Open Thread - 04-15-22 - Predictions from the 60s

Submitted by JtC on Fri, 04/15/2022 - 8:06am

Hey folks, remember the Weekly Reader? If I recall correctly it was issued every week in grade school. My recollections are from the 1960s. I tried to find an archive on the net to no avail so I'll have to rely on memory.

I don't remember much about the content but I do remember some of the predictions it made.

I remember an article stating that wars in the future will be economic wars. Check.

I remember an article stating that the middle east and it's oil would be a major factor in geopolitics. Check.

I remember the warnings about global warming. Check.

I remember the warnings about overpopulation. Check.

I remember the warnings about pollution. Check.

Pretty prescient, no?

I also remember the prediction of flying cars and futuristic worlds. Well, the world is much different now and it is the future, but I never did get that damn flying car, nor unicorns or rainbows for that matter. Uncheck that.

What am I missing?

Here's a video by Kenny Butterill that about says it all:

That's about all I have for today. Have a great holiday weekend.

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Submitted by JtC on Fri, 04/15/2022 - 8:09am

not sure I'll be around to participate in the comments, but I'll try. Fridays are always very busy for me.

Wham!

Preview that, baby!

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Submitted by QMS on Fri, 04/15/2022 - 8:21am
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But not so much the contents. I believe our grade school had a subscription? Wayback memory failures Wink

Per wiki ..

Formerly My Weekly Reader, the Weekly Reader was a weekly newspaper for elementary school children. It was first published by the American Education Press of Columbus, Ohio, which had been founded in 1902 by Charles Palmer Davis to publish Current Events, a paper for secondary school children. The first issue appeared on September 21, 1928.

Thanks for the OT and have a great weekend.

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question everything

Submitted by Creosote. on Fri, 04/15/2022 - 12:58pm
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@QMS
And I can recall nothing in it of interest.
It was like reading a cereal box "designed for children." Presidents' birthays? Holidays?
But there it was, a benefit of some kind. A lot of things were like that. No sense of life happening..
But my parents did have bookshelves with books in them.

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Submitted by Lookout on Fri, 04/15/2022 - 9:34am
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And had fun scrolling images from memory lane...

weekly reader.jpg

computer.jpg

wild.jpg

Y'all have a great trip and fun concert. Thanks for the ride on the way back machine.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Submitted by Marie on Fri, 04/15/2022 - 1:14pm

@Lookout
in 1960 would have thought that "space suit" was cool. LOL would have been more appropriate, but the 1950s were filled with all sort of silly futuristic imaginings.

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Submitted by Snode on Fri, 04/15/2022 - 10:37am

I would love to see how it stacks up against today's media, or was there a healthy dose of propaganda? I remember the little magazine ok, I just can't remember much about the content....some science and current events.

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Submitted by studentofearth on Fri, 04/15/2022 - 12:13pm
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@Snode archive.org to refresh ones memory of past readings.

Weekly reader : 60 years of news for kids, 1928-1988

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Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.

Submitted by Snode on Fri, 04/15/2022 - 2:37pm

@studentofearth Thanks

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Submitted by lotlizard on Fri, 04/15/2022 - 12:15pm
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https://scoutlife.org/wayback/

Non-Binaries Life?

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Submitted by Marie on Fri, 04/15/2022 - 1:16pm

we'll have to settle for flying drones delivering foreign made stuff ordered on-line from Jeff Bezos.

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Submitted by Blue Republic on Fri, 04/15/2022 - 11:34pm

But in the early 70's many climate predictions were of an imminent Ice Age.

Which is not all that unreasonable considering we are actually in the midst of a hundred thousand-year Ice Age - just toward what would likely be the end (if previous patterns held) of
a relatively short warming period within the longer cold one if the previously reliable pattern of Milankovitch Cycles hold. It's possible, but by no means certain that they have been altered by human activity...

https://cei.org/blog/wrong-again-50-years-of-failed-eco-pocalyptic-predictions/

Link contains a raft of original articles - many about Paul Erlich's predictions - some are wrong on timing, though not necessarily without substance. Erlich's predictions about how soon the world would reach its current population and food production crises did (could) not, for example take into account the effect of China's one-child policy - but that only delayed the day of reckoning.

But the same might also apply to human generated warming only delaying serious global cooling...

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