Jack Quaid b. 1992 (The Hunger Games)
Austin Nichols b. 1980 (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Surface, The Day After Tomorrow, Sliders)
Rebecca Mader b. 1977 (Once Upon a Time, Warehouse 13, Iron Man 3, Fringe, Alphas, No Ordinary Family, Lost)
Eric Balfour b. 1977 (Haven, No Ordinary Family, Skyline, Dinoshark, Rise of the Gargoyles, The Chronicle, Buffy)
Noah Danby b. 1974 (Bitten, Beauty and the Beast, Riddick, Lost Girl, Warehouse 13, Eureka, Painkiller Jane, Stargate SG-1, Alien Incursion, Smallville, The 4400, Andromeda, Mutant X, Witchblade, Lexx)
Eric Kripke b. 1974 (writer, Supernatural, Revolution, Boogeyman)
Damon Lindelof b. 1973 (writer, World War Z, Star Trek Into Darkness, Lost)
Melinda Clarke b. 1969 (The Vampire Diaries, Reaper, Firefly, Tremors [TV], Charmed, Star Trek: Enterprise, Spawn, Sliders, Xena, Return of the Living Dead III)
Rory McCann b. 1969 (Game of Thrones, Season of the Witch, Clash of the Titians, Solomon Kane)
Aiden Gillen b. 1968 (Game of Thrones, The Dark Knight Rises)
Stacy Haiduk b. 1968 (True Blood, Heroes, The Attack of the Sabertooth, The X-Files, Charmed, Kindred: The Embraced, SeaQuest 2032, Superboy)
Djimon Hounsou b. 1964 (Guardians of the Galaxy, Push, Eragon, The Island, Constantine, Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life, Stargate)
Glenn Morshower b. 1959 (Revolution, After Earth, Transformers, X-Men: First Class, Dollhouse, Charmed, The Island, Category 6: Day of Destruction, Star Trek: Enterprise, Buffy, Strange World, The Crow: Stairway to Heaven, Godzilla [1998], Millennium, The X-Files, Dark Skies, Star Trek: Voyager, Babylon 5, Star Trek: Generations, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Quantum Leap)
Steven Lisberger b. 1951 (writer, TRON)
Michael Parks b. 1940 (Grindhouse, From Dusk Till Dawn, Sorceress)
Jill Ireland b. 1936 died 18 May 1990 (Star Trek, My Favorite Martian, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea)
Richard Donner b. 1930 (director, Timeline, Superman, The Omen, Ladyhawke, Twilight Zone)
William Castle b. 1914 died 31 May 1977 (director, Zotz!, 13 Ghosts, The Tingler, House on Haunted Hill)
Nice long birthday list today. Two Game of Thrones regulars, which right now is trump when it comes to The Picture Slot. Aiden Gillen got the honors last year so this year it's Rory McCann as The Hound. Special note is given to Glenn Morshower, a bald and husky Oh That Guy who plays a lot of cops and military officers. In the latest Transformers movie - which I haven't seen - his character is named Gen. Morshower, which I'm guessing is a little joke by the writer who realized he had seen this actor plenty of times before. As for the older folks on the list, it's been a long time since I thought about Jill Ireland, Charles Bronson's lovely wife who died so young 24 years ago. That was definitely my first "Jeez, I'm old!" moment of the morning.
Many happy returns to all the living on the list and to the dead, thanks for all the memories.
In the year 2000!
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: Atomic-powered missiles will carry freight and mail between cities-and continents-within minutes. Jets and missiles will be commonplace for passenger flights.
Reality: Umm... no. I've read several mid-century sci-fi stories recently and earthbound rocket travel was a really popular idea. In the movies, rockets landed on alien worlds just as easy as you please, but in the real world that has to pay attention to pesky stuff like physics, landing a tall tube in an upright position is really hard.
And then there's atomic-powered missiles! If he hadn't mentioned jets, this would have been a big goose egg for de Forest.
Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!
Even when Lee de Forest screws up, Dr. Paul Ehrlich shows up on Fridays to make him look like a genius in comparison.
Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!
landing a tall tube in an upright position is really hard.
ReplyDeleteNot if you stick it in the ground like a lawn dart.
Or, alternatively, just reverse the stock footage.
As the young people say LOL.
DeleteOr as I prefer to type... Tee Hee!
Possibly of interest.
ReplyDeleteCertainly humorous. Kind of the fashion equivalent of those huge vegetable predictions.
This is awfully cute. I think it's a standalone one shot Sunday just to smooth out the nuclear holocaust vibe.
DeleteSpeaking of LOL, Prof, give yourself points for the funniest prediction you've passed along. On just reading de Forest's clause fragment, "Atomic-powered missiles will carry freight and mail...," my first thought was, "What could possibly go wrong with that?"
ReplyDeleteRocket-powered passenger flights look almost as ridiculous to us today, but the underlying prediction (at least according to 1950s sf writers) was that supersonic, long-distance flights -- say, from San Francisco to Moscow, or Chicago to Mumbai -- would be mostly suborbital. Suborbital passenger flights, conventional wisdom held, would require rockets instead of jets -- hence, rocket planes!
The notion of suborbital flights never really went away, but these days, it's mainly the province of the Richard Bransons of the world.
Hi, Abu. Nice to hear from you. I was pretty sure "atomic-powered missiles" would be tres humoresque to you most especially.
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