Bianca Lawson b. 1979 (Teen Wolf [TV], The Vampire Diaries, Big Monster on Campus, Buffy)
Jane March b. 1973 (Jack the Giant Killer, Clash of the Titans, Blood of Beasts, Dark Prince: The True Story of Dracula , Dark Realm, Relic Hunter)
Michael Rapaport b. 1970 (The 6th Day, Deep Blue Sea)
Lawrence Makoare b. 1968 (The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, Xena)
Marc Warren b. 1967 (Dreams1997, Dracula [2006], Hogfather, Doctor Who, Alice Through the Looking Glass [1998], Highlander [TV])
David Thewlis b. 1963 (Harry Potter, The Zero Theorem, The Omen [2006], Timeline, Dinotopia, The Island of Dr. Moreau [1996], DragonHeart)
Stephen Sommers b. 1963 (director, G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra, Van Helsing, The Mummy, The Mummy Returns, Deep Rising)
Kathy Ireland b. 1963 (Journey to the Center of the Earth [1988], Alien from L.A.)
Theresa Russell b. 1957 (The Legends of Nethiah, Fringe, Spider-Man 3, Earth vs. the Spider [2001], Good vs Evil, A Young Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court)
Chris Wedge b. 1957 (director, Ice Age, Robots, Epic)
Tom Towles b. 1950 (Halloween [2007], House of 1000 Corpses, Firefly, Star Trek: Voyager, 3rd Rock from the Sun, VR.5, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Night of the Living Dead [1990], The Pit and the Pendulum)
William Hurt b. 1950 (The Host, Hellgate, The Incredible Hulk, Nightmares & Dreamscapes, Neverwas, Frankenstein [TV], The Village, Tuck Everlasting, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Dune [TV], Lost in Space [movie], Dark City, Michael, Until the End of the World, Altered States)
John De Lancie b. 1948 (Zombie Hamlet, Cloned: The Recreator Chronicles, Torchwood, Gamer, My Apocalypse, Invader ZIM, Charmed, Andromeda, Stargate SG-1, Star Trek, Multiplicity, Legend, Time Trax, The Twilight Zone, Battlestar Galactica [1979], The Six Million Dollar Man)
Chip Zien b. 1947 (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Undead, Breakfast of Champions, Into the Woods, Howard the Duck)
Hal Linden b. 1931 (Supernatural, Light Years Away, Time Changer)
Karen Steele b. 1931 died 12 March 1988 (Star Trek, Cyborg 2087, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea)
Jack Kruschen b. 1922 died 2 April 2002 (Lois and Clark, The Time Machine [TV], The Incredible Hulk, Batman, The Angry Red Planet, The War of the Worlds)
Wendell Corey b. 1914 died 8 November 1968 (The Astro Zombies, Cyborg 2087, Women of the Prehistoric Planet)
B.F. Skinner b. 1904 died 18 August 1990 (author, Walden Two)
Fredric Wertham b. 1895 died 18 November 1981 (author, Seduction of the Innocent, The World of Fanzines)
The Picture Slot choice wasn't easy today, which is often the case. We have some star power with William Hurt, an iconic role with John De Lancie as Q (last years' Picture Slot) and plenty of fabulous babes. But the two names that got me thinking the most were the two dead guys from the very bottom of the list, Frederic Wertham and B.F. Skinner. Both did what they could to bring controversy to the psychological fields, Wertham with his sadly successful crusade to get rid of "disturbing" comic books with his book Seduction of the Innocent and Skinner with his weird behaviorist stuff. In Wertham's defense, his later book about fanzines was a very favorable treatment of the communities formed by fandom, which is a reasonable description of this blog.
Many happy returns to the living on the list and to the dead, thanks for all the memories.
Predictor: Lee de Forest, "The Father of Radio", predicting the world of 2000 in the 17 January 1960 edition of the Sunday supplement American Weekly.
Prediction: When you phone a foreign country, electronic translating equipment, built on the principle of today's computers, will translate your conversation instantaneously. If, for example, you are calling Japan, answers will come back translated from Japanese.
Reality: For the first time, Dr. de Forest overshoots by quite a bit. He gets a tiny amount of partial credit for explaining to his readers that such technology would be "built on the principle of today's computers", but instantaneous translation is still future technology even today.
Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!
Dr. de Forest shouldn't feel too bad, because he gets a lot right. The guy who should consider changing his name and what he does for a living is tomorrow's predictor Dr. Paul Ehrlich, as we pull out some more numbers from his not at all prophetic 1968 book The Population Bomb.
Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!
deforest probably deserves a little slack for this one. one of the artificial intelligence pioneers at mit assigned perfect machine translation as a two week undergrad assignment. machine vision was similar. these are the creators of the field and they just had no clue how hard it would be.
ReplyDeleteAh, yes, the two week project! I remember several of these that were never finished at every place I ever coded, including some that I was involved in.
DeleteIntimately.