This is a very entertaining list of predictions about the 21st Century from 100 years ago. Some of the things it got more or less right:
- United States Population will be 350-500 million. Currently it’s around 307.
- HVAC. Described as hot and cold air “spigots”, as opposed to, say, thermostats.
- TV dinners. Sort of. Instead of prepackaged meals, they envision a sort of superdelivery system with pneumatic tubes carrying hot meals to the home and dirty dishes back to the restaurant afterwards.
- Instantaneous global transmission of sound, images, and moving pictures. Although the idea of people going to concert halls to listen to instruments being remotely played by musicians elsewhere was probably never going to catch on, even if it were technically feasible, which it probably is.
- Air-conditioned bullet trains that don’t run on coal.
- Cars will replace all horse-drawn conveyances. Not so sure about them being cheaper than horses or having one-pound motors, though.
- Bombers, long-range artillery, and tanks. Not so much fighter planes, and they don’t envision airplanes replacing cars, bullet trains, or ocean liners (which will by superfast hydrofoils that can cross the Atlantic in two days).
Needless to say, they missed a lot of things, as well as not having the how down exactly for the things they got more or less correct, but they couldn’t have even conceptualized technologies like nuclear power/weapons, genetic engineering, GPS, laser technologies (i.e., DVDs, surgical applications, etc), cellphones, computers, MP3 players, the internet, or even videogames. They should have seen space travel coming, though.
The most heartbreakingly wrong prediction has to be their progressive, utopian view of education:
A university education will be free to every man and woman…. Poor students will be given free board, free clothing, and free books if ambitious and actually unable to meet their school and college expenses. Medical inspectors visiting the public schools will furnish poor children free eyeglasses, free dentistry and free medical attention of every kind. The very poor will, when necessary, get free rides to and from school and free lunches between sessions. In vacation time poor children will be taken on trips to various parts of the world….
Sigh. Apparently there are some things that we can’t conceptualize anymore.
January 17th, 2012 at 07:22am
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Coolness,
Education,
Technology
Finally, a candidate I can actually support.
Note: He did run as a Republican last time around, but I won’t hold that against him.
January 16th, 2012 at 05:01pm
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Elections,
Monday Media Blogging
One day last year when I came home and opened up my wallet to release the penny it had eaten, the penny landed on edge, and… stayed there. For like an entire day. And I have photographic proof:
January 16th, 2012 at 03:00pm
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Photoblogging,
Weirdness
This week’s quote is from Her Alibi, which I’m pretty sure I watched solely for Paulina Porizkova…
There’s no such thing as accidents – only things other people plan and don’t tell you about.
And, of course, there’ll be other people’s 1930s dog musicals…
What the.
January 13th, 2012 at 07:39am
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Friday Quote & Cat Blogging
Yes, the fact that a bunch of James O’Keefe’s conservative dickheads attempted to commit voter fraud surely proves that we have an urgently pressing need to disenfranchise minorities and poor people.
Actually, perhaps we are misreading O’Keefe’s stunt as whistleblowing theater rather than a threat: i.e., If you don’t start requiring photo IDs at the polls, then my right-wing friends and I are going to take advantage and start stealing elections from right under your noses until you make us stop.
January 12th, 2012 at 11:53am
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Elections,
Politics,
Racism,
Republicans,
Wankers
“Hey conservatives, what are you reacting against?” “Whaddaya got?”
According to Robin, conservatism’s only consistent guiding principle is that power must remain concentrated in the hands of elites at the expense of everyone else. That sounds pretty accurate to me.
January 12th, 2012 at 08:02am
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Books,
Corruption/Cronyism,
Politics,
Republicans
In case you were hoping Obama’s latest chief of staff would be an improvement over Rahm and Bill Daley, don’t hold your breath. The All-Seeing Eye Of Froomkin found this gem from last year:
A former top executive at Citigroup who participated in the deregulation of Wall Street during the Clinton administration and recently was tapped by President Barack Obama for a top White House post told a Senate panel last week that deregulation didn’t lead to the recent financial crisis.
Jacob “Jack” Lew, Obama’s nominee to lead the Office of Management and Budget, the White House agency entrusted with ensuring that federal regulations reflect the president’s agenda, was asked Thursday during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Budget Committee by Sen. Bernie Sanders whether he believed that the “deregulation of Wall Street, pushed by people like Alan Greenspan [and] Robert Rubin, contributed significantly to the disaster we saw on Wall Street.”
Lew, a former OMB chief for President Bill Clinton, told the panel that “the problems in the financial industry preceded deregulation,” and after discussing those issues, added that he didn’t “personally know the extent to which deregulation drove it, but I don’t believe that deregulation was the proximate cause.“
Well, I guess that explains how the resolutely obstructionist GOP allowed him to be confirmed as the head of OMB…
January 10th, 2012 at 11:27am
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Corruption/Cronyism,
Democrats,
Economy,
Obama,
Wankers
Apparently Ayn Rand was just kidding. No one could really be that cartoonishly selfish and evil, right?
(h/t PW)
January 10th, 2012 at 07:07am
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Republicans
Liam Neeson decides he wants to try his hand at improv comedy.
It does not go well.
January 9th, 2012 at 11:29am
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Monday Media Blogging
I know Republicans are the masters of hypocrisy and gall, but it still amazes me that they can say stuff like this with a straight face:
“I have a message for you, Mr. President. This is the type of disoriented anger your cynicism and your division is causing in our country. Bring our country together — stop dividing it, Mr. President,” Christie shouted.
(…)
Obama, he said, has “decided on the most cynical reelection strategy you could ever think of.”
“He doesn’t care that you’re angry. He just wants you to get angry at somebody else,” he said. “The president’s encouraged these people to be angry at Mitt and be angry at me because we stand up for what we believe in. That’s wrong. That’s not America.”
I am far from being an Obama fan, but this is absurd. He has bent over backwards to be conciliatory to Republicans for most of his presidency (which is precisely why I’m not a fan). Cynically whipping up anger and division to win elections is what Republicans do, not Democrats.
January 9th, 2012 at 07:07am
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Politics,
Republicans,
Wankers
Mostly random, mostly shadows, mostly B&W…
January 6th, 2012 at 11:38am
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Photoblogging
This week’s quote is from my favorite Woody Allen movie, Sleeper:
Nobody touches my brain – they might drop it.
And, of course, there’ll be other people’s wee bunnies in cups…
Holy crap.
January 6th, 2012 at 07:53am
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Friday Quote & Cat Blogging
No particular theme, just walking around.
January 5th, 2012 at 11:25am
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Photoblogging
I was very sad to read that Kodak is probably about to file for bankruptcy, although not exactly surprised. After film photography all but died out (Kodak stopped manufacturing film in 2009), they had a hard time competing with all the high-tech heavyweights in the digital space, especially on their own low-cost point-and-shoot turf. Pile a prolonged economic downturn on top of that, and it was just too much.
As someone who grew up with film photography, I can’t help but feel a profound sense of loss. Kodak did more to transform photography from expensive, artisanal, and time-consuming to easy, accessible and popular than any other company, churning out affordable, easy-to-use Brownies and Instamatics (like my own first camera, which I got when I was 8) for pretty much the entire 20th century. Not to mention their massive film business. And the Disc Camera, but hey, nobody’s perfect.
Godspeed, Kodak, and thank you.
January 4th, 2012 at 07:51pm
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Photoblogging,
Technology
This ongoing cycle of a new Republican candidate catching fire every month and then abruptly fizzling again, reminds me of nothing so much as the last three elections, which have whiplashed from “throw all the Republican bums out” to “throw all the Democratic bums out”.
It’s like watching someone angrily mashing the remote over and over again in the desperate hope that if they keep clicking long enough they’ll miraculously find a channel that doesn’t suck.
January 4th, 2012 at 11:25am
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Democrats,
Elections,
Obama,
Politics,
Republicans
Interior and exterior are actually two entirely different hotels…
January 4th, 2012 at 07:09am
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Photoblogging
I’m pretty sure this is the last of the photos from my girlfriend’s D40X:
January 3rd, 2012 at 11:18am
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Photoblogging
Glenn Greenwald and Taylor Marsh helpfully explain why it is impossible to view Obama as a Democrat in any meaningful way other than “less insane and slightly less awful than the Republican candidates”.
No, I’m not going to support Ron Paul or any of the other Republican candidates, but as Taylor Marsh puts it, “Pres. Obama has helped Democrats deliver a climate that this party has threatened since the ’70s would happen if I didn’t vote for them.”
January 3rd, 2012 at 07:11am
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Choice,
Constitution,
Corruption/Cronyism,
Elections,
Foreign Policy,
Obama,
Politics,
Prisoners,
War
IT Crowd edition. Anti-piracy warnings raise the stakes:
Roy and Moss tell their computer-clueless boss that she can borrow The Internet for her Employee Of The Month speech to the shareholders, which they have written for her:
January 2nd, 2012 at 12:45pm
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Monday Media Blogging
This week’s quote is the intro voiceover to the hilariously goofy Troma film Monster In The Closet, which also features a scene set in “Watson Elementary School”:
The most mysterious, inexplicable and incredible events often take place in the most ordinary places. Usually these seemingly unexplainable occurrences are eventually explained. But every so often they remain mysteriously inexplicable. Sometimes it is best to accept the unexplainable, rather than search in vain for inexplicable explanations. For some things are simply unexplainable.
And, of course, there’ll be other people’s wee bunnies…
They don’t even look real.
December 30th, 2011 at 11:01am
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Friday Quote & Cat Blogging
More pics taken with my girlfriend’s D40X:
December 29th, 2011 at 12:11pm
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Photoblogging
Took a bunch of pics trying out my girlfriend’s Nikon D40X, which is a nice little entry-level DSLR that weighs about half as much as my D300.
December 27th, 2011 at 11:47am
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Photoblogging
Kim Jong Il Memorial Edition:
December 26th, 2011 at 09:04am
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Monday Media Blogging
In case you ever wondered what We Wish You A Merry Christmas would sound like in Navajo…
December 25th, 2011 at 07:37pm
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Monday Media Blogging
Christmas cheer is meant to be shared with everyone.
December 25th, 2011 at 05:01pm
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Monday Media Blogging
Merry Christ-mas from Vern Fonk Insurance:
December 25th, 2011 at 02:58pm
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Monday Media Blogging
Twisted Sister’s touching rendition of O Come All Ye Faithful:
December 25th, 2011 at 12:58pm
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Monday Media Blogging
Scott Weiland channeling Bing Crosby:
December 24th, 2011 at 01:36pm
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Monday Media Blogging
This week’s quote is from The IT Crowd, a damn funny BBC show about nerds:
God damn these electric sex pants!
And, of course, there’ll be other people’s bunnies…
Aww.
December 23rd, 2011 at 07:28am
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Friday Quote & Cat Blogging
Move along, nothing to see here…
December 22nd, 2011 at 07:24am
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Photoblogging
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