Tammy Macintosh b. 1970 (Farscape)
Molly Ringwald b. 1968 (The Stand, Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone)
John Travolta b. 1954 (The Punisher, Battlefield Earth, Phenomenon, The Devil’s Rain)
Andrea Dromm b. 1941 (Star Trek)
Sinead Cusack b. 1948 (Wrath of the Titans, The Deep [TV], V for Vendetta)
Gahan Wilson b. 1930 (illustrator, Graveside Manner, I Paint What I See)
Allan Melvin b. 1923 died 17 January 2008 (My Favorite Martian, Lost in Space)
Jack Palance b. 1919 died 10 November 2006 (Batman [1989], Cyborg 2, Gor and Gor II, Hawk the Slayer, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, The Shape of Things to Come, Bram Stoker’s Dracula [TV])
Angelo Rossitto b. 1908 died 21 September 1991 (Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, Galaxina, Jason of Star Command, Invasion of the Saucer Men)
Several names on the list today are much better known for roles outside of genre, including Molly Ringwald, John Travolta and Jack Palance. Allan Melvin is not quite as famous as the other three, but he's best known for roles on Sgt. Bilko, The Brady Bunch and All in the Family. If I was going for Pretty Girl = Picture Slot, Andrea Dromm's one shot part as Yeoman Smith on the first episode of Star Trek would be a good choice. (She started as a model, made two movies and the Star Trek, then left the business.) I could go with a Gahan Wilson cartoon, since I'm a big fan of his work. But as often happens, I look for iconic roles and Angelo Rossitto from Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome as Master (riding on top of the mute giant Blaster) certainly qualifies.
Many happy returns of the day to all the living on the list and to the dead, thanks for all the memories.
Predictor: Ray Kurzweil in the 1999 book The Age of the Spiritual Machines
Prediction: By 2009, three-dimensional chips are commonly used.
Reality: There is a principle in computer design called Moore's Law, which predicts that chips will get smaller, shrinking by about half the size every year and a half to two years. Smaller chips are faster and computer power increases as the chips shrink. Eventually, chips will be limited by the size of molecules, which can't get any smaller.
Kurzweil predicted that as this size limit approached, chip manufacturers would change from flat two dimensional chip designs to chips stacked very close together in three dimensions. Chip makers are still trying for this, but right now they are only in the prototype stage. There are lots of bugs to be worked out, most daunting being defects causing low yield and heat build-up.
Kurzweil gets a big swing and a miss on this one.
Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!
We go back to 1905 for the educated guesses of our cheerful Edwardian pal T. Baron Russell.
Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!
Doesn't it seem like Jack Palance was in a lot more genre work than that?
ReplyDeleteMaybe next year you could go with John Travolta's Battlefield Earth role in the picture slot, so we could mock his hair make-up.
ReplyDeleteIt's a possibility, but I've already used pictures of Tom Cruise twice on the blog, and that's more Scientology than I am comfortable with, mocking or not.
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