November 2002 Predictions

Well-behaved women rarely make history.

[YOUR FUTURE - INVENTIONS THAT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE]
The US military is studying microwave and laser weapons as technologies to take the fight out of combatants without killing them.

High-tech breakthroughs helped power the U.S. economy throughout the 1990s. But does the technology slump mean fewer inventions will be coming our way?

California's new emissions law has the auto industry up in arms - and it could be coming to a state near you. The next car you buy could be much different. Cleaner cars could be coming soon.

A German schoolgirl has invented a "merciless bed" to ensure that sleepyheads get up in the morning. The bed gradually raises the mattress after an alarm rings. After five minutes, the sleepyhead is rolled onto the floor.

One day, tapping into electrical power for your cell phone, laptop or even microwave could be as simple as putting it down on the table. Powering up mobile devices wirelessly.

[HOT TRENDS]
U.S. state budgets are in their worst shape since World War II, with a combined budget shortfall of at least $40 billion next year.

The United Nations says 42 million people are now infected with AIDS - and for the first time, women make up half of all cases.

The Israeli Government is considering multi-billion-dollar plans to build three islands off the coast to house about 20,000 people.

The next generation of online advertising - Advertisers and savvy companies are wrapping their sales pitches in the guises of cleverly designed interactive video games.

Research finds that leafing through magazines filled with pictures of svelte models can trigger immediate depression - even in women who have healthy body images.


[ASTRONOMICAL EVENTS]
The U.S. NASA space agency is preparing a book to prove its astronauts did land on the Moon and to blow away conspiracy theories.

The European Space Agency (Esa) has given the final go-ahead for a mission to Venus. The second planet is similar in size to Earth but is permanently covered in a thick atmosphere. The temperature at the surface is hot enough to melt lead. Venus Express will be ready for launch in 2005.

Curious coincidences are cropping up between Apollo 13 and NASA's current shuttle mission, STS-113. Long time space cadets are beginning to point out the growing number of similarities between events associated with the ill-fated Apollo 13 lunar landing mission and NASA's current shuttle Endeavour mission, which carries the designation STS-113. "Both have required replacement of prime crewmebers with their backups. On Apollo 13, Tom Mattingly was swapped out with Jack Swigert after Mattingly was exposed to German Measles. On STS-113, pilot Paul Lockhart and Expedition Six science officer Don Pettit are to fly because their counterparts were removed from flight status for medical reasons. Both experienced mission-impacting problems with systems related to oxygen. It was an oxygen tank that ruptured inside the Apollo 13 service module that triggered the dramatic effort to return the crew to Earth. On STS-113, a leak in the gaseous oxygen system inside Endeavour forced a minimum one-week launch delay. Also of note, both the Apollo 13 and STS-13 crews decided to use Roman numerals on their crew patch. While not necessarily superstitious, the STS-113 crew say they have been aware of their mission designation. "We were joking a lot about being number 13," Expedition Six commander Ken Bowersox told SPACE.com during a preflight interview. "I kept telling (STS-113 commander Jim Wetherbee) we needed to change the mission number. I pointed out Apollo 13, STS-113 -- maybe we should become STS-112.1 or something like that." Apollo was the first manned program to reach 13 flights. It has been suggested by many -- including current U.S. Senator Bill Nelson, who flew aboard Columbia in 1986 -- that NASA managers changed the shuttle numbering system after STS-9 so there wouldn't be an STS-13. The 13th shuttle mission to fly was known as STS-41G."



The most dramatic and spectacular Mars apparition you or any of your ancestors has ever had a chance to see - In 2003, Mars will be closer to Earth than it has ever been in recorded history. Mars, the Red Planet, is getting progressively closer to Earth with each passing night, and consequently it will slowly appear to grow larger and brighter. By late August 2003, when it will be about 191 million miles closer, the reddish point of light in our night sky will appear more than six times larger and shine some 85 times brighter than it appears now. This will be the closest that Mars has come to our planet in about 73,000 years.

Call it a conspiracy (or savvy marketing), but a new poll released this week says a majority of Americans think the truth about unidentified flying objects is out there, yet the government is concealing it from them.

[BIOLOGY PREDICTIONS]
Having children makes women more clever and protects against dementia later in life, a study suggests.

Cosmeceuticals are the latest wave of beauty products seeking to blend science with beauty to create more effective anti-aging treatments.

Fish production would have to double in the next 25 years to keep up with population growth and demand, a report claims.

The percentage of the world's plants threatened with extinction is much larger than commonly believed, and could be as high as 47 percent if tropical species are included, researchers said.

[HEALTH PREDICTIONS]
People who have attempted suicide once remain at risk of another try for the rest of their life, a comprehensive new British study indicates. The study also indicates that "people in this person's life should react and respond more quickly when there are difficulties."

A natural pacemaker may be available in 10 years - The days of the artificial pacemaker may soon be over after scientists find a way to restore the rhythm of the heart using human tissue.

Adults who had a parent live to be at least 100 have much lower incidence of heart disease and fewer major heart risk factors in old age than adults whose parents died in their 70s, says an American study.

A new study shows that elderly people are three times more likely to be hit by a car when they are in a painted crosswalk than in an unmarked crossing.

Doctors may be able to diagnose lung cancer with a breath test in the not too distant future.

A soda a day keeps the vitamins away. When people drink soft drinks, they significantly increase their chance of being deficient in the recommended daily allowances for common vitamins and minerals.

Huge upcoming leaps in medical technology could see many baby boomers and their children reach the grand old age of 120. If you go back 100 years the three main causes of death were pneumonia, diarrhea and influenza. Today it's heart disease, cancer and stroke. In the future it will probably be suicide, homicide or aerospace accidents.

Experts say governments need to plan for a virulent flu outbreak that could claim hundreds of thousands of lives. Although the last two winters have brought only mild strains of flu, the viruses are constantly mutating and scientists say it is only a matter of time before a powerful strain emerges. Researchers suggest that an approximate 30 year cycle between pandemics means we are well overdue for another one. It will be several months at least, after the start of the pandemic, before a vaccine is available.

[LONG-TERM CLIMATE PREDICTIONS]
By the year 2080, Manhattan and Shanghai could be underwater, droughts and floods could become more extreme and hundreds of millions of people will be at risk from disease, starvation and water shortages.

[POLITICAL PREDICTIONS]
Hospitals in Houston, San Francisco, Chicago and Washington have been alerted they may be targets of a terrorist threat, the Houston FBI says. The threat to hospitals in the four cities was not specific, though it mentioned a time between December and April — and the possibility of anthrax or explosives.

An international coalition of physicians is warning that an attack on Iraq will lead to the deaths of nearly 500,000 people - mostly civilians.

Iraq targeting the U.S. - As Iraq's parliament condemned a tough, new U.N. resolution, Iraq has begun an aggressive new surveillance campaign of American embassies and military facilities overseas.

On the heels of a report indicating that smallpox virus could make it into the hands of U.S. enemies, doctors remain concerned about dangers of mass vaccination.

U.S. intelligence believes four nations other than the United States - Iraq, North Korea, Russia and France - probably possess samples of the smallpox virus, a U.S. official said. Al Qaeda is also believed to have sought samples of smallpox for weaponization. U.S. officials worry that Iraq and North Korea could develop potent biological weapons with their samples, and lax security in Russia could allow other nations to obtain the deadly disease for use as a weapon. Smallpox historically has killed about a third of its victims and can be transmitted from person to person, unlike other biological weapons such as anthrax.

[SEASONAL WEATHER PREDICTIONS]
Researchers have new evidence of the widespread weather effects of a solar eclipse. Researchers have confirmed the existence of a so-called "eclipse wind," often reported anecdotally during a solar eclipse. Wind patterns were subtly altered over a region several thousand km across by the cooling induced when the Sun's rays were blocked out.

The worst drought in a century in Australia has played havoc with the birds and the bees this year. It's an extremely peculiar season. The sort of conditions they've had has promoted things like odd flowering and fruiting and seeding cycles in native plants.

[SPIRITUAL PREDICTIONS]
The birth of a 'miracle mule' - Residents of a small Moroccan hamlet are hailing the arrival of a mule born to a mule.

Miss Cleo has settled the fraud charges - Psychic hotline agrees to unplug its phones and to pay $5 million.

New questions are being raised about an ancient burial box that some experts consider to be the best physical evidence of the existence of Jesus. Experts are questioning its authenticity.

America is one of the world's most religious democracies. In times of strife, our leaders often invoke God, as they did after 9/11. But not everyone finds comfort in faith - the nonreligious may be the fastest growing "religious" group in the United States.

Investigators have been asked to prove if a weeping statue of the Virgin Mary in Western Australia is an act of God or a fake religious curiosity. The inquiry into the "miracle" is unprecedented in Australia. Scientists from two universities have already tested the 70cm sculpture, but were unable to find the source of the rose-scented oil that trickles from its eyes.

You may not need psychic powers to convince people they are communicating with the dead - just some well-chosen questions and a sensitivity to the audience's reaction.

It's bad enough to be undead. But what if you're damned for all eternity to a dump? Haunted tollbooths, apparitions in trailer parks, a mysterious pile of shoes, and laundromat spooks.

[STOCK MARKET PREDICTIONS]
The real estate market has so far managed to stay untouched by the recession, but the possibility of war with Iraq threatens to shake the housing industry to its foundations.