What Didn't Happen in 2005

Art Bell on Coast to Coast AM got calls for predictions of what will happen in 2006. Until I get a listing of this predictions, I thought I would share with you last years predictions.

1. US will put an additional 100,000 troops into Iraq to guard the borders.
-I don't think this happened...

2. 2005 is the final exam for humans, new energy source will be brought forward or surpressed.
-If it was surpressed, how would we know?

3. Free energy source will be released to the public, this will refrigerate as well as create electricity.
-An energy source that can refrigerate! That sounds more novel than turning knowledge into energy.

4. The movie 'White Noise' will be a huge success.
-Have you heard of this movie? Maybe it wasn't released in Sweden.

5. We will see an huge amount of solar flares around June/July creating a summer heatwave that will break all records on Eastcoast US and in Europe.
-Don't remember solar flares but it was a hot summer.

6. The Pope will die and he will be replaced by a black Pope.
-Half right, but when you've been predicting the death of the pope for 10 years, it's bound to happen eventually.

7. Dick Cheney will resign before the end of the Bush administration. A resignation under pressure.
-Still got 3 years.

8. Major terrorist attack against US and Canada in April. Simultaneous coordinated attacks in five major cities during morning rush hour.
-Why Canada?

9. The US in bondage by Al Qaeda before the end of the year.
-I don't even know what this means.

10. In 2005 there will be more public outcry for Sunday legislation.
-Same here.

11. Johnny Carson will pass away this year.
-Correct, but kind of the same as the pope thing.

12. After the inauguration in January, Israel will hit Irans nuclear facilities and will trigger nuclear war in the Middle East. Russia and China will become involved and will attack Israel.
-Nope.

13. People of Canada will rally to become part of the USA.
-I'd like to know the reason behind this.

14. A cure for Parkinsons disease in May or September.
-May or September? Do scientists quit working during the summer?

15. The Bush administration will begin marketing the national ID card.
-Has he? I've missed quite a bit in the last 5 months.

16. A 6.5 earthquke about 30 miles west of LA in August.
-Nope.

17. A big rise in the designer and private usage of stem cell research and productivity.
-I'll give this a .1 for effort.

18. Tony Blair will hit a crisis of conciousness and will withdraw British troops from Iraq.
-Nope.

19. A major earthquake to hit Southern California but will hit in the desert.
-Then why bother predicting it?

20. A major leap in the world of computers. A crystaline technology three to five times faster than anything we have now.
-BlueGene quadrupled its calculation speed, but no new crystaline technology.

21. Mount St. Helens will erupt.
-I remember hearing about activity, but that might have been more than a year ago.

22. Nuclear power plant disaster in Cleveland caused by vibrations from aircraft causing cracks.
-That's a pretty creative prediction. Is the Cleveland nuclear power plant near an airport?

23. Bigfoot will be discovered in 2005.
-If only.

24. Iraq elections delayed for a second time.
-I don't think this happened...

25. NASA probe to comet will cause problems for us.
-How do I know if this happened if I don't know what it caused?

26. A tractor trailer will explode in a large US city.
-Half right, it happened in Sweden.

27. Aliens will be proved to be not real.
-How do you disprove something like that?

28. In May a cruise ship will be blown up by a suitcase nuke.
-Heard of any missing cruise ships?

29. Government psychics will be instrumental in preventing a major terrorist attack.
-If it didn't happen, how do we know it was going to?

30. Saudi Arabia will fall to Islamic fanatics and will become allies with Iran.
-I thought this was already the case.

31. An act of combat in North America.
-Nope.

32. Nuclear bomb to be detonated in Baghdad.
-Nope.

33. The International Space Station will be abandoned.
-I think technically it has.

34. Russian forces will invade Alaska. Submarine attack on the eastcoast US. Chinese forces will move over the Mexican border.
-How did they get into Mexico?

35. A military connected holocaust.
-What?

36. Some kind of event involving food security.
-True, based on vagueness alone.

37. A biological attack in the US.
-I'm probably carrying some sort of Swedish superbug.

38. Late 2005 there will be a huge medical breakthrough. Possibly involving cancer.
-Vague, but somehow it didn't happen.

39. A terrorist attack near Las Vegas in July.
-Nope.

40. Jim Morrison to be found alive.
-Zombie Jim Morrison would be much more fun.

41. Russia will ask US for help with the Chechen rebels and it return will receive contracts to drill for oil in Russia.
-In what world would this happen?

42. There will be a multiple birth in a political family.
-How vague can you get? I'm sure there's a politican somewhere in the world that had twins.

43. Colorado Springs. It will be made illegal to distribute Bibles and for churches to advertise on tv.
-Damn liberals.

44. Multiple UFO sightings in the southwest to the northeast US and Canada.
-Multiple UFO sightings over a large area during an extended period of time, you don't say?

45. People in US and Canada will start to take remote viewing seriously.
-Hahaha!

46. God will prepare everyone for a mass exodus. Big sucking sounds as Art says.
-My invition was lost in the mail.

47. Cold fusion will be rediscovered in Ukraine or Estonia area.
-It was lost? It's a material object that can be found? Ukraine and Estonia have the resources to research it?

48. US draft this year.
-I'd still be in Sweden if this was true.

49. A guest on Coast will talk about large life on Mars, fungal life.
-If this did happen, I want the transcript.

50. A well known corporation will collapse by the end of the year.
-You don't say?

51. The Pope will pass away in May or June.
-Sorry, April, but good try. Better luck with the new pope.

52. A celebrity will have an accident with a tree.
-Hahaha! So sad.

53. Lisa Marie Presley will have a hit song.
-I remember she had a CD out, but was that this year?

54. A terrorist attack that will come through the ports, maybe in LA.
-Nope.

55. Iran to attack Iraq, China to attack Taiwan, North Korea to attack South Korea, all to happen at the same time.
-If I was Japan I'd move in into Taiwan and South Korea and have our armies bounce.

56. The Pope will die on 15th March. The next Pope will be french and he will be the last Pope as we know it.
-Close, but no cigar. Would be interesting if this turns out to be the penultimate pope.

57. A nuclear bomb in India. US invades Iran. A disease will attack our armpits.
-Nope, nope, and ...

58. New York City will be hit with an unknown virus.
-Nope.

59. First half of the year a hostile act in the Persian Gulf will destroy a US aircraft carrier.
-Nope.

60. We are entering the final turning point of all human history. The alien God Lucifer is Jesus and it will be announced to the whole world this year.
-Damn.

61. Between August and October a major earthquake off the coast of Japan will cause a tsunami that will devastate Seattle and bring down the Space Needle.
-What about Japan? Seattle is pretty far away.

62. January 28th and 29th there will be no election in Iraq and Bush will announce the need for the draft.
-Nope.

63. Red River will overflow its banks just like in 1997.
-Where's the Red River?

64. The Ark of the Covenant will be found.
-Smithsonian janitor melts after opening crate.

65. The apostle Paul will be revealed as the Anti-Christ.
-Awesome.

66. An anti communist group in North Korea will unseat the government.
-If only.

67. A boat will run aground in Massachusetts and there will be an oil spill.
-Nope.

68. The US space probe to impact a comet will cause fragments to rain down on the planet.
-That comet was pretty far away...

69. There will be problems with the New Madrid fault, possible earthquake in Missouri.
-Problems? What kind of problems do faultlines have?

70. Aliens are actually humans from the future and it will be revealed this year.
-I like this theory.

71. Several new species will be discovered in South America. The main discovery will be an intelligent cat.
-Half right, but really, they discover new species down there all the time.

72. A World War in 2005.
-I like it, straight and to the point.

73. There will be a very destructive volcano somewhere in the world.
-Surprisingly vague and somehow wrong.

74. A second tsunami to hit in South East Asia that will be worse than the first, then after a while there will be a third which will be the most destructive of all.
-Nope.

75. A poisonous gas emission in Yosemite.
-Nope.

76. A 7+ magnitude earthquake in central California in early 2005.
-Nope.

77. Between January 18th and May 1st there will be a major UFO event on the scale of Roswell.
-Nope.

78. A major bridge will collapse in the east US.
-These are starting to get boring.

79. Mount Hood will explode between March and June.
-Nope.

80. A volcano will explode and the dust cold will cause the Earth to cool.
-We could use it.

81. Korea will be bombed and turned into three islands.
-What kind of bombs are we using?

82. A 7.5+ earthquake in the northeast US.
-Nope.

83. Dick Cheney will not complete the full term.
-Three more years.

84. South America will surprise the economic world by creating a new Euro style currency.
-I think I posted about this. Maybe we should wait until Bolivia and Chile have diplomatic relations.

85. More will be revealed about Denver Airport.
-I think I missed something.

86. The Space Shuttle new fuel tank design will cause a problem with the left tank.
-I thought there was just one tank?

87. By the end of the year it will be announced that over 1 million people have died because of the tsunami and related issues.
-Haven't heard, but likely.

88. An earthquake of 6.2 - 7 will hit LA in February or 90 days after.
-What is it with earthquakes and LA? There are other cities near faultlines too.

89. It will be announced that there is cannabilism in Korea.
-Population control.

90. There will be commercial development of the Northwest Passage.
-Not yet, but we're almost there.

91. US will buy Canadian beef again.
-We stopped?

92. A huge economic growth in transportation, mainly trucks and barges.
-Kind of odd, but I have to say yes considering the stock prices of trucking companies over the past year.

93. A big scandal in government when cover ups are revealed.
-Nail on the head.

94. A huge computer virus will disable America.
-Nope.

95. The automobile industry will hit a depression.
-Close enough.

96. An earthquake of 7.1 magnitude to hit on January 9th in Panama and Columbia.
-Finally, someplace other than LA.

97. Coalmines to be attacked and many people hurt.
-Why and where?

98. A way to send information using time travel will be discovered.
-What would be the point of this?

99. There will be an allergic reaction to the new nano technology clothes.
-I think we have to nanotechnology clothes first.

100. This year will see racial wars in the US and Canada.
-Nope.

101. Russia and China invade the US.
-Already covered, nope.

102. Part of California breaks off and floats off into the sea.
-This caller learned about plate tectonics from Dr. Doolittle.

103. Our planet is doomed. There will be a huge explosion and aliens will come to help us. An natural disaster in the Las Vegas area. This message was given to the caller by a grey alien.
-Those stupid aliens never did show up.

104. There will be no accidents or hijackings of any commercial airlines this year.
-Half right, there were no hijackings. Surprisingly charmful prediction now that I think of it.

105. The US will cease to exist as we know it in 2005.
-Same country as I left it.

106. Tornadoes will occur in unusual places.
-Hello 911? There's a tornado in my toilet. Everytime I flush it comes back.

107. A terrorist attack in the Middle East. Within 30 days of this attack we will find Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan.
-There's a terrorist almost everyday, so I say we still have 30 days to get Bin Laden for this prediction to get a full point.

108. The Ukraine will join NATO. This will cause a rift between Russia and the US.
-And the rest of the Warsaw Pact joining didn't?

109. There will be a Coast To Coast broadcast from orbit.
-Nope.

So out of 109, I give the Coast to Coast callers 13.7. Better luck next year.

Insurgents Demand that France Withdraw Troops

BBC

Insurgents in Iraq have taken a French engineer hostage, demanding that France end its illegal occupation of Iraq. Good luck with that fellas.

Huda is Free!

BBC

I think there's only two other people out there that will find any kind of humor in this. Huda was the only woman in the Iraqi card deck.

BBC

Also, a proposal to reduce the awesomeness of the Mozambique flag has been shot down.

The Mu Cow is Popular?

So that little story I just posted got me wondering, how much does Google know about me? Or rather, Mu Cow. I found that this blog is no longer the first result if you search for "Mu Cow", which makes me said, but I found something else really interesting.

BlogsNow

This site maintains a database of popular news articles, and ranks the popularity of the blogs that link to those articles. The site only provides links to the most recent articles, but another Google search revealed that I have appeared in the lists at least three times. It also showed that people actually do visit my blog.

August 6th - "Banksy paints Israeli Wall" - ranking: 49 of 91
November 23rd - " Discounted Venezuelan Oil" - ranking: 30 of 46
December 15th - "Nature article on Wikipedia" - ranking: 78 of 183

This makes me happy.

Also,

Orisinal

New games on Orisinal makes me happy too.

What's Up with Google These Days?

365 tomorrows

The following story is a work of fiction. That's what I keep telling myself.

Cloning Wikipedia

BBC

The renowned South Korean scientist, Dr. Hwang Woo-suk, is said to have falsified many of his results. He is very well respected in South Korea, with some commentators saying that it is unpatriotic to question him. I find this rather worrisome for South Korean journalistic integrity.

BBC

Nature magazine did a comparison of Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Britannica science articles and found them to be comparable in accuracy. However, they said many of the Wikipedia articles were poorly written. This result certainly surprises me. I'm hoping they fixed the mistakes they found while they were at it. It's bothersome when someone complains about the accuracy of Wikipedia, but doesn't fix the problem themself.

Update: The actual Nature article

Africa is Spliting in Two!

BBC

A massive fissure has formed in the Afar desert of Ethiopia, lending credence to the idea that Africa is slowly splitting in two, like it split with South America millions of years ago.

News From the Far Corners of the World

BBC

An unidentified mammal has bee spotted in Borneo. It is believed to be related to the civet, but only two pictures of it exist, so it's hard to say.

BBC

5,000 people are being evacuated from villages on the island of Ambae in Vanuatu near the base of Mt. Manaro as signs of a volcanic eruption appear. We applaud King Wellington on his rapid response.

How Not to Increase Votes

Freakonomics

The authors of Freakonomics have an article on why people vote. One of the more interesting points made is that the ease of voting doesn't increase participation. As was found in Switzerland, when everyone was sent a ballot in the mail, participation decreased.