January 14, 2005

• By the year 2020 five per cent of the world's population will have emigrated into space. *sigh* Instead these folk are all crowding into the north, tempting the black bears with beer and chocolate, and the polar bears with delicious garbage.
• Where are my flying cars! My favorite from the 1974 christmas bit: Because of the incredible advances in automation, machines might well be doing most of the work in our factories and offices, and so everyone might have much more leisure time. Well, they were half right. Because of incredible advances in outsourcing, many people will be laid off and so everyone might have much more leisure time to spend pulling thier hair out and hustling for jobs in places like Walmart.
• Excellent. Cheers Nostril
• I've been moaning loudly on the internet about lack of jet packs & flying cars for about 7 years now, whenever I have gotten the chance. It has been somewhat of a personal joke that I've seen others of my age group begin to take up after the turn of the century. I mean, we were virtually fucking promised them, weren't we? I usually add "and domed cities on the moon!" /shakes fist. The 1974 one is right about the microwave & pocket sized computers, it can be noted. thx, dng
• Best statement on the flying cars was this bit (it's a .wav) from a 2000 IBM commercial with Avery Brooks. "It is the year 2000, but where are the flying cars? I was promised flying cars! I don't see any flying cars. Why? Why? Why?" One of my favorite ads ever.
• He stole it from me.
• The reason for no flying cars? Along with being inefficient for short trips, the logistics of traffic control in three dimensions are boggling. Never gonna happen. I'm done shitting on your dreams now.
• Logistics my arse. Computer controlled skyways is part of the deal. Pffff.
• Hey, it's not everybody who gets to have the flying cars. It's just me. That makes 3D traffic control much easier. (The same applies to personal mini-helicopters, which I'm also annoyed I don't have one of.)
• I've got a rocket pack.
• ooh, I'd settle for a pair of the boots the lady is wearing in the bottom photo from 1974... it's not a flying car but it's still moving in style!
• When I was in first grade, my friends and I figured out that by the year 2000 we'd be 22 years old, and thus ready to start our careers on the various space stations and moon bases that would clearly be up and running by then. It's 4 years later, and I still don't know where to send my application.
• It's ironic how the articles talk about dreamy air travel... hypersonic planes, etc. The planes aren't any faster, and now we have to deal with airport security, packed flights, tighter seating, and surly flight attendants.
• Hold it. Hold it.. rewind a bit. dng has a rocket pack? I want a rocket pack. (jaypro22 I was convinced I'd be the pilot of an interstellar freighter with an alien co-pilot)
• the bottom of the page says "©1999 Pixelmatic", if that means anything. original discussion is here. the november issue of forbes ran a feature on the current R&D of "flying cars". honda is working on some prototypes, with some help from GE. disappointingly, they just look like small lear jets, iirc, accomodating like one or two people. not quite as sexy as the jetsons' flying car, is it?
• When I was a young lad...around 1970-1975, I was convinced my future would be something like The Jetsons, complete with robots, jet packs, and flying cars that fold up into briefcases. Kids of today don't have any such grand beliefs. Their vision of the world 25-30 years from today is pretty much the same as it is now...which is both scary and sad.
• Most kids today reckon we'll be living in some post apocolyptic wasteland in 30 years time.
• I feel like such a sucker. I took the 39 bus this morning when I could have been on the 200MPH monorail or the bus-type helicopter.
• Or the hover vespa?
• Or the Los Angeles - New York Mach 10 subway?
• Nostrilamus: The hover vespa will exist one day... Meanwhile, I will just have to make do with one that can only travel on the ground.
• By the year 2020 five per cent of the world's population will have emigrated into space. Last night I read J.G. Ballard's "Diary of a Mad Space-Wife" and trust me, those cities in space aren't all they're hyped up to be.
• Couldn't some scientific genius just figure how to keep toilets from overflowing?
• /boggle
• Couldn't some scientific genius just figure how to keep toilets from overflowing? Flush in the middle, use less toilet paper, take the lid off the tank and jiggle the innards, turn off the water to the toilet if it starts to overflow, and keep a plunger by the toilet just in case. I once had to move from a perfectly good apartment because the fool upstairs would overflow his toilet several times a week, and could not learn how not to despite several lessons from me and the landlord. What's worse is that, because the building had been "apartmentalized" strangely, his bathroom was over my kitchen. 'Twas tres unappetizing.
• Our toilet wasn't made properly when I was a kid (the pipes were made too small, just before the codes changed to force larger), so I became expert at catching an overflowing toilet before it overflowed. Plunger at hand was key, as was a bucket so you could pour in water from the bathtub (so you can control the inflow of water) when you wanted to clear the block (very hot water works best). Sigh, this is making me miss my grandfather.