Rinko Kikuchi b. 1981 (47 Ronin, Pacific Rim)
Johnny Yong Bosch b. 1976 (Mighty Morphin Power Rangers)
Aron Eisenberg b. 1969 (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager)
Andrea Thompson b. 1960 (Babylon 5, Quantum Leap, Heroes: Destiny)
Mark Forest b. 1933 (Goliath and the Dragon, Mole Men Against the Son of Hercules, Hercules Against the Sons of the Sun, Colossus of the Arena)
Professor Toru Tanaka b. 1930 died 22 August 2000 (Last Action Hero, Alligator II: The Mutation, Darkman, The Running Man)
Not a long birthday list today, but it certainly has range. A Jaeger pilot, a Power Ranger, a Ferengi, a telepath, Hercules and a professional wrestler. Guess how many times I've typed that sentence in my life.
Good guess.
Many happy returns to all the living on the list and to Professor Toru Tanaka, BOOOOOOOO! (He was a bad guy wrestler, known in the business as "a heel". I'm sure he's used to it.)
In the year 2000!
Predictor: OMNI Future Almanac, published 1982
Prediction (actual Fortune 500 position in 2000 in parentheses): The top ten companies in the United States in the year 2000.
1] Warner-Amex Compunications Services (merged with Time #45, American Express separate at #71)
2] CitiCorp (#7)
3] AT&T (#8)
4] Exxon (merged with Mobil #3)
5] IBM (#6)
6] Mobil (Merged with Exxon #3)
7] General Motors (#1)
8] Cetus and Genentech (neither are Fortune 500 in 2000)
9] Time Inc.(merged with Warner #45)
10] Johnson & Johnson (#43)
Even more reality: Compunications?? Not a typo. “Compunications is a coined word to describe the fusion of computations with communications.”
Oh no.
The hell.
It’s not.
They way overstated how much money was in biotech, but other than that, the list isn't awful. The top ten in 1982 was dominated by oil companies, seven out of ten. There was only one oil company in the top ten in 2000, there are four in 2013.
Here's who they missed in 2000.
2] Wal-Mart. This would have been a crazy guess to make in 1982. Wal-Mart was still just regional back then, not even on the Fortune 500. All the rest were top 100 companies back in 1982.
4] Ford
5] General Electric
9] Altria
10] Boeing
Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!
We get one last prediction from our Tuesday regular H.G. Wells, and you can be sure it will be pessimistic.
Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!
Compunications sounds more like a social science term used in departments of corrections. "We made the subject watch all episodes of Space 1999 until he told us where the loot was hidden."
ReplyDeleteI'd crack pretty quickly. I get the heebie jeebies just thinking about somebody else being forced to watch Space 1999.
DeleteKind of surprised they missed GE.
ReplyDeleteAnd what the hell is Altria? I'm off to Google even as I type...
ReplyDeleteBack from Google. Of course, Altria is the American Tobacco conglomerate that has reincorporated and rebranded as a tobacco cessation project in the U.S. while making billions selling cigarettes to the rest of the world. Very dark stuff.
ReplyDeleteA slightly odd thing. The Fortune 500 list from 1982 lists Altria and not Phillip Morris, though the name change happened in the early 2000s. Obviously, it's an easy little search and replace in their text editing program, but it does have an Orwellian feel to it.
DeleteWe are Altria. We have always been Altria.