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Current mood:  accomplished
PLEASE NOTE: These are not my "Matthew Hopes THIS WILL BE THE CASE" predictions... but my gut instinct. Don't kill the messenger...
Canadian Politics
Expect an election... and another Conservative minority.
Stephan Dion will be rousted from the liberal leadership and Michael Ignatieff will become the leader of the Liberals. This will NOT go over well and he'll be seen as taking the "long knife" to the party... after he wreaks havoc on the Grits and coming off more "scary conservative" than the Tory's, the Libs will lose in spectacular fashion and give the Tory's an eventual majority... it's after this (which will be the TRUE clearing-out of the Liberal "dead wood", and most likely between 2009 and 2010,) Justin Trudeau will finally step up to the leadership and after that, it will seem like the second coming of "King Pierre".
Economy - Downturn... not a complete recession or depression... and not for too long (perhaps a year, year and a half before serious improvements happen.)
US Politics
Hilary Clinton with side-runner veep candidate, Obama Barack will lose in a fairly spectacular style to Rudolph Giuliani with either Duncan Hunter or John McCain as veep. This will be seen as a slight (HAHAHAHAHA!) shift to the left for the Republicans and will overall be seen as a far better administration than the Bush presidency.
Universal health care and the environment will be top concerns after trying to rescue the economy and there WILL be some forward momentum in those areas. I expect Obama to be given a "post" to help get the health care things underway as Giuliani will wish to be portrayed as "socially conscious" in his term. Of course, there will be NO universal health care in America under the Republicans and they will simply extend "Medicare" and pat themselves on the back like they had just cured cancer.
With now only devout old-school right-wingers still denying, the US will start working on environmental issues making Canada and Mexico look environmentally weak for a time.
The US dollar continues to falter due to the real-estate bubble deflating (not bursting) but things will even-out shortly... Within two or three years, a senate committee will absolutely and indefatigably condemn Haliburton and former veep Dick Cheney who will be made a scape-goat for pretty much every debacle... deserved or not. (Oh, who am I kidding! Most Republicans I know realise that this guy is scary and deserves much blasting!)
Economy - Recession, bordering hard on depression... but only for a short time. (Two to three years of bad economy.)
World Events
Pakistan and India kinda heat-up over border issues... probably because India will NOT want the issues happening in Pakistan to come with any border-crossers...
Pakistan's elections will go off somewhat okay, but the general populace will be sick of terrorism and violence leading to a decay in support for any sort of extremist group.
Al Qaeda will regroup not in the Middle-East, but in the hot-beds of Africa.
Terrorism will still be a factor and concern, but after debacles in North America, Europe, and especially some brilliantly dumb attempts in Britain, it will start focusing on foreign holdings and nationals in those African countries that Al Qaeda gets a foot in the door with.
South America begins to be a little less "issue-y" with the United States.
Like how things have worked with Iran in 2007? Don't expect ANY changes in 2008.
Iraq will continue to calm down a LITTLE... but it's a long way from being "fixed".
Afghanistan will start rebuilding properly and insurgency will calm.
I hate to say this, but I also think that this will be a bad year for the British monarchy...
Entertainment
Expect a TV movie about the Spears kids... it will ATTEMPT to paint them sympathetically... and be, as they say online, an "Epic Fail".
Kevin Federline buries Brittney... but comes out fiscally poorer as that well will run dry.
Paris Hilton stretches her acting chops... and we'll wish she hadn't.
WALL-E and Indiana Jones DOMINATE the box office.
The writers' strike will end the conventional idea of the "TV Season" as network realise that the whole concept is outdated. The "Fall" season will become "Any Damn Time We Want To Release a New Show".
Dexter moves to the main CBS network and the show is killed when the network "tweaks" it to be more "popular". (EPIC FAIL!)
Corner Gas picked up by big US Network for regular slot. CBC freaks that "Little Mosque on the Prairie" is not.
Tom Cruise does well this year... and people will begrudgingly admire his work.
Health and Science
More distinct data about the possibility of life on other worlds... possibly one's nearby.
Nano-technology takes hold, but NOT in the Health Care industry... in home computers and electronics first.
"Cures" (long term advances) are seen in certain types of blindness, diabetes, Alzheimer's, and some forms of cancer become things of the past.
Spinal cord research starts seeing genuine help to those who are paralysed.
The non-scientists will FINALLY be silenced about ongoing stem-cell research AND climate change... but they'll still be smug despite being wrong... much to the irritation of all the rest of us.
Sports
Stanley Cup: Penguins
World Series: Red Sox
Super Bowl: Lions
NBA Champs: Celtics
Premiership: Chelsea
Major League Soccer: San Jose
Greatest Wrestlers of 2008: Ultramantis Black and Hydra~!
Computers and Electronics
Vista fades almost completely out... Microsoft goes into "ME" mode with it.
"Leopard" ends up being revised several times... with one being a decided "downgrade" that causes more issues than it fixes.
iPhones still suck. Blackberry units still dominate.
More shift towards the marriage of the computer, the game console, and the family television.
More dumb swipes by the RIAA to stop MP3s (genies' LONG out of the bottle, guys!)
Asus Eee machines become this generations iBook "must have" unit for teenagers thanks to some slick product-placement and advertising.
Robotics makes STARTLING advances that see commercial/household use climb dramatically.
Blu-Ray wins.
Google starts being more and more evil... starting a massive backlash from the "techno" masses. Yahoo will not capitalize on this fall from consumer grace... nor will Microsoft.
The $100 Laptop will be delayed... again.
Facebook and MySpace both kinda turn into running gags and wane in popularity... especially Facebook when Microsoft really starts digging into it.
Events
One DEVASTATING air crash... it will be VERY bad... pilot error.
Earthquake felt HARD in Southern Ontario... no deaths or major injuries, but a big scare.
Despite giggles right now from the ill-educated that the winters in North America are cold and snowy, they will be in for several rude awakenings when there are two "big thaws" between January and March... but they'll giggle again when the cold returns. It will be a VERY hot Summer... but dryer than normal for a lot of the world. Fall and Winter 2008 will mirror 2007.
Not too bad for earthquakes this year... not too good, but not as bad as in the past... but hurricanes will be fierce... especially along the Atlantic coast in the U.S.
Something REALLY nasty will happen in San Francisco or thereabouts.
Paris (France, not Hilton...) will also suffer something REALLY nasty.
Certain scientists of the "doom-saying" lot will announce that the initiatives to stem climate change will be "not enough" leading to fresh water reserves being highly sought-after resource in the world market. Canada starts looking "tempting" which raises our value in the world...
Oil found in South America drops the price of crude rather steeply.
Another "terror attack" on a school will happen sending a huge shiver down the world's collective spine... but also prompting renewed public pressure against ALL forms of terrorism and aggression... groups like Hamas and even eventually Al Qaeda, try to "shed" their roots in favour of a more "political party" looking facade.
Paranormal
There will be TWO "big mainstream" ghostly news items... probably very odd sightings or seemingly good evidence.
Ufology will pretty much stay the same... other than some new attention from the masses.
Cryptozoology will brighten with the "finding" of three new large mammals.
Sylvia Browne's fall from grace becomes a plummet this year.
Crime Scene Investigators (formerly CSICOP) will continue it's steady decent into nothingness as more people bail from the non-science they spew and realise that they are nothing more than a sub-religion named Atheism of which THEY wish to attach their own dogmas.
Television will continue to portray our studies as a cartoon and I will continue to suffer hyper-tension from it.
More of our (PSICAN's) thoughts, notes, ideas, hypothesis, and all will be "appropriated" and displayed as someone else's work and efforts without any sort of credit given... in other words, no change there!
This Halloween, Ufology and conspiracy theories will dominate the "weird news" ahead of ghosts and crypto.
There will be ONE "new" psychic celebrity who will really make 75% of those of us interested go "WOW!" and 20% of the interested population scream "FAKE!" and 5% won't give a rat's butt about them.
Celebrity Hospital
Carol Burnett
Stephen King
Britney Spears - It'll be REALLY bad...
Mick Jagger
Stompin' Tom Connors
Burt Reynolds
Henry Kissinger
Farrah Fawcett
Leonard Cohen
Oprah (Exhaustion)
Louis Farrakhan
Margret "Maggy" Trudeau
Louis Jourdan
Dr. Jack Kevorkian
Fidel Castro - Not officially "dead" yet... and will remain in "hospital".
Death Pool
Les Paul
Dick Clark
Confirmation of Osama Bin Laden
Walter Cronkite
Aretha Franklin
Jimmy Carter
Kirk Douglas
Roger Ebert
Margaret Thatcher
Robert Wagner
Fifty Cent
Bobby "The Brain" Heenan
Billy Graham
Ricardo Montalban
I hate to write this... more than you know... but my gut says...
Queen Elizabeth II
Personal
More blogging...
Re-vamp of PSICAN main site...
Torontoghosts/Ontarioghosts remain the same... new material, same "classic" design...
AT LEAST 3 big Investigations... and several little ones...
More laughing at CSICOP... er, Crime Scene Investigators...
Take on Penn and Teller... 'cuz THEY'RE WRONG~!
Give up on the bus stuff to the relief of several... and sadness to me and many... Hang out more with that blond women at my home...
3:03 AM
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