Ellen's Predicitons

1. The hot new electronic item of 2009 will be subscription radio for cell phones.
2. Obama's economic package will pass with difficulty in congress but will start to recharge the economy.
3. Hospital's nation wide will reach crisis financially and in capacity.
4. Hillary Clinton will be indited for breaking campaign finance laws.
5. Another major hurricane will strike the southern United States.6.
There will be a new Shite vs.Suni conflict somewhere in the Middle East.
7. See # 2

2008 in Review

Prior to starting this contest, I thought it might encourage me to better follow current events. To acheive this same goal I took the time to look back at some of the top news in 2008 and came up with the following list. It may be debatable if they were the absolute top stories or not.

How many of these could you have predicted?

1. The top selling electronic device of 2008 was the Kindle Reader but the most “cutting edge” device was something called an Optoma Pico PK-101. This little contraption is basically a pocket projector. You hook it up to your Ipod and it will project your movies or photos on the wall.
I read about it in a Time magazine article found at http://www.time.com/time/specials/2008/top10/article/0,30583,1855948_1863825,00.html
2. The top national news story was Obama’s election.
3. Cellular reprogramming was the top medical breakthrough of 2008. From the article that I read at http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/dec/18/top-10-scientific-breakthroughs-2008 this seems to say that we won’t need stem cells because scientists have figured out how to make skin cells act like stem cells.
4. Worst political scandal: Possible tie between Gov Rod Blagojevich’s arrest for trying to sell Obama’s Senate seat or the Gov. Ted Stevens arrest for prostitution ring. I think Blagojevich’s crime is a little worse, plus at least Stevens had the good sense to resign.
5. Despite serious flooding in the Midwest and an extended power outage in the East,the most serious natural disasters were the Burmese cyclone which claimed 22,000 lives and the Chinese earthquake which killed 15,000. Both occurred in May of 2008 and were striking contrasts of how their respective governments dealt with offers of assistance.
6. Two of the top international stories were the terrorist attacks at Mumbai or the piracy off Somalia.
7. Most obvious contender for the top economic news is the stock market collapse October.

Please chime in with your opinions

Jerry's predictions

1. The hot new electronic item will involve GPS.
2. Top story involving Obama presidency- no comment.
3. No medical predictions as yet.
4. Top political scandal will be that Gov. Schwarzenegger has affair.
5. Big natural disaster story will be even worse flooding than 2008.
6. Big international political story - no comment.
7. Big Economic news will be the economy hits bottom and then rebounds by September.
8. Manned Martian expedition launched, Schwarzenegger develops pump it up Wii game

Ben's predictions

1. The creation of very large wireless umbrellas will be the top tech news of 2009.
2. Top story involving Obama presidency will be Joe Biden swearing on National TV.
3. Top medical story wil be the commercial cloning of livestock.
4. Top political scandal see #2.
5. Big natural disaster story will be a volcano.
6. Big international political story will a revolution in Russia.
7. Big Economic news will be the economy continuing to decline through March 2009, then exploding.

Wendy's predictions

1. 2009 will bring laptops for every school child.
2. Top story involving Obama presidency, see #7.
3. Top medical story will be about Autism.
4. Top political scandal will be a Supreme Court justice found to be a sexual deviant.
5. Big natural disaster story will be a meteor hits the Atlantic ocean
6. Big international political story will be a revolution in China.
7. Big Economic news will be that corporations are eliminated.
8. Biological roots of homosexuality will be discovered.

Jaimie's predictions

1. The hot new tech item for 2009 will be a new kind of car with alternative fuel source.
2. Top story involving Obama presidency will be a close aid will betray Obama.
3. Top medical story will be a cancer screen for pancreatic cancer.
4. Top political scandal see #2.
5. Big natural disaster story will be a huge power outage in US.
6. Big international political story will be the British PM has an assassination attempt.
7. Big Economic news will be the economy up with inauguration, then declines.
8. There will be a move towards minimalist fashion.

Bret's predictions

1. Roll up or collapsible computers will be the hot new electronic item of 2009.
2. Top story involving Obama presidency - no comment.
3. Top medical story will be an extinct species is cloned.
4. Top political scandal - no comment.
5. Big natural disaster story will be a volcano.
6. Big international political story will be a UN representative implicated in Somalian piracy.
7. Big Economic news will be the economy continues to gets worse.
8. There will be supply shortages in the US.

Jill's predictions

1. The hot new electronic item for 2009 will be a Bluetooth-like device that is implanted inside your head, also new applications with electronic paper.
2. The top story involving Obama presidency will be former Bush cabinet members tried for war crimes.
3. Top medical story will be a new diabetes treatment.
4. Top political scandal see #2.
5. Big natural disaster story will be a tidal wave hitting the East coast. (Sorry New York)
6. Big international political story will concern the role of UN peacekeeping.
7. Big Economic news will be the economy stabilizing after many infra-structure building programs.
8. Old-timey activities (reading, playing cards, etc) will come into vogue and there will be a rash of assinations on CEOs.

Amanda's predictions

1. The hot new electronic item will be the Blackberry storm
2. The top story involving Obama presidency will be racially motivated hate crimes against blacks
3. Top medical story will be new therapies out of stem cell research
4. She has no idea what the top political scandal will be
5. Big natural disaster story will be a drought
6. Big international political story will involve Hugo Chavez
7. Big Economic news will be the recovery in 2009
8. No additional predictions.

Want to join in the fun?

If you would like to make a prediction in any or all of the eight categories, just post a comment below.
We will do our best to quickly add them to the official list for review throughout the year. Remember, this is a fun exercise in following current events and my children (or yours) may end up reading this for a social studies class, so keep it clean.

The Eight Categories

These are the areas where we will attempt to make predicitons. Remember, this contest is just for fun. We do not really want to see any more scandal nor a natural disaster, but are pretty sure that something bad will happen.


1. What is the hot new electronic item of 2009?
2. Top story involving Obama presidency
3. Top medical story- either a breakthrough or medical scare.
4. Top political scandal
5. Big natural disaster story
6. Big international political story
7. Big Economic news
8. You name it – freestyle

How the contest got started

Last year we had fun making predicitons about the '08 presidential election.
The clear winner was Ellen who predicted that "Obama will win after defeating Clinton in the primary."

This got us interested in making predicitons in general. It seems that many pundits commonly state what they think is going to happen and they mostly aren't anywhere close. Check out this summary of wrong headed predicitons in business week.

Since we are just everyday folks, we are going to take a turn. You are welcome to join us.
Who knows, the next Nostradamus may be a blogger.