Tuesday, October 29, 2013

29 October 2013

 Birthdays
India Eisley b. 1993 (Underworld: Awakening)
Johnny Lewis b. 1983 died 26 Sept. 2012 (Alien vs. Predator: Requiem)
Ben Foster b. 1980 (X-men: The Last Stand, 30 Days of Night)
Gabrielle Union b. 1972 (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)
Winona Ryder b. 1971 (Edward Scissorhands, Dracula, Star Trek, S1m0ne, Alien:Resurrection, Beetlejuice)
Rufus Sewell b. 1967 (Dark City)
Tim Minear b. 1963 (writer/producer, American Horror Story, Dollhouse, Angel, Firely, Wonderfalls, The X-Files, Lois and Clark)
Finola Hughes b. 1959 (Charmed)
Dan Castellaneta b. 1957 (Futurama, Super 8, Stargate: SG-1)
Richard Dreyfuss b.1947 (Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Piranha 3D)
Ralph Bakshi b. 1938 (Lord of the Rings, Wizards, Fire and Ice)
Margaret Sheridan b. 1926 died 1 May 1982 (The Thing from Another World)
Robert Hardy b. 1925 (Harry Potter)

Quite a selection of birthdays today. The best known names are Winona Ryder and Richard Dreyfuss, while Ralph Bakshi is the best indicator of how far the genre has progressed when you consider his low budget animated Tolkien compared to this century's mega-blockbusters. My favorite movie on the list is Dark City, and so I considered choosing Rufus Sewell, but instead I chose the late Margaret Sheridan, famous for her scream on the poster for The Thing From Another World.

A note about the late Johnny Lewis. He is best known for Sons of Anarchy. The gory circumstances of his death can be found on his Wikipedia page.


Predictor: Isaac Asimov, who was asked by promoters of the 1964 World's Fair to predict the wonders of 2014

Prediction: The appliances of 2014 will have no electric cords, of course, for they will be powered by long- lived batteries running on radioisotopes. The isotopes will not be expensive for they will be by- products of the fission-power plants which, by 2014, will be supplying well over half the power needs of humanity. But once the isotype batteries are used up they will be disposed of only through authorized agents of the manufacturer.

Reality: Umm... no. Atomic energy might very well be the main reason the public doesn't trust pointy-headed scientists. (Well, that and their complete failure to give us flying cars.) I'm more in favor of use of atomic energy that most left-wing types - especially thorium based reactors - but the more news that comes about Fukushima, the less confident I become.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Back to the Wednesday schedule and that means T. Baron Russell and his collection of predictions from 1905.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE! 

1 comment:

  1. I'm not in any way qualified to talk about nuclear reactors;but, my fear is generally not the technology but the competence of those who use it. Tepco seems to be made up of lying incompetents and I don't trust them any more than I trust or believe those who say running a bitumen pipeline over the Ogallala aquifer is perfectly safe.

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