2007 Predictions

I was looking over Mondo Skepto’s list of Sylvia Browne’s predictions for 2007 and considering how so called “psychics” play these guessing games for the credulous. They sometimes play the odds and sometimes just make vague predictions that they will probably be able to claim as a hit no matter what. They also make a few outlandish claims that, if correct, will make them look really good. Then at the end of the year they make a big fuss of the few things they get right, knowing that confirmation bias means their fans will forget the greater number of wrong predictions. Anyway, I thought I should have a go, if only to see if I can do better than Sylvia.  So, for your New Year’s Day amusement I present Skeptico’s psychic predictions for 2007. As with the professional “psychics”, I have included some obvious predictions, some vague, and a few off the wall ones (if one comes true I can claim a big hit). At the end of the year we will be able to see how many accurate predictions I can claim while ignoring the ones I got wrong. Bet you can’t wait. Here goes.

Politics

President Bush will announce more troops to be sent to Iraq to control the insurgency, but it will not work. There will continue to be calls to bring the troops home but Bush will not heed them.

President Bush will not be impeached.

John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama will announce their candidacies for President. Rudy Giuliani will announce he is not running.

Donald Rumsfeld will publish his memoirs.

Condoleezza Rice will be hospitalized for a serious illness, but will make a full recovery.

Dick Cheney will be hospitalized with heart problems.

Pakistan – there will be an assassination attempt on President Perez Musharraf that will leave him injured.

Cuba – Castro will remain alive and in power but his public appearances will be rare.

England – Tony Blair will step down as Prime Minister. There will be a contest for the leadership that will eventually be won by Gordon Brown, who will be the new Prime Minister. Browne will lead his Labour party in the general election in 2008 but will lose.

Palestine – President Mahmoud Abbas will step down due to ill health.

Disasters

There will be a major typhoon causing much damage and loss of life in SE Asia.

There will be a higher than normal number of strong hurricanes in the Atlantic. The mainland of the US will escape the worst of these storms but there will be serious damage and loss of life elsewhere.

There will be a significant earthquake Northern California, but no lives will be lost. There will be a major earthquake in China that will result in loss of lives.

There will be no Bird Flu pandemic in 2007, although some limited human cases will be reported.

There will be terrorist attacks against US interests in Africa and Asia. Australia should expect a terrorist attack from Islamic extremists.

US residents should avoid terrorist acts during the month of May.

Celebrities etc

Snoop Dogg will be acquitted of charges for drug and gun possession on a technicality, but he will be found guilty and will get probation for possession of a night stick.

Paris Hilton will get engaged again but will not go through with the marriage.

Britney Spears’ new album will have disappointing sales.

“Bobby” will win the Oscar for Best Picture.

Tiger Woods and his wife will announce they are expecting a baby (note – I wrote this several days ago – it was announced as true 12/30/06), and it will be a girl. Christina Aguilera will also announce she is expecting a child.

Justin Timberlake and Cameron Diaz will announce their engagement, although it won’t last.

“Brangelina” will stay together and will adopt another child, but they will not get married.

Kirk Douglas, Lady Bird Johnson and Zsa Zsa Gabor will die of natural causes.

Miscellaneous

Sylvia Browne, John Edward and others will continue to appear on shows such as Montel and Larry King Live, pretending to talk to dead people. Sylvia will still not make good on her promise to try for Randi’s million.

Allison Dubois will still not solve any of her backlog of 200 murder cases she claims to be helping the police with.

Autism rates will not fall in 2007, despite the lack of thimerosal in childhood vaccines. However, this will not prevent the anti-vaccination groups from continuing to claim that vaccines are a cause of autism.

Randi’s million will remain safe.

Comments

[Dominic]

Australia should expect a terrorist attack from Islamic extremists.

Well, from this skeptical Aussie, I bloody well hope you're wrong!

[Infophile]

Hmm, let me give this a shot. In fact, I'm going to go for broke here and make a prediction that will be accurate for everyone reading this:

You are currently either at a computer, or are holding a cell phone. And for those of you where it's the latter, get a life, seriously.

[Big Al]

Paris Hilton will be in the papers for being drunk in public.

Randi will hang on to his million, but he will be accused of changing conditions at the last minute to prevent having to pay it.

Various miracle cures will be released. They will be successful despite the lack of any evidence that they do better than placebo.

Tony Blair will not say to UK soldiers, "Hey, chaps, I'm really sorry about dragging you into this complete balls-up in Iraq."

[Nes]

US residents should avoid terrorist acts during the month of May.

Hehe, I remember that one. Nice.

There will be a significant earthquake Northern California, but no lives will be lost.

Sylvia Browne, John Edward and others will continue to appear on shows such as Montel and Larry King Live, pretending to talk to dead people. Sylvia will still not make good on her promise to try for Randi’s million.

Wow, Skeptico, we must be on the same wavelength of, uh, quantum energy vibrations or something, I had these guesses premonitions as well!

You forgot Deepak Chopra though. This year he will review and criticize a book he's obviously never read. He will turn it into a seven or eight part feature that ignores criticism of his earlier parts. Then he will address the weakest of those criticisms, respond very poorly to them, and claim victory. Finally, he will appear on a show and tell the host that he doesn't really exist, everything is in his head.

Yes, I know he did all that in 2006, but he'll do it again.

[Gryfforzar]

Here's a prediction.

More mindless skeptics will annoy paranormal investigators and psychics,criticizing things they know nothing about.

Skeptics,get a life and get over it.
You all know nothing,at all,about the paranormal and it's annoying when your kind actually try your best to rationalize
everything.

[Big Al]

OK, then, Gryfforzar, why don't you tell us poor benighted fools what you KNOW about paranormal activity (not what you just believe), and how you know it.

What on earth is wrong with trying to rationalise, anyway? Are you saying that being IRrational is a good thing?

[Bronze Dog]

Why bother paying attention to paranormal investigators, psychics and so forth? They've never gotten results before (except through well-known means of cheating they're never interested in preventing), and I don't expect that to change at all.

Get one to beat the Randi Challenge, which, like any good science experiment, is designed to eliminate bias, and then we'll have something to talk about.

[RockstarRyan]

Here's a prediction.

More mindless paranormal investigators and psychics will annoy skeptics,criticizing things they know nothing about.

Paranormal investigators and psychics,get a life and get over it.
You all know nothing,at all,about being rational and it's annoying when your kind actually try your best to the paranormalize
everything.

[jeff]

“Clairvoyant, n.: A person, commonly a woman, who has the power of seeing that which is invisible to her patron - namely, that he is a blockhead.”- Ambrose Bierce

[Skeptico]

Ryan – nice one.

Btw, I just noticed that if you google sylvia browne predictions 2007 this post is on page 1 – so I predict we’re going to get a few more woos reading this post and commenting with similar mindless drivel.

[Bronze Dog]

I remember a while back searching for Sylvia's predictions for 2005 in January of that year (I think), and being unable to find them: It seemed to me that Sylvia figured out that people archive her webpage, and thus only released her predictions in a newsletter. I didn't feel like subscribing to a lot of spam that would inevitably follow.

[Jimmy_Blue]

Ooh oh can I play?

Here's a prediction:

2007 will see more of the same from the woosters.

They'll post that we don't know what we are talking about. That we need to get a life. That being rational about things isn't the best way to look at them. They'll call us some oh so hurtful names and they'll be angry that we dare challenge their mindless worldview.

Oh look, one already did. A prediction after the fact, maybe I'm psychic after all.

Did I mention that I predicted the Hundred Years War as well? No? well I did, and Randi just keeps changing the challenge so I can't prove it. And I don't need his money anyway. It has bad karma. And I am not in it for the money. And why would I want someone who calls himself amazing to test me? And there's no proof he has he money. Etc etc etc

Oh, I also predicted the Chartist movement too. Proof positive of life after death and my awesome powers. Kneel before me pathetic skeptics for only the power of inane drivel spouted by your dead uncle can save you now.

Incidentally Gryfforzar, allow me to suggest that a person who takes the time to find a site that criticises his worldview and then waste the time to post a pointless comment on it might not be the best qualified to direct others to 'get a life'.

Allow me one further prediction of Sylvia like clarity and astonishing accuracy. Gryfforzar may, or may not, reply to posts on this thread.

Damn I'm good at this....

oh yea like half the stuff she says is real?

[Åsmund]

US residents should avoid terrorist acts during the month of May.

So, when would be a good time to seek out terrorist attacks?

[Big Al]

"Hey, any day is a good day to take part in international terrorist atrocities!"

This message was brought to you by the Conglomerated Anti-Western Democracy-Hating Death Committee.

Have a nice day!

[NobodysDoormat]

Some of you people are so funny! If you don't believe in anything Sylvia has to say, then why waste your time worrying about it and trying to prove she's wrong.

[Bronze Dog]

What he said:

Some of you people are so funny! If you don't believe in anything Sylvia has to say, then why waste your time worrying about it and trying to prove she's wrong.

What people like me hear:

Why waste time trying to help people by exposing a charlatan? Pah, truth is meaningless and we should all just be happy living in delusions. Fostering an environment of questioning and critical thinking is for suckers!

[Rockstar Ryan]

Personally I hope that person spends their life savings on "readings".

They deserve it. And they deserve to feel stupid afterward.

[Bronze Dog]

I know someone who ended up feeling stupid about it, except this person did something productive afterwards.

[Jimmy_Blue]

Doormat:

Some of you people are so funny! If you believe anything Sylvia has to say, then why waste your time worrying about it and writing on a website that is skeptical of her simply to criticise people who are not gullible enough to fall for her obvious bullshit.