.

Reality: Camping made a huge spectacle of himself in 2011, but he had already made a smaller similar mistake in the early 1990s. There's even a question mark in the title, but I remember seeing a few bumper stickers on cars in the Bay Area. (Camping's Family Radio network is headquarted in Oakland.) It's easy to mock Camping and he obviously has earned it, but I think it would be wrong to call him a charlatan. He spent almost all his fortune in 2011 getting the word out.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

An exact date for the end of the world, this time with nukes in 1974.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!