Samuel Honywood b. 1996 (Nanny McPhee)
Kevin Alves b. 1991 (How to Build a Better Boy, Warehouse 13)
Samantha Munro b. 1990 (Lost Girl)
Gillian Jacobs b. 1982 (Hot Tub Time Machine 2, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, The Box, Fringe)
Benjamin Salisbury b. 1980 (S1m0ne)
Desmond Harrington b. 1976 (Astronaut Wives Club, The Dark Knight Rises, TIMER, Taken)
Tony Crane b. 1972 (S1m0ne, Wishmaster, Out of This World)
Chris Kattan b. 1970 (Undead or Alive: A Zombedy, Monkeybone)
Anna Galvin b. 1969 (Witches of East End, Almost Human, Supernatural, Girl Vs. Monster, SGU Stargate Universe, The Boy Who Cried Werewolf, Caprica, Smallville, Kyle XY, The Andromeda Strain, Tin Man, Eureka, The Genie from Down Under 1 & 2, Timecop, Scavengers)
Amy Linker b. 1966 (D.A.R.Y.L.)
Jon Favreau b. 1966 (director, Revolution, Cowboys & Aliens, Iron Man 1 & 2, Zathura: A Space Adventure, Elf; actor, Iron Man 1, 2 & 3, John Carter, Elf, Daredevil, Deep Impact)
Roger R. Cross b. 1966 (The Strain, Continuum, Orphan Black, Fringe, Arrow, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Bionic Woman, The 4400, The Chronicles of Riddick, Star Trek: Enterprise, Eureka, The X-Files, X-Men 2, Taken, Relic Hunter, Andromeda, First Wave, Aftershock: Earthquake in New York, Stargate SG-1, Nick Fury: Agent of Shield, Cloned, Highlander, Strange Luck, Sliders, M.A.N.T.I.S.)
Tiriel Mora b. 1958 (The Wolverine, King Kong, Queen of the Damned, Stepsister from Planet Weird, Farscape, Time Trax, Future Schlock)
Ken Stott b. 1954 (The Hobbit)
Bill Martin Williams b. 1954 (American Horror Story, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, Jonah Hex)
Annie Golden b. 1951 (The American Astronaut, Twelve Monkeys)
Jim Starlin b. 1949 (comic book artist)
Philip Pullman b. 1946 (writer, The Golden Compass)
Kenneth Washington b. 1946 (Westworld, Star Trek, I Dream of Jeannie)
John Lithgow b. 1945 (Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Tales from the Crypt, Third Rock from the Sun, Harry and the Hendersons, Amazing Stories, 2010, Buckaroo Banzai, Faerie Tale Theatre, Twilight Zone: The Movie, The Day After)
Desmond Barrit b. 1944 (A Christmas Carol [1999 TV], Alice Through the Looking Glass [1998 TV])
Simon Ward b. 1941 died 20 July 2012 (Supergirl, The Monster Club, Holocaust 2000, Bram Stoker’s Dracula [1974 TV], Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed)
Michael Gambon b. 1940 (Harry Potter, Doctor Who, The Omen [2006], Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Sleepy Hollow [1999], Mary Reilly)
Tony Lo Bianco b. 1936 (Endangered Species, Twilight Zone [1985])
Shelby Grant b. 1936 died 25 June 2011 (Fantastic Voyage, Batman)
Robert Reed b. 1932 died 12 May 1992 (Galactica 1980, Wonder Woman)
George Nader b. 1921 died 4 February 2002 (Beyond Atlantis, The Human Duplicators, Robot Monster)
Bob Sweeney b. 1918 died 7 June 1992 (director, Starman [TV], Misfits of Science)
David Lewis b. 1916 died 11 December 2000 (Kolchak: The Night Stalker, The Girl with Something Extra, Batman, Bewitched, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, The Absent-Minded Professor, Captain Video and his Video Rangers)
Robert Beatty b. 1909 died 3 March 1992 (Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, Superman III, Tales of the Unexpected, Blakes 7, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Doctor Who, H.G. Wells’ Invisible Man)
Tor Johnson b. 1903 died 12 May 1971 (The Beast of Yucca Flats, Night of the Ghouls, Plan 9 From Outer Space, The Unearthly, Bride of the Monster, Rocky Jones, Space Ranger, The Canterville Ghost)
Last year, the Picture Slot was filled by an illustration by Jim Starlin, because I was a Marvel nerd in a younger incarnation. This year it's Michael Gambon, in what I consider the most iconic role on the list. Next year? John Lithgow and Tor Johnson are early betting favorites.
As for Spot the Canadian!, the two twentysomething Canucks, Kevin Alves and Samantha Munro, are hard to spot because of how few roles they have had in genre. The two fortysomethings, Anna Galvin and Roger R. Cross, are more easily detected, but they were born in Australia and Jamaica, respectively.
Many happy returns to all the living on the list and to the dead, thanks for all the memories.
Prediction: On 19 October 2009, a giant solar flare destroys all life on earth.
Reality: The science behind this is pretty weak, but what should we expect from a movie starring Nicolas Cage? In the hundreds of millions of years life has been on earth, none of the large extinction events is blamed on solar flares, or coronal mass ejections, another way the sun spits and belches. Our atmosphere has been able to absorb most of the energy of such events in the past.
The real danger would be to the electrical grid. If a flare as strong as the 1859 event happened now, it could knock out power around the world. The webpages where I read about this did not make it clear for how long the power would be out.
Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!
We are going to be getting a lot of interruptions of the schedule this month, but tomorrow we will get OMNI Future Almanac, our regular Monday morning pick me up.
Join us then... INTO THE FUTURE!
As I understand it, a Carrington Event solar storm would (if unforeseen and everything was still running when it hits) blow out transformers, take down satellite communications, and disrupt or destroy electronic devices. The power would be out until they could rebuild the transformers and reinstall them, but think how many pieces in that chain are electronically controlled beginning with mining technology to get the raw materials. Months at least, possibly years, and some places might be written off as not worth trying to reestablish power. Credit cards? Worthless without electronics to monitor them. (How many people even HAVE one of those old carbon copy, desktop card swiping machines any more? And if you did have one, would the big banks who issue the cards honor those receipts?) Sanitation, water treatment, and food delivery on electronically-controlled trucks would stop, causing mass exodus from big cities.
ReplyDeleteTechnologically, the world can recover from a Carrington Event. It's the chaos and die-off in the meantime which is the bigger worry. Still, as long as we don't rely on the government to "help" as they did during Katrina, I think most people will get by.
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If I ever write my book "WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE! (but not today) - Seven Doomsday Scenarios and Why We Shouldn't Worry About Them", I think this might make the cut.
What things could benefit from being powered down during a Carrington Event? From what you've wrote, I assume transformers could be saved but satellites are pretty much hosed.
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