4 November 2014

Birthdays
Fivel Stewart b. 1996 (Hansel & Gretel: Warriors of Witchcraft)
Jean-Luc Bilodeau b. 1990 (Piranha 3DD, No Ordinary Family, Kyle XY, Supernatural)
Alexz Johnson b. 1986 (Haven, Smallville, So Weird)
Travis Van Winkle b. 1982 (The Last Ship, Transformers)
Justine Waddell b. 1976 (The Fall, Dracula 2000)
Warren Christie b. 1975 (Arrow, Alphas, Once Upon a Time, Apollo 18, Supernatural, Battlestar Galactica, Andromeda, 10.5)
Wendy Hoopes b. 1972 (Captain America: The Winter Soldier)
Miles Pollard b. 1972 (Tucker and Dale vs. Evil, X-Men Origins: Wolverine)
Matthew McConaughey b. 1969 (Interstellar, Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon 3D, Reign of Fire, Contact, Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation)
Samantha Smith b. 1969 (Supernatural, Transformers, Dragonfly, Dark Angel, What Planet Are You From?, Avalon: Beyond the Abyss)
Kiersten Warren b. 1965 (Fringe, The Astronaut Farmer, Bicentennial Man, NightMan, Independence Day)
Annabelle Gurwitch b. 1961 (Charmed, Encino Woman, Alien Nation [TV])
Ralph Macchio b. 1961 (Rosencrantz and Guilderstern Are Undead)
Ken Kirzinger b. 1959 (Psych, Fringe, Smallville, Stan Helsing, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Stargate, Journey to the Center of the Earth [2008 TV Movie], Supernatural, Andromeda, Freddy vs. Jason, Dark Angel, Futuresport, Poltergeist: The Legacy, The Adventures of Captain Zoom in Outer Space, The X Files, Highlander [TV], Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan)
Markie Post b. 1950 (VR.5, The Greatest American Hero, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, The Incredible Hulk)
Noam Pitka b. 1938 (director, Space Jam)
Loretta Swit b. 1937 (Whoops Apocalypse, It’s a Bird… It’s a Plane… It’s Superman)
Kate Reid b. 1930 died 27 March 1993 (The Andromeda Strain)
Doris Roberts b. 1925 (Mrs. Miracle, Aliens in the Attic, Faerie Tale Theatre, ‘Way Out)
Martin Balsam b. 1919 died 13 February 1996 (Twilight Zone [1987, 1986, 1963 and 1959], Murder in Space, Space, The Six Million Dollar Man)
Art Carney b. 1918 died 9 November 2003 (Faerie Tale Theatre, Firestarter, The Star Wars Holiday Special, Batman, Twilight Zone, Art Carney Meet the Sorcerer’s Apprentice)
Cameron Mitchell b. 1918 died 6 July 1994 (Demon Cop, Space Mutiny, Frankenstein Island, The Demon, The Incredible Hulk, Supersonic Man, Project U.F.O., Death in Space, Flight to Mars)
Leonardo Cimino b. 1917 died 3 March 2012 (Waterworld, M.A.N.T.I.S., The Monster Squad, V, Amityville II: The Possession, ‘Way Out)
Gig Young b. 1913 died 19 October 1978 (Twilight Zone)
Ian Wolfe b. 1896 died 23 January 1992 (Amazing Stories, Wizards and Warriors, Wonder Woman, The Terminal Man, THX 1138, Star Trek, The Invaders, The Green Hornet, Twilight Zone, The Lost World [1960])

Notes on the birthday list
1. The Picture Slot. Last year, it was Ian Wolfe from one of his Star Trek appearances and this year I was tempted to use another of the deceased actors in a role from the original Twilight Zone, but instead I decided to skew younger and use a still from the Interstellar movie now in theaters starring birthday boy Matthew McConaughey.

2. Spot the Canadians! There are four Canadians today, though technically Warren Christie was born in Northern Ireland. There is one Yank with a telltale show on the resume, so you have to spot the single non-Canadian of the likely suspects.

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

Predictor: FM-2030 in Upwing Priorities, published 1981

Prediction: Telecommunities: Industrial age cities have a great future - as museums. We should close them down and move out. What will replace cities? We have some early forerunners of 21st century telecommunitites: mobile communities - airparks - global festivals - global video events - space colonies.

A telecommunity can be instant - activated in day dismantled in hours. These new communities accomodate the increasing mobility of people - they are in effect liftoff/landing platforms. They are also fluid and modular - no stones bricks or concrete - nothing that will stay long enough to atrophy into tenements and ghettoes. Abundant solar energy means that these linkup spheres can be set up anywhere. Deploy only automated vehicles and modules that fly. Streets are obsolete. The new communities are completely telesphered: teleducation - telemedicine - teleshopping etc. The size is nonissue - they continuously expand contract transform as the people flow in and out. Telecommunites coalesce the new variables and can act as momentum swings to 21st-century life.

Reality: Can you imagine what it must have been like to hear this jerk talk? I get a headache just typing in two paragraphs of his verbatim. Let me correct that. A teleheadache that requires at least three teleaspirins.

The closest thing to his idea in Burning Man, which started in 1986, five years after he wrote this. But that's just a strange vacation idea and not a way of life for the whole planet 24/7.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!
 
More verbatim typing for me,  but this time from the 1911 New York World predictions about 2011.

Join me then... IN THE FUTURE!
 

23 January 2013

Walter Michael Miller b. 1923 died 1/9/1996
 (won 1961 Hugo for A Canticle for Leibowitz)

Miller is something of a one hit wonder, but his one hit is very highly regarded. A World War II vet, he was involved in the battle of Monte Cassino, where a Benedictine abbey was bombed, a traumatic experience for him.

After the success of Leibowitz which was completed in 1959, Miller became a recluse. A started a follow-up book Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman but did not finish it. Terry Bisson completed it and it was released in 1997, a year after Miller's death by suicide in 1996.

In the Year 2000!
 
Prediction: There Will Be No Street Cars in Our Large Cities.

All hurry traffic will be below or high above ground when brought within city limits. In most cities it will be confined to broad subways or tunnels, well lighted and well ventilated, or to high trestles with “moving-sidewalk” stairways leading to the top. These underground or overhead streets will teem with capacious automobile passenger coaches and freight with cushioned wheels. Subways or trestles will be reserved for express trains. Cities, therefore, will be free from all noises.

Predictor: John Elfreth Watkins, in a 1900 issue of The Ladies' Home Journal

Reality: Okay, I'll admit it. Now that I'm getting into the swing of things with this blog, I look forward to Wednesdays. No disrespect to Robert A. Heinlein or Arthur C. Clarke, but Watkins is a much better looking guy, a man who knew how to rock the soul patch without looking like a hipster.

This is the first mention of the moving sidewalk on this blog. It may not inspire awe like flying cars do, but it is a very common prediction, as you will see in the weeks to come. Technically, he is talking about "moving sidewalk" stairways, which we now call escalators. These are much more common than moving sidewalks on flat surfaces, which are limited to large airports for the most part.

Watkins was writing in 1900, but he doesn't get any points here for being a tremendous visionary. The earliest working models of escalators were built in the 1890s.

As for shifting vehicle traffic around so that our metropolitan lives would be quiet and serene... not so much. We city dwellers are still second class citizens when we are not in our automobiles, but overall we've gotten used to it.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE! We get another Arthur C. Clarke prediction for the Year 2000 from the 1964 BBC TV show Horizon, with an admonishment that when the modern world passes us by as a species, we should be good sports like the Cro-Magnon and the Neanderthal.


Wait... were they good sports?  I'll have to look that up.

Join me then... IN THE FUTURE!

21 January 2013

Prediction for 1941: The modern city is virtually noise free, thanks to silent riveting machines, more melodious auto horns and quieter subways. Building of the future will be soundproof, just as they are now built to be fireproof.

Predictor: Edward F. Brown, director of the noise-abatement commission of New York City in 1931

Reality: Let's see, what does a rivet machine have to do? Just shoves a large piece of metal into another piece of metal or a slab of concrete.  That shouldn't take much energy or effort, now should it?

Oh, wait... just remembering some basic physics... Yeah, this should take a lot of energy and effort. Silent riveting machines didn't show up on the director's time table.

Another great prediction from The Wonderful Future That Never Was, the 2009 book produced by Popular Mechanics culling their predictions from 1969 and earlier. If you like early to mid-20th Century futurism, you should get a copy of this one for yourself. There's lots of great stuff that doesn't give specific dates so you won't see it quoted here, but the pictures and text are still a lot of fun. Click on this link to get the book on Amazon.com or order it at your favorite local bookstore.

Looking one day... INTO THE FUTURE!  Robert A. Heinlein in 1950 gets one completely right about the changing relations between the sexes  ... in the year 2000!

Join me then... IN THE FUTURE!