7 May 2014

Birthdays
Maxwell Perry Cotton b. 2000 (Elysium)
Alexander Ludwig b. 1992 (The Hunger Games, Race to Witch Mountain)
Robbie Jarvis b. 1986 (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix)
Carrie Henn b. 1976 (Aliens)
Tracy Lords b. 1968 (Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, D.R.E.A.M. Team, Blade, Virtuosity, Plughead Rewired: Circuitry Man II, Highlander [TV], The Tommyknockers, Super Force, Not of This Earth)
David Franklin b. 1962 (Farscape, Xena: Warrior Princess, The Matrix Reloaded, Time Trax)
Ned Bellamy b. 1957 (Resurrection, Under the Dome, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Twilight, Being John Malkovich, Starman [TV], Twilight Zone [1986], The Greatest American Hero)
John Fleck b. 1951 (True Blood, The World, Star Trek: Enterprise, Carnivale, Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Modern Vampires, Millennium, Waterworld, Lois & Clark, Babylon 5: The Gathering, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Mutant on the Bounty, Max Headroom, Howard the Duck, Hard Rock Zombies)
Randall “Tex” Cobb b. 1950 (The X-Files, Highlander [TV])
Lee de Broux b. 1941 (Mars, The X-Files, Quantum Leap, Pumpkinhead, RoboCop, Max Headroom, Voyager from the Unknown, The Incredible Hulk, The Bionic Woman, The Terminal Man)
Roger Perry b. 1933 (Wonder Woman, The Bionic Woman, The Six Million Dollar Man, The Thing with Two Heads, The Return of Count Yorga, Count Yorga, Vampire, The Invaders, Star Trek, The Munsters)
Gene Wolfe b. 1931 (won Nebula for The Claw of the Conciliator)
Darren McGavin b. 1922 died 25 February 2006 (The X-Files, Millennium, Captain America[1990], Firebird 2015 AD, The Martian Chronicles, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, The Six Million Dollar Man, Mission Mars)
David Tomlinson b. 1917 died 24 June 2000 (Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Mary Poppins)
Ishiro Honda b. 1911 died 28 February 1983 (director, Godzilla [1977], Mecha Godzilla, Ultraman Returns, Godzilla’s Revenge, Yog: Monster from Space, Latitude Zero, Destroy All Monsters, King Kong Escapes, The War of the Gargantuas, Invasion of the Astro Monster, Frankenstein Conquers the World, Ghidorah, Motrha vs. Godzilla, Atrtagon, Matango, Varan, King Kong vs. Godzilla, Gorath, Mothra, Battle in Outer Space, The H-Man, The Mysterians, Rodan, Godzilla, King of the Monsters!, Godzilla [1954])
Val Newton b. 1904 died 14 March 1951 (producer, Isle of the Dead, Cat People, The Curse of the Cat People, I Walked with a Zombie)

I think the best two known names from this list are Tracy Lords and Darren McGavin, both more famous for their work outside of genre. The most important name in genre is likely Ishiro Honda, director of a jillion Japanese monster movies. For my money, the Oh That Guy who could easily be in the Picture Slot is John Fleck, though I also have a soft spot for Randall "Tex" Cobb, mainly for his work in the non-genre Raising Arizona. But in the Picture Slot is Carrie Henn as Newt in Aliens, the only credit on her imdb.com page.

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

Movies released
Iron Man 2 released, 2010
 

Predictor: T. Baron Russell in A Hundred Years Hence, published 1905

Prediction: [T]he chief gift of the sea to the life of the future will be the two gases of which water is composed oxygen and hydrogen : and the other gas, chlorine, which forms half the salt, as well as the metal sodium which forms the other half, will probably have many new uses found for them. Liquefied oxygen will no doubt be our sole disinfectant. It will also replace the poisonous, noisome and destructive bleaching agents used to-day. Hydrogen, the lightest of all gases, will be another staple of commerce. It will (as we have elsewhere seen) probably be the only fuel employed, for its combustion furnishes the greatest heat terrestrially known, and its flame is smokeless and yields no poisonous by-product.

Reality: Not T. Baron's best work. Breaking down the chemical bonds in sea water is not an easy gig. Hydrogen is certainly not "the only fuel employed" and "liquefied oxygen"... is that even a thing? I know liquid oxygen is, but that happens at scary low temperatures and is not used as a cleaning agent. That there are "new uses for sodium and chlorine" gives him some partial credit, but the whiffs on hydrogen and oxygen put this prediction in the "not so good" column.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Lee de Forest returns with another prediction that gets no points for originality and not much for accuracy either.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!