Hostages to fortune - a thread of bold predictions

[lala]

Make predictions here, folks, so we can laugh at you when they are shown to be wrong.

[lala]

Me first.

Andy Murray will win the 2009 US open.

Labour will lose the 2010 election but remain in power in a Lib-Lab pact. And Gordon Brown will still be leader.

[lala]

Regarding swine flu, JA claims it will run rampant, slaying all and sundry. I reckon it will be shite and crap and not be any worse than normal flu.

Jul 4, 2009 20:06:56 GMT @jonnyalpha said:

If the projections of 65000 deaths is accurate, over a year that is the best part of 200 dead per day. Of course that is just the average, and peak flu season, it might be double or triple the average. In the UK.
That would be 4000+ dead per day in the US.

I'm sure no-one here has underlying conditions (weak heart, high blood pressure, asthma, weak lungs, or HIV) but everyone wil know someone with one of these conditions.

I'm thinking it would be best to hold this at bay until the October / November period, when they may have a vaccine on hand.

This is based on current death rates, & on the virus not getting more virulent. Which it might.

I think I see WHO's point.

and

Jul 5, 2009 6:49:10 GMT @jonnyalpha said:

lala,
I don't think there are any "If" factors.
Just look at the maths. 65 million people in the UK. A dense population (choose your preferred meaning). High rates of contagion. If 100,000 people get this per day it would take 650 days to cover the whole population.

I think it is clear the bug is likely to travel faster than that.

As to consequences: Well, I have been playing with the numbers some more. Interesting stuff. No - really!

The death rate for the bug is 1 in 1000, in the UK.
Normal death rates are 10 in 1000, over a year.

Can a case be made that you are less likely to die if you catch swine flu?

Any survivors please check at the end of August to see which one of us is an abject fool.

[justmyopinion]

England will win The Ashes

[mids]

Climate change will turn out to have been hugely exaggerated and we'll get away with a bit of tweaking and new technology. However 10s of millions of people will have died of non-AGW disease and distaster thanks to the countless billions being and energy spent on AGW. At the end of it all, the left will deny they were ever wrong in they first place. This will happen by 2018-20.

[tedward]

Global Warming will turn out to have been hugely under estimated and massive devastation will lead to humanitarian disasters on a scale never seen before leading to global economic collapse as coastal property becomes worthless.

[flatandy]

David Cameron will be an embarassingly useless primeminister, public services will be decimated, as he will dogmatically cut taxes, particularly to the rich. He will, because of his stupid tax-cutting mentality, not actually cut the government deficit at all.

[flatandy]

Michael Owen will actually turn out to be a good signing for Manchester United, because he'll play a Graeme Hick "flat track bully" role against the sh*t defences of the bottom 15 teams in the Premiership, leaving United's two good strikers quite a lot better rested for the matches against the top few clubs and in Europe.

[tedward]

David Cameron will turn out to be one of the best leaders this country has ever produced. Democracy world wide will be remodelled based on his example.

[kubik8]

Britain will be under Sharia Law within the decade and anti-Muzzies will be publicly beheaded in Wembley stadium.

[reverend]

Opinions posted on this board are very important to international harmony and are used as reference by governments worldwide!

[lala]

Congratulations to JMO, whose hostage is the first one to be freed, as England triumphantly snatch victory from the jaws of history, and somehow manage to win the Ashes.

Tough I'm looking pretty good on the Swine Flu front - or are those secret facilities mentioend elsewhere being used to dispose of the huge number of corpses?

[mids]

Obama will turn out to be totally lacklustre and a huge disappointment. I'm not sure that's so much of a prediction as a summary of current events, mind...

[VikingHumpingWitch]

Is this the appropriate place to mention that I saw a report on Swedish news t'other day about how English pubs are vanishing cos of taxes and the smoking ban? Only I did predict the death of English pubs previously. Made me want to weep, that.

[mids]

Taxes? What taxes are closing pubs?

[Minge är en jävla besserwisser]

Here's one i did earlier.

But I'd worry about the bowling first. We have to bowl them out twice and I'm not sure we can do that.
If the oval wicket has any pace in it keep harmi but I fancy its a feather bed these days.. Andersons good if there is swing, but there won't be. Onions won't take many, Swanns not going to run through them. Broad neither.
twenty run outs is are only chance frankly.

Just call me mystic ming.

[VikingHumpingWitch]

The ones on alcohol, apparently. People can't afford to drink in pubs as much and then the smoking ban killed it, or so some now-selling-up landlord from (seriously) Weston-super-Mare was saying.

[Minge är en jävla besserwisser]

www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/markeaston/2009/07/pubs_arent_dying_they_are_evol.html

[lala]

Obama will turn out to be totally lacklustre and a huge disappointment. I'm not sure that's so much of a prediction as a summary of current events, mind... [/i]

It's an indictment of the last one that this is still a marked improvement.

I had adream about Barak Obama last night. I was teaching at a school where he was principal. While still being president of the USA. I can't remember any more of it than that, but I predict Obama will never be principal of any school I teach at.

[VikingHumpingWitch]

Aug 24, 2009 10:03:10 GMT Minge är en jävla besserwisser said:

www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/markeaston/2009/07/pubs_arent_dying_they_are_evol.html

Yes yes. They're evolving into things called "restaurants" and "coffee shops" which are all well and good and indeed have their own long, if not so long, tradition in England. They're not pubs though, and it's a real shame to lose the English pub.