2006 is gone, and 2007 is here. Yipee! Actually, I don't think it really matters much. Years just sort of go by now. 2006 was a year of home building, selling, moving and working way too much.
Anyways, something I like to do at the start of a year, which amuses me, is to look at what prediction renowned fraud psychic Sylvia Browne said for the past year. This is the list I have, let's see how well she did.
1. The natural disasters we have been seeing in the past year will be just as bad or even worse in the coming year
Nope. No tsunamis, Katrinas or bad disasters, let alone worse. I also recall her saying the Northeast will be hit by hurricanes. Um, no. In fact, we had a pretty quiet weather year.
2. New York and Los Angeles will experience an earthquake
Well, LA experiencing an earthquake isn't exactly someting you need to be psychic to know about. I am unaware of any earthquake in NYC, which is what I assume she meant by "New York". There may have been a minor earthquake in New York (state) since there is sometime minor quakes. I'll say she got this wrong, since there was no noticable quake in New York (state), and saying LA will have one is almost a gimme.
3. The hurricane season will be just as bad -- we will have upwards of 30
Nope. Very quiet hurricane season.
4. There will be major earthquakes in Mexico, India and "volancoes going off everywhere."
I think the Philippines had a notable eruption, but the Philippines is neither Mexico or India. I think this one is safely a no.
5. Arnold Schwarzenegger is going to lose
He won
6. McCain and Kerry will announce their intention to run for the presidency.
Well, this is true. But, I can also say there would be a tornado in Kansas, and that wouldn't make me psychic. If she said Obama, or that governer from Ohio or wherever it is, I'd give it to her. But, not with McCain and Kerry.
7. Bush's popularity will continue to decrease until he starts bringing the troops home
Again, do you need to be psychic to make this prediction? But, we don't even know if his popularity would stop going down if he started bringing troops home. He finally gave up the "stay the course" thing, and that didn't help. So, for this one, no.
8. Bush will not be impeached
Since she is so far 0 for 7, I'll give her .5 on this one. He wasn't impeached. Then again, I don't know that anyone thought he would be or that this was an "out on a limb" prediction.
9. there will be no more train terrorism but truck terrorism is a concern
I'm not sure that it being a concern was a prediction, but that there would be a "truck terrorism" attack. There wasn't.
10. Britney Spears will divorce and then remarry
Divorced, yes, remarried, no. Although anyone probably could have guessed it, I'll give her .5 for the divorce.
So far, she's shooting 10%.
11. Bruce Willis will marry a 19-20 year old model
Nope
12. Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas are on the outs
She also said this in 2005, and she again got it wrong. Well, maybe they are "on the outs", but us common folk don't know about it.
13. Jennifer Aniston will remarry, but the hubby will not be Vince Vaughn
Nope, she's still available
14. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt will get married
Nope, they have been too busy adopting every 3rd world kid.
Here are a few medical related ones. I'm not sure about these...
15. MS and ALS patients will be pleased to hear about new discoveries with the hypothalamus gland.
Don't know
16. there will be a non-invasive manner of removing plaque from the heart and arteries that will eliminate the need for bypass surgeries
Don't know
17. SIDS will be discovered to be an allergic reaction to dairy products in infants
I think I may have heard something about SIDS in the news this year, but don't recall if it were dairy related.
18. there will be a vaccine created for lung, colon and stomach cancer
No cancer vaccine's that I know of.
19. the worries about the pandemic are completely unfounded
I think she referred to the Bird Flu. This is a hard one, since only time will tell if they are unfounded. I don't think they are unfounded now, since Bird Flu has been found(ed) to, you know, kill people. Maybe a .5 on this, but I don't think so.
20. a hormone will be found that will keep people's weight off, making them feel full
Don't think so. She should have mentioned the pill to give you 500% MORE EJACULATION!!!! since SPAM says that one exists.
21. Bush will start bringing the troops home
Nope. If she added ".. in body bags", then she would have gotten it.
22. Aliens will reveal themselves in 2010
Uh... she should get a -2 for this one. I won't count it though.
So, let's see. Not counting 22, that 1 out of 21. That's a 4.76% success rate. Even being nice and not counting the medical ones I don't know about, she has a 5.55% success rate. Not very good for a psychic. Actually, not very good for someone making random guesses. And, but "someone" I mean a monkey, and by "guesses" I mean flinging poo at random words.
But, this woman will defraud hopeless people out of their money for another year, and again amuse me in Jan. '08 when I again look back at her predictions.
Posted by Kevin at January 02, 2007 12:36 PM