Jesse Plemons b. 1988 (Battleship, Paul)
Shawn Roberts b. 1984 (Resident Evil, The Tomorrow People, Feed the Gods, A Little Bit Zombie, Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, Supernatural, Flash Gordon [TV], Jumper, Diary of the Dead, Skinwalkers, Land of the Dead, Starhunter, Earth: Final Conflict, X-Men, Goosebumps)
Bethany Joy Lenz b. 1981 (Charmed, Thinner)
Lindy Booth b. 1979 (The Librarians, Supernatural, Kick-Ass 2, Warehouse 13, Category 7: The End of the World, The 4400, Dawn of the Dead, Star Hunter [TV], Odyssey 5, Mutant X, Earth: Final Conflict, Eerie Indiana: The Other Dimension)
Michael Fassbinder b. 1977 (Prometheus, X-Men, Jonah Hex, Hex [TV])
Adam Goldberg b. 1976 (writer, Aliens in the Attic, How to Train Your Dragon, Area 52, Voltron Force, The Muppets’ Wizard of Oz)
Jenn MacLean-Angus b. 1976 (The Flash [2015], Continuum, Supernatural)
Adam Rodriguez b. 1975 (Category 7: The End of the World, Roswell)
Pedro Pascal b. 1975 (Bloodsucking Bastards, Game of Thrones, Wonder Woman, The Adjustment Bureau, Earth vs. the Spider [2001 TV], Buffy, Good vs Evil)
Jamison Newlander b. 1970 (The Lost Boys, The Blob)
Phil Grieve b. 1966 (Bridge to Terabithia, King Kong [2005], Lord of the Rings, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys)
Jana Marie Hupp b. 1964 (Independence Day, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Splash, Too)
Clark Gregg b. 1962 (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., The Avengers, Thor, Iron Man, A.I. Artificial Intelligence)
Kevin Bernhardt b, 1961 (Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth, Superboy)
Christopher Meloni b. 1961 (Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, Man of Steel, True Blood, Carriers, Target Earth, Twelve Monkeys)
Allan Corduner b. 1950 (Utopia [2014 TV], Mr. Nobody)
Pamela Reed b. 1949 (Jericho, The Clan of the Cave Bear, The Right Stuff)
Ron Palillo b. 1949 died 14 August 2012 (Trees 2: The Root of All Evil, Hellgate, Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI, The Invisible Woman)
Joan D. Vinge b. 1948 (won 1981 Hugo for The Snow Queen)
Linda Hunt b. 1945 (Carnivale, Dragonfly, Third Stone from the Sun, Space Rangers [TV], Dune)
Roshan Seth b. 1942 (Street Fighter, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom)
Cynthia Lynn b. 1936 died 10 March 2014 (The Six Million Dollar Man, Mr. Terrific)
Sharon Acker b. 1935 (Knight Rider, The Powers of Matthew Star, Threshold, The Incredible Hulk, Galactica 1980, Star Trek)
Brian Glover b. 1934 died 24 July 1977 (Snow White: A Tale of Terror, Alien³, Doctor Who, The Company of Wolves, An American Werewolf in London)
H. B. Haggerty b. 1925 died 27 January 2004 (The Incredible Hulk, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Electra Woman and Dyna Girl, Far Out Space Nuts)
Gloria Henry b. 1923 (Doin’ Time on Planet Earth)
Dabs Greer b. 1917 died 28 April 2007 (Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat, Werewolf [TV], Starman [TV], The Greatest American Hero, Shazam! [TV], The Invaders, The Outer Limits, Twilight Zone, It! The Terror from Beyond Space, Adventures of Superman, The Vampire, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, House of Wax)
Sir Alec Guinness b. 1914 died 5 August 2000 (Star Wars, Scrooge, The Man in the White Suit)
Buddy Ebsen b. 1908 died 6 July 2003 (Twilight Zone, The Wizard of Oz)
Hans Christian Anderson b. 1805 died 4 August 1875 (Fairy Tales)
Notes from the birthday list.
1. The Picture Slot. In 2013 and 2014, it was Sir Alec Guinness in the Picture Slot. This year, I want to repeat myself as little as possible and there were several actors I considered: Linda Hunt in Dune, Clark Gregg from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Pedro Pascal from Game of Thrones and the winner, Michael Fassbender as Magneto.
2. Spot the Canadians. There are four Canadian born actors on today's list. Sharon Acker's career was too early to take advantage of the Canuck sci-fi industry of the past few decades, but the other three are younger and their credit lists give significant clues. See if you can find them.
3. Wait... he's dead? Ron Palillo from Welcome Back, Kotter. I didn't get the memo and he died very young.
4. Wait... she's alive? Gloria Henry played Alice Mitchell on Dennis the Menace. I didn't know she was still around.
5. Fun facts to know and tell. I knew Buddy Ebsen was slated to play The Tin Man but the make-up made him sick. You can still hear his voice when the group sings We're Off to See the Wizard. The rest of the singing part is Jack Haley's voice, including If I Only Had a Heart.
Many happy returns to all the living on the list and to the dead, thanks for all the memories.
Movie released
Clash of the Titans released, 2010
Prediction: “In 15 years, more electricity will be sold for electric vehicles than for light.”
Reality: According to Wikipedia, in 1900 the top fuel source for cars was steam at 40%, electric at 38% and gasoline at 22%. The great drawbacks of electric cars was top speed (about 20 mph) and the range they could travel, but the ride was nice and smooth and they could start up easily on cold mornings, a big advantage over steam engines that could take 45 minutes to warm up. At the time Edison makes this prediction, electric cars are hitting their peak popularity and would wane into almost complete disuse, though with new technology they could make a comeback in the 21st Century.
Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!
It's Friday, so we'll hear from H.G. Wells.
Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!
It is interesting that both Edison and our other new fave, George Sutherland, were unable to see how rapidly the internal combustion engine would advance. And the electrical motive power for cars needed much more technological improvement to keep up, but they both thought it was a given that electric would be the better tech.
ReplyDeleteWhich it is, as it can use generated energy from any source - gas, hydro, nuclear - but internal combustion was so much easier to make portable for those early years, and it killed development of electrical until our Brave New Century.
Looking forward to having an electric car that I can power from rooftop solar cells. Pretty close, pretty close.
First, I'd rather have a factory being able to make solar cells in a way that doesn't require so much fossil fuel technology to produce them (especially the mining for the minerals).
DeleteI agree that the opinion against internal combustion looks obviously flawed now, but they were dealing with cars that had to be started with a crank that could, with a little bad luck, dislocate your shoulder. That's a hard flaw to gloss over.
DeleteMy wife's relatives in Albany (CA) do that now, ZRM. The future is now.
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