During the first two hours of Friday's show, Oliver Williams discussed the alleged time traveler John Titor, as well as fielded calls from listeners. According to Williams, John Titor traveled to our present from 2036, a time reeling from a nuclear conflict that finally ended an American civil war. Titor claimed he was part of a military group trained to travel through time, and had come back (originally to 1975) to get an IBM 5100 computer -- needed to fix something in the future.

Titor's story has been pieced together from posts on Internet discussion boards that began in November 2000. Using the names "Timetravel_0" and later "John Titor," he provided extensive technical descriptions of his time machine, several predictions of our future, and commentary on our society. Titor once wrote:

"Perhaps I should let you all in on a little secret. No one likes you in the future. This time period is looked at as being full of lazy, self-centered, civically ignorant sheep. Perhaps you should be less concerned about me and more concerned about that."

Regardless of the obvious contempt he felt for us, Titor continued to communicate online. He provided clues about 9/11, the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, and the War in Iraq. Concerning events still to come, Titor predicted the end of the IRS, an increase in mad cow disease, and the cancellation of the Olympics after 2004 due to world conflict. On March 24, 2001, John Titor said he would be leaving our time and returning to 2036. After that, he was never heard from again.

Dead or Alive?

Friday's Open Lines included a Special Topic line for "Time Travelers.". One woman purporting to be from 2053 said she was sent back for being "undesirable." According to the caller, in the future we will switch to star-date time, food will be derived from blood and chlorophyll (eliminating the need for killing plants and animals), and Mexico and Canada will side against us. The big debate of the evening was whether or not Jack Palance was still alive. According to the Dead or Alive? website, Palance is alive and kicking at 85 years old. In fact, IMDB.com indicates he just finished a new movie, Back When We Were Grownups.