The future was yesterday if Back to the Future is to be believed.
The celebration of the so-called “Back to the Future Day” yesterday marked the date — Oct. 21, 2015 — that the characters Marty McFly, Emmett “Doc” Brown and Jennifer Parker famously journeyed from 1985 to this year in the sci-fi film trilogy’s second installment in 1989.
Back to the Future Part II envisioned a colorful 2015 with flying cars, hoverboards and self-tying shoelaces. While those doodads are hardly prevalent today, the film did accurately tease the rise of such technology as flatscreen televisions, biometric scanning and hands-free gaming.
Photo: EPA / Paul McErlane / Queen’s University handout
It also predicted the Chicago Cubs winning the World Series — an actual possibility with the Cubs contenders in the real-world playoffs, although maybe not for long.
“Back to the Future Day” is being celebrated in Southern California with a four-day “We’re Going Back” fan event taking place at locations featured in the film series, including a tour of the Hill Valley town square on the Universal Studios lot, an “Enchantment Under the Sea” dance at the Hollywood United Methodist Church and a screening in the parking lot of the Puente Hills Mall, where McFly famously blasted off in Doc’s time-traveling DeLorean.
A “Million McFly March,” a gathering of fans dressed as McFly was scheduled to begin later in the day at the Burbank location of Burger King depicted in the film.
The town of Reston, Virginia, ceremoniously changed its name to Hill Valley, McFly’s hometown.
“Back to the Future Day” was also marked in other nations.
Police in Queensland issued a spook statement saying that they had deployed their “hoverboard unit” after a silver sedan crashed into a pole near a movie theater, causing a power cut and stopping the town clock.
The crash described in the police press release mirrors the key moment in the movie, when McFly, 17, and Doc go forward in time.
It police also posted an edited image of officers rushing to the scene on their hoverboards.
The Austrian Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology also issued a statement outlining its guidelines for hoverboard use.
Its Web site describes a hoverboard as a “small vehicle for use outside of the road” and says a special license is needed for rocket-driven “Pit Bull” models.
Additional reporting by staff writer
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to start construction of its 1.4-nanometer chip manufacturing facilities at the Central Taiwan Science Park (CTSP, 中部科學園區) as early as October, the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) reported yesterday, citing the park administration. TSMC acquired land for the second phase of the park’s expansion in Taichung in June. Large cement, construction and facility engineering companies in central Taiwan have reportedly been receiving bids for TSMC-related projects, the report said. Supply-chain firms estimated that the business opportunities for engineering, equipment and materials supply, and back-end packaging and testing could reach as high as
CHAMPIONS: President Lai congratulated the players’ outstanding performance, cheering them for marking a new milestone in the nation’s baseball history Taiwan on Sunday won their first Little League Baseball World Series (LLBWS) title in 29 years, as Taipei’s Dong Yuan Elementary School defeated a team from Las Vegas 7-0 in the championship game in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. It was Taiwan’s first championship in the annual tournament since 1996, ending a nearly three-decade drought. “It has been a very long time ... and we finally made it,” Taiwan manager Lai Min-nan (賴敏男) said after the game. Lai said he last managed a Dong Yuan team in at the South Williamsport in 2015, when they were eliminated after four games. “There is
Democratic nations should refrain from attending China’s upcoming large-scale military parade, which Beijing could use to sow discord among democracies, Mainland Affairs Council Deputy Minister Shen You-chung (沈有忠) said. China is scheduled to stage the parade on Wednesday next week to mark the 80th anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II. The event is expected to mobilize tens of thousands of participants and prominently showcase China’s military hardware. Speaking at a symposium in Taichung on Thursday, Shen said that Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) recently met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a visit to New Delhi.
FINANCES: The KMT plan to halt pension cuts could bankrupt the pension fund years earlier, undermining intergenerational fairness, a Ministry of Civil Service report said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus’ proposal to amend the law to halt pension cuts for civil servants, teachers and military personnel could accelerate the depletion of the Public Service Pension Fund by four to five years, a Ministry of Civil Service report said. Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) on Aug. 14 said that the Act Governing Civil Servants’ Retirement, Discharge and Pensions (公務人員退休資遣撫卹法) should be amended, adding that changes could begin as soon as after Saturday’s recall and referendum. In a written report to the Legislative Yuan, the ministry said that the fund already faces a severe imbalance between revenue
RSS