New articles from Paleofuture
We look at the Pope who banned railroads, the celebrity psychic who predicted JFK's death, the astronomer who ridiculed space travel, and more.
The Pope Who Banned the Telegraph, Street Lights, and Railroads as the 'Roads of Hell'
New technology always has both promoters and detractors. And the new steam-powered railroads of the early 19th century were no different. Big business loved the invention of the railroad, as it opened up new ways to move materials and goods across great distances. But there was one very rich and powerful opponent of the railways who’s not very well remembered these days: Pope Gregory XVI, the man who banned railroads in the Papal States in the 1830s and ‘40s, denouncing them as the “roads of hell.”
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The Astronomer Who Called Interplanetary Space Travel 'Utter Bilge' in 1956
Back in 1956, popular media was obsessed with the future of space travel. Walt Disney was on TV promising that human-centric space travel was just over the horizon, with shows like “Man and the Moon” in 1955, and kids books were filled with images of Americans conquering the stars.
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Psychic Jeane Dixon's Predictions For JFK, a Female President, and an Asteroid Hitting the Earth
Jeane Dixon was a celebrity psychic who first became a household name after supposedly predicting President John F. Kennedy’s assassination as early as 1956. Dixon died in 1997, but her 1969 book was filled with predictions for the rest of the 20th century and beyond. Dixon predicted everything from the assassination of Fidel Castro to a comet hitting the Earth in the mid-1980s. Needless to say, neither of those things happened.
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Tim Russert's Prediction For the Future of TV News and 7-Second Soundbites
Tim Russert was a staple of TV news as the host of NBC’s Meet the Press until his death at work in 2008. I recently came across a prediction by Russert in the 1990s that made me think about the possible futures for internet news that we never pursued.
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This Real Gun From the 1950s Was Styled After Space Age Rayguns
Raygun toys were tremendously popular in the 1950s and 60s, as any fan of the Jetsons can tell you. And while the Whitney Wolverine looked like a toy, it was anything but. The Whitney Wolverine was a real gun released in 1956, believe it or not.
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