PREDICTIONS FROM DECEMBER 2001

i speak without reservation from what i know and who i am. i do so with the understanding that all people should have the right to offer their voice to the chorus whether the result is harmony or dissonance, the worldsong is a colorless dirge without the differences that distinguish us, and it is that difference which should be celebrated not condemned.
- Ani Difranco



[YOUR FUTURE - INVENTIONS THAT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE]
Private companies are developing personal aircraft for commuters - some private companies have already introduced unique aircraft for individual use, and more are on the drawing boards for release in the very near future. The PAM-100 Individual Lifting Vehicle works much like your own individual helicopter, except it's easier to fly. The pilot simply leans in the direction he or she wants to go.

Borax May Soon Run Cars - A company has developed a soap-related solution to produce a safe, clean-burning fuel.

Technology from Dutch researchers may help develop displays that can roll up like paper yet still show video clearly.

Device Keeps Heart Beating Outside Body- A new device that keeps a donor heart beating for up to twelve hours outside the body, may change the way doctor's transplant organs into recipients. This promising piece of technology could potentially save lots more lives.

Sonic flashlight shows 3-D image of bodies - A biomedical engineer has invented a "sonic flashlight" that merges a translucent image of a person's skin with the inner anatomy image of an ultrasound.

[HOT TRENDS]
First a Recession, Will Crime Follow? Will the recession, coupled with the trauma of Sept. 11, end the unprecedented fall in crime rates during the last decade? Experts disagree.

(SATIRE - just for fun:) U.S. "GROSSLY UNPREPARED" FOR UNLIKELY THREATS - No Plans in Place to Deal with Drying Up of Oceans, Giant Moon Explosion, Or Potential for Everyone to Be Pecked to Death Like in "The Birds".


[ASTRONOMICAL EVENTS]
Scientists read the atmosphere of a distant planet - A new method of analyzing distant planets could provide a tool for finding alien life.

[BIOLOGY PREDICTIONS]
Could Nightly Sleep Become Optional? Scientists have been looking into a drug that could make sleep optional. The military is interested in being able to keep soldiers awake and functioning for up to a week. Scientists are worried that some civilians may take the drugs to stay awake two or three days a week.

Scientists may have found an alternative to mass-producing vaccines in manufacturing plants: transgenic mice that secrete the drug in their milk.

Researchers have developed a drug that speeds recovery from the common cold.

By tweaking genetic growth factors, researchers at the University of British Columbia have prompted a fetal chick to develop a second beak.

[BOOKS]


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[HEALTH PREDICTIONS]
An outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus, which has killed at least eleven people in Gabon, has spread across the border to Congo, where it has claimed four lives.

A promising new procedure detects breast cancer at its earliest stages, helping high risk women decide which preventative options are best for them.

Pacemakers That Can Call Doctors- Doctors can get information directly from their patients' hearts without a hospital visit.

Nigeria on the brink of AIDS disaster - About one in 11 of the world's 40 million people infected with HIV/AIDS are in Nigeria. About one in 17 Nigerians, or 5.8 percent, aged between 15 and 49 are infected with HIV/AIDS in the country of more than 110 million. "Nigeria is the most populous country to have crossed the five percent prevalence rate," Stella Iwuagwu, executive director of the Center for the Right to Health said. "That five percent prevalence rate is called the threshold of disaster because from that point the epidemic begins to grow at an exponential rate." The quality of care in Nigerian hospitals was bad before the AIDS epidemic hit and has been deteriorating ever since, with chronic doctors and nurses strikes closing hospitals. They are working in a system where it is even difficult to find running water or soap to wash their hands and there is no electricity to operate with and there are no drugs.

[LONG-TERM CLIMATE PREDICTIONS]
The Earth's temperature in the year 2001 is expected to be the second highest since global records began 140 years ago. The World Meteorological Organization said the warming temperatures led to an increase in the severity and frequency of storms and droughts and other unusual weather conditions.

[POLITICAL PREDICTIONS]
"Disturbing new information gathered by U.S. intelligence sources inside Afghanistan in recent weeks" indicates that bin Laden and his al Qaeda operatives have been working to develop so-called "dirty bombs" — nuclear weapons capable of spreading radiation across populated areas.

Three months after the World Trade Center attack, victims' families are being forced to face the ghastly possibility that many of the dead were "vaporized," as the medical examiner put it, and may never be identified. So far, fewer than 500 victims have been positively identified out of the roughly 3,000 feared dead.

[STOCK MARKET PREDICTIONS]
Consumers were ready to buy as the holiday season picked up steam, the latest ABCNEWS/Money poll found, suggesting the current recession will be a short one.

White buget chief predicts years of budget deficits until 2005 - The recession and the costs of war and battling terrorism have made annual federal deficits likely for at least the next three years.