1 April 2014

 Birthdays
Asa Butterfield b. 1997 (Ender’s Game, Hugo, The Wolfman, Merlin [TV], Nanny McPhee Returns)
Sam Huntington b. 1982 (Being Human, Warehouse 13, Superman Returns)
Hannah Spearritt b. 1981 (Primeval, Seed of Chucky)
David Oyelowo b. 1976 (Rise of the Planet of the Apes, A Sound of Thunder)
Alan and Albert Hughes b. 1972 (The Book of Eli, From Hell)
Jane Adams b. 1965 (Poltergeist [2015], Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Carnivale)
Thomas Alfredson b. 1965 (director, Let the Right One In)
James Robinson b. 1963 (writer, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Cyber Bandits)
Tony Guma b. 1962 (Star Trek Into Darkness, Super 8, Star Trek)
Jennifer Runyon b. 1960 (Carnosaur, Quantum Leap, Space [TV], Ghostbusters)
Ivan G’Vera b. 1959 (The Village, Terminator: Salvation, Alien Nation [TV])
Denise Nickerson b. 1957 (Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Dark Shadows)
Barry Sonnenfeld b. 1953 (director, Pushing Daisies, Men in Black, The Addams Family, The Tick)
Annette O’Toole b. 1952 (Smallville, Superman, Cat People, It)
Heather Young b. 1945 (Galactica 1980, Land of the Giants, The Time Tunnel, Batman)
Samuel R. Delany b. 1942 (author, won 1967 Nebula for Babel-17, won 1968 Nebula for The Einstein Connection)
Don Steele b. 1936 died 5 August 1997 (Gremlins, Death Race 2000)
Gordon Jump b. 1932 died 22 September 2003 (Hard Time on Planet Earth, Amazing Stories, The Incredible Hulk, The Fury, The Bionic Woman, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, Bewitched)
Grace Lee Whitney b. 1930 (Star Trek, Batman, Bewitched, The Outer Limits)
Jonathan Haze b. 1929 (X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Terror, Viking Women and the Sea Serpent, Not of this Earth, It Conquered the World, The Day the World Ended, Monster from the Ocean Floor)
George Grizzard b. 1928 died 2 October 2007 (Twilight Zone, 3rd Rock from the Sun)
Anne McCaffrey b. 1926 (author, Dragonriders of Pern series, The Ship Who… series)

Last year, I put Samuel R. Delany in the Picture Slot, and I was considering Grace Lee Whitney when the list starting coming together during this morning's research. A few other options crossed my mind including Asa Butterfield, the young actor who had title roles in Ender's Game and Hugo, Jonathan Haze, a guy in a whole passel of 1950s monster movies and the original Seymour in The Little Shop of Horrors and the Author Anne McCaffrey. But as you can see, I chose Heather Young, who played the stewardess Betty on Land of the Giants. Sometimes the blog feels like Let's Remember a Star Trek Episode, so I decided to save Grace Lee for next year.

Many happy returns to the living on the list, and to the dead, thanks for all the memories. 

Movies released
The Incredible Shrinking Man released 1957  
 

Predictor: Ray Kurzweil in his 1999 book The Age of the Spiritual Machines

Prediction: By 2009, research has been initiated on reverse engineering the brain through both destructive and non-invasive scans.

Reality: The brain is still a pretty damned big mystery and we aren't any closer to "reverse engineering" it than we were when Kurzweil wrote this. On Wikipedia, Kurzweil claims 89 out of 108 predictions he made were entirely correct by the end of 2009. An additional 13 were what he calls “essentially correct" (meaning that they were likely to be realized within a few years of 2009), for a total of 102 out of 108.

I'm not listing anything like 108 of his predictions, but his track record is much worse than he lets on. Kind of like Ehrlich's The Population Bomb, Kurzweil gets to keep his reputation because nobody is checking up on him and reporting to the general public.

I should note that I don't consider my readership the general public. From what I can tell, you are far cleverer than that.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

It's time to hear once again from T. Baron Russell, our optimistic friend from 2005.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!