1 November 2014

 Birthdays
Max Burkholder b. 1997 (The Purge)
Penn Badgley b. 1986 (Parts Per Billion, The Nightmare Room)
Natalia Tena b. 1984 (Harry Potter, Game of Thrones)
Dominique Croix b. 1984 (Beneath the Surface)
Mary Kate Schellhardt b. 1978 (Infection: The Invasion Begins, Apollo 13)
Jordan Johnson-Hinds b. 1979 (Robocop [2014], Beauty and the Beast [2012])
Martin Copping b. 1977 (Zombie Hunter, Ocean Girl)
Logan Marshall-Green b. 1976 (Prometheus, Devil)
Chad Lindberg b. 1976 (Rise of the Zombies, Supernatural, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Mercury Rising, The X Files, Buffy)
Mariya Poroshina b. 1973 (Night Watch, Day Watch)
Toni Collette b. 1972 (The Sixth Sense)
Susanna Clarke b. 1959 (won the 2005 Hugo for Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell)
Jaymes Butler b. 1959 (Night of the Living Dorks, Resident Evil, Ice Planet)
Rachel Ticotin b.1958 (Lost, Aftershock: Earthquake in New York, Tales from the Crypt, Total Recall)
Peter Ostrum b. 1957 (Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory)
Dennis Muren b. 1946 (special effects, Paranormal Activity 4, Super 8, War of the Worlds, Hulk, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Jurassic Park, Terminator 2, The Abyss, Ghostbusters II, Willow, Innerspace, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Star Wars, E. T., Dragonslayer, Battlestar Galactica, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Flesh Gordon, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Rocketship X-M [1979 revision])
Marcia Wallace b. 1942 died 25 October 2013 (Vampire Mob, My Mom’s a Werewolf, Teen Witch, Small Wonder, ALF, Bewitched)
Robert Foxworth b. 1941 (Reaper, Star Trek: Enterprise, Jeremiah, Stargate: SG-1, Deep Space Nine, Babylon 5, SeaQuest 2032, Deadly Nightmares, Beyond the Stars, Prophecy, Damien: Omen II, The Questor Tapes, The Wide World of Mystery, The Sixth Sense)
Jo Morrow b. 1939 (Doctor Death: Seeker of Souls, Three Worlds of Gulliver, 13 Ghosts)
Barbara Bosson b. 1939 (Lois & Clark, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, The Last Starfighter, Capricorn One)
Emmaline Henry b. 1928 died 8 October 1979 (I Dream of Jeannie, Rosemary’s Baby, The Munsters)
Betsy Palmer b. 1926 (Bell Witch: The Movie, Out of This World, Friday the 13th parts 1 & 2)
Gordon R. Dickson b. 1923 died 31 January 2001 (Dragon Knight, Hoka series)
Victoria Horne b. 1911 died 10 October 2003 (Harvey)
Malcolm Smith b. 1910 died 11 June 1966 (artist)
Edward Van Sloan b. 1882 died 6 March 1964 (Dracula’s Daughter, The Mummy, Frankenstein, Dracula)

Last year, the Picture Slot went to the prolific artist Malcolm Smith and this year it's the prolific special effects artist Dennis Muren. Next year, I'll likely go with an actor, maybe Natalia Tena from Game of Thrones, Peter Ostrum in his only screen appearance as Charlie in Willy Wonka or possibly Edward Van Sloan, who played Van Helsing in the Bela Lugosi version of Dracula.

We had zero Canadians to spot today, and I decided switching to Spot the Australian! was not a fair game (Toni Collette is fairly easy, Martin Copping is not).

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

Movies released
Ender's Game released 2013 

Predictor: Warner Miller (1838-1918), predicting the 20th Century in honor of the 1893 Columbian Exhibition in Chicago.

Prediction: The Nicaraguan Canal is as sure to be built as tides are to ebb and flow and the seasons to change... I do not believe any man, however vivid his imagination, can fully suggest the enormous influence which this artificial water highway will have on teh commercial destiny of the United States. If I should suggest one-half of what I believe to be possible, I might be regarded as an absurd dreamer.

 Nicaraguan canal? Of course, we know the Central American canal that was finally built was the Panama Canal, but many people were in favor of one in Nicaragua instead. The San Juan River is very navigable, though I don't know if the huge freighters of today could manage it. It leads to Lake Nicaragua, the only lake that is home to fresh water sharks. The idea was to cut across the land at the narrowest point and get to the Pacific somewhere near San Juan del Sur. 

This month's splash illustration: Regular readers might recall the splash from early October, the comic strip panel about synthetic food and direct voting on every issue. From that same 1965 publication, we get this prediction for 2016 about brains, drugs and computers. As it stands right now, we might not get anything more than Red Bull and FitBit, and I hardly think those actually count.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Another pleasant Sunday, another nuclear war we missed.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!