Predictions for 2005 (share yours, and we'll call it a contest.)

1. Tiger Woods will be back. "Back" meaning kicking ass.
2. The Dow, S&P, and Nasdaq of 2005 will outperform 2004.
3. Contrary to every other prediction list, there will not be a major earthquake in the United States.
4. The biggest discovery/breakthrough in biomedical science since antibiotics will be made.
5. In belated fashion, the segway will find its niche market and start to take root. Reason #1: A serious price reduction.
6. I will not finish that thing I once reluctantly called a "novel" and now call a pain in my ass.
7. The Colts will win the 2004-2005 superbowl. (this season's bowl)
8. Bin Laden will be caught and extradited or killed.
9. Microbial life on Mars will be proven. Religions will adapt, which will raise even more questions.
10. Pope JP will not die...somehow.
11. Google will continue its unfathomable ascent.
12. "Liberal" and "conservative" will mean even less a year from now.
13. A definitive link will be found between diabetes and high fructose corn syrup. A zillion food companies will scramble to "update" the juices, candy bars, and 8,473,215,756,887,128 other products that use it instead of sugar.
14. Calvin & Hobbes will return. Please?
15. Reality TV programming will find a way to get even worse.
16. The ESPN show "TILT" will be an even bigger flop than "Playmakers", which is saying something.
17. Some brilliant channel will decide to run Northern Exposure re-runs at a reasonable hour.
18. The mystery of my missing and widowed socks will be revealed.
19. Mobile phones will begin to emerge as the next major computing platform. The race will be on for THE killer app for it. Google vs. Microsoft vs. Yahoo.
20. At least 8 of these 20 predictions will be correct by this day in 2005.

Hope you had a happy holiday. May we all have a happy 2005.

I just had to take this screenshot from Netscape News today:

Cheers for picking up this interesting story about the Pioneer anomaly and filing it under "Need to Know", but "Supermodel injured in tsunami" has no business there, especially under the broader heading of 44,000 + 56,000+ 80,000+ 116,000+ people dead on account of that same tsunami. Thousands of dead kids littering the streets of Sri Lanka, a quake so large that it was tantamount to a million Hiroshima bombs, a quake so immense it changed the map of Asia, but we "need to know" that a supermodel was injured. This is the type of BS that is killing has killed journalism.

It was really interesting to read that famous atheist Anthony Flew now believes in God, and the reasons for his change of heart and mind.

Astronomers estimate a 1-300 shot that a recently discovered giant asteroid will...change things here on Earth come 2029. By that time, shouldn't we have some awesome peashooter in the sky to blow it to smithereens? I'm guessing we'll be okay.

Oh, look...more ludicrous PC-ifying of American culture. Can you believe how bad it's getting? It'll get worse, and then there'll be a revolution against the likes of the ACLU. Dosvedanya, assholes.

Now this is an interesting story to follow. This, dear Netscape, is "Need to Know" worthy.

File under WTFIWWP : Nothing more needs to be said of this wretched story...but I was struck by the Missouri Sheriff's comment to the media: "Someone was wanting a baby awful bad." Raising Arizona meets Psycho. Only to be outdone by...

The gay cannibal of Mexico. Mental illness sure is a varied scourge. Whatever happened to the good ol' days of simple disheveled street urchins pacing around bus stops, wearing a doctors mask and muttering to themselves? Sheesh...The Crying Game meets Silence of the Lambs.

I would definitely drop some change into this guy's cup.

I wonder how long this commercial would last in the U.S. Probably one airing. And you know...that's probably a good thing.

I've seen my share of strange piercings. But this bicycle mouth ring wins. This photo was taken during a vegetarian festival in Phuket, Thailand. Somehow, a bike through the mouth is supposed to ward off evil spirits. Only in Phuket, I guess.

Color blind? You sure? Can you read a number in all of these six circles?

The NFL playoff system is supposed to be a shit filter, separating the wheat from the chaff. Yet a 10-6 AFC team can miss this year's playoffs while an 8-8 or even 7-9 NFC team can get in. It better not turn out this way...especially if the Bills are one of those 10-6 teams left watching in January. The best 12 teams should be in the playoffs, not the best 6 per conference.

The creeps give me the heebie-jeebies, and the heebie-jeebies give me the willies, which, in turn, give me the creeps.

When I read things like this, I'm reminded that we—meaning you and I—really have no clue about what really goes on out there. Since the 50s, uncountable billions of dollars have gone to black budget projects (unaccountable to anyone, including the House and Senate). What the hell have they been doing over there in the dark? Wait, don't answer that.

You've probably heard about how Viktor Yushchenko, the pro-Western presidential candidate in Ukraine, was poisoned by "interests of the incumbent". This is what dioxin in one's soup does for one's complexion:

Can you imagine this level of blatant corruption in the U.S.? It reveals a lot about those Russian countries, and how they're still stuck in the shadows of the culture of communism. We can only hope that more people like Yushchenko can hold sway over there. What a potential nightmare otherwise.

The History Channel, the greatest channel on TeeVee (this is not opinion, this is fact. It can be proven under controlled clinical conditions.) is airing an interesting program on the Dropa stones tonight at 8 p.m. EST. Just watch, will ya?

This is old news, but I forgot to share it back in October. With the recent major advancements in cell and tissue engineering, there are a few people out there who are curiously interested in turning live tissue into clothing and other oddities. "Victimless leather"? Eh...something tells me this won't take off any time soon. But hey. It's art, I guess.

You are not you. I am not me. Well, we're not all us. We're more them than us. Who are they? Check it out.