8 December 2013

 Birthdays
AnnaSophia Robb b. 1993 (Bridge to Terabithia, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Jumper, Race to Witch Mountain)
Ian Somerhalder b. 1978 (The Vampire Diaries, Lost, Smallville)
Dominic Monaghan b. 1976 (Lord of the Rings, FlashForward, Lost, X-Men Origins: Wolverine)
Tyler Mane b. 1966 (X-Men, Halloween[2007])
Matt Adler b. 1966 (Chronicle, Smallville)
Teri Hatcher b. 1968 (Smallville, Spy Kids, Lois & Clark, Star Trek: The Next Generation)
Kevin McNulty b. 1955 (Fantastic Four, Battlestar Galactica, Stargate: Atlantis, Smallville, Andromeda, Dark Angel, Millenium[TV], The X-Files, Timecop)
Kim Basinger b. 1953 (Batman, Cool World, My Stepmother is an Alien)
Rick Baker b. 1950 (Make-Up and special effects, Men in Black, Tron: Legacy, X-Men: The Last Stand, Hellboy, Planet of the Apes, Escape From L.A., Starman, An American Werewolf in London, Star Wars, King Kong)
Belinda Belaski b. 1947 (Gremlins, The Howling)
John Rubenstein b. 1946 (Star Trek: Enterprise, Charmed, Angel, Star Trek: Voyager, The Boys From Brazil)
Mary Woronov b. 1943 (Death Race 2000, Buck Rogers in the 21st Century, Night of the Comet, Babylon 5)
David Carradine b. 1936 died 3 June 2009 (Dinocroc vs. Supergator, Death Race 2000, Nightfall, Charmed, Q)
Maximilian Schell b. 1930 (Deep Impact, The Black Hole)
Dewey Martin b. 1923 (The Thing From Another World, The Outer Limits, Twilight Zone)
Richard Fleischer b. 1916 died 25 March 2006 (director, Red Sonja, Conan the Destroyer, Soylent Green, Fantastic Voyage, Doctor Doolittle, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea)
Georges Méliès b. 1861 died 21 January 1938 (director, A Trip to the Moon, The Hallucinated Alchemist, Gulliver’s Travels, 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea)

A long list today, all movies and TV. A few well-known stars, more than enough fabulous babes to choose from, but I would like to note the people behind the scenes. Rick Baker has done some great make-up and special effects, as well as a lot of on-screen time dressed as a gorilla. Richard Fleischer directed a lot of well-known genre films, notably the 1954 Walt Disney produced 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, one of the first big budget sci-fi hits, finishing second in the year's box office to White Christmas and just ahead of Rear Window. But it is the first born on our list, Georges Méliès, who gets the Picture Slot, making the first special effects in films back when films were still brand new. It is no surprise that a fellow who decided to put such things on film started his career as a magician.

Many happy returns of the day to all the living on the list, and to the dead, we give thanks for their work as pioneers.

Prediction: By 2010, seven million people in South Africa will have died from AIDS/HIV.

Predictor: 2002 report by NMG-Levy, South African Labor relations organization, reported in Our Final Hour by Martin Rees

Reality: Rees is a glum bastard, I'll give him that. Looking at the chart, the blue line is the best estimate of deaths, the red line is the high threshold and the green the low for the 95% confidence interval. The black line at 7,000,000 is at the very top of the graph, and as we can see even the high estimate is nowhere near it. In 2002, the total number of death crossed one million, but in 2010, around four million people have died of the disease since 1990 when numbers were first tracked. This looks like exponential growth, but in fact the numbers are slowing down. It's hard to be proud or optimistic when there are still 300,000 people dying a year from the disease in this country, but according the numbers from the World Health Organization, it looks like the epidemic is on the wane after two decades of steady growth.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Strange events on the moon are uncovered by filmmakers in 2012. Could lunar beings control life on Earth?

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!