Tales of Future Past

Future Living

2016-09-13T22:41:00.002-07:00

Future City

2016-09-04T21:26:00.002-07:00

A new Tales of Future Past section is up – Future City

Tales of Future Past v2

2016-08-24T15:08:00.000-07:00

Just to let you know what I'm doing on Tales of Future Past, this will be a very long project because I have hundreds of pages to transfer, edit, and sometimes completely rewrite. I started the first version in 2004 and as it grew a lot of copy became horribly dated or technology has advanced to the point where I can do a lot more than I could originally.

At the moment, only one section is up, but others will follow as I complete and test them. When a new one goes live, I'll make announcements here as well as on Facebook and Twitter. As to the old site, that's been removed as a menace to navigation,

And we're back

2016-08-23T17:41:00.001-07:00

Tales of Future Past is back

Resurrection... maybe

2015-07-25T19:41:00.003-07:00

Okay, I haven't done much of anything with this site since 2012 and what with the main Tales of Future Past site in limbo due to a formatting problem that's left it unreadable, I've decided to try an experiment.

I've been experimenting with templates in hopes of repairing the old site, but I haven't anything like the time to do so. Therefore, I'm going to try to repost some of the site in blog form and see if that's any more effective.

It's just an experiment, but what's to lose?

At the crossroads

2012-07-05T19:04:00.002-07:00

Changes to this blog.

The future will be televised

2012-06-27T00:00:00.000-07:00

Paleofuture looks at a 1951 version of the future surveillance society.

Vintage atomics

2012-06-26T00:00:00.000-07:00

The Unwanted Blog features this cutaway of a nuclear rocket engine from 1962

Dough boys on the Moon

2012-06-19T00:00:00.000-07:00

An now, the US Army's 1959 design for a lunar lander.

It may not have gone to the Moon, but it did look more rockety than the LEM.

The Future of Food

2012-06-18T00:00:00.000-07:00

Popular Science trolls its archives to look at the future of food. Some of the items are interesting, such a the one illustrated here that talks about converting gases directly into food, others are embarassing, as in howlers like this:

Fruits and vegetables were bleached (sic) in boiling water to help retain their color.

I think he meant "blanched".

Then there's the opening bit about urban farming that both in the modern and archived bit forgets that it wasn't that long ago that livestock was raised in the city, which is why the only ones who do so today are hobbyists.

Groovy computers

2012-06-15T00:00:00.000-07:00

Retrospace has a stunning retrospective on mainframe computers in the days when computers were practically architecture instead of things you tuck in your pocket.

The jobs of 2012

2012-06-14T23:10:00.000-07:00

Paleofuture looks at the jobs of 2012 as seen from 1982.

Please don't mention the "peace analysts:, though. The same people who thought "diversity managers" were a good idea might be listening.

Things to Come

2012-06-13T00:00:00.000-07:00

Nikola Tesla wasn't God

2012-06-12T00:00:00.000-07:00

Forbes has some neck. I posed the same thesis and have suffered years of stick from True believers because of it.

Keep your heads down, lads.

Electronic Bed

2012-06-11T00:00:00.000-07:00

Look at this electronic bed of 1945 courtesy of Hugo Gernsback and rescued from obscurity by JF Ptak Science Books LLC.

Among it's technological gadgets is a book rest that pulls out!

There's no end to this age of scientific wonders?

Elektro revisited

2012-06-08T00:00:00.000-07:00

Retronaut looks at one of our favourite residents over at Tales of Future Past: Elektro.

Tremble as the "mightiest of all robots" pops a balloon.

Monsanto's Home of the Future

2012-06-07T00:00:00.000-07:00

Monsanto was very proud of its plastic home.

Flying Ram raiders

2012-06-06T00:00:00.000-07:00

We need them and we need them now!

Educational television

2012-06-05T00:00:00.000-07:00

Paleofuture looks at the Future Past of schooling via the talking aquarium.

Flying Drainpipe: 1957

2012-06-04T00:00:00.000-07:00

VSTOL passenger plane: 1955

2012-06-01T00:00:00.000-07:00

True aviation coolness courtesy of The Eagle.

Space fashions: comic book division

2012-05-31T23:46:00.002-07:00

The Gold Key comic book Space Family Robinson not trumped the television series Lost in Space by introducing the concept of the Swiss Family Robinson years before Irwin Allen, it also let the readers know what the well-dressed 21st century teenager would be wearing.

Lots of ski pants, apparently.

Always something, isn't there?

2012-05-30T12:15:00.003-07:00

A wonder machine of farming. So, why does it take four men to operate it?

Life in the year 2001

2012-05-29T00:00:00.002-07:00

Apollo's arms

2012-05-29T00:00:00.001-07:00

In the early 1970s, NASA designer Caldwell Johnson came up with this idea for using surplus Apollo equipment by equipping the CSMs with robot arms.
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This study was cancelled; partly due to budget constraints, but mainly because it looked scary beyond all reason.