Predictions from January 2002

"Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out."
- Vaclav Havel



[YOUR FUTURE - INVENTIONS THAT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE]
A flying scooter may be in your future - The 8-foot-tall SoloTrek Exo-Skeletor Flying Vehicle has a gasoline engine that drives two large fans, which are surrounded by metal ducts to improve their aerodynamic efficiency. The pilot flies it in a standing position and controls its movement with two joysticks. The military hopes that someday it can help soldiers get in and out of dangerous spots quickly. The inventor plans to deliver a prototype to U.S. Special Forces by the end of 2003.

Black ice - State transportation officials are employing electronic brains to defeat a deadly winter enemy on six of Pennsylvania's highway bridges. So far, they report no casualties.

Will This Be the Year of HDTV? - Cost, content and cable have hampered the embrace of high-definition TV.

Webcams have become so simple and cheap, that they are spreading rapidly among ordinary, technically unsophisticated home computer users.

Ever hear a captivating song on the radio but miss its name — most likely because the disk jockey never mentions it? Relief from the guessing game may one day come from your cell phone. You'll use it to access a sophisticated music database that can automatically find the song's name based on the way it sounds — or its audio "fingerprint."

American scientists have demonstrated an environmentally friendly magnetic refrigerator.

Technology to Watch for in 2002 - What will fly and what will fizzle in the technology world of 2002?

[HOT TRENDS]
Women choose men who smell like dad - Women prefer the smell of men who share certain genetic markers with their fathers, an American study has shown.

The 'starter marriage' - is it a new trend?

More Americans are seeking help for depression than ever before. But they would rather skip the small talk and seek out prescriptions.

Mobile phone viruses loom - Experts warn that cell phones are vulnerable to computer bugs.

The U.S. Postal Office says the terrorist attacks and the poor economy combined to cause the largest drop in mail volume in more than 30 years.

Prediction for the hot products in 2002 - the snowdeck, custom shoes, shimmer makeup, multi-purpose cell phones, camera watches, board games, macramé kits, and DVD players that allow you to transfer VHS tapes onto DVDs.

A new ABCNEWS/Washington Post poll finds that most Americans are optimistic about 2002, despite the Sept. 11 attacks.

If security experts are calling 2001 the worst year for computer viruses, and December the worst month, how bad will things get in 2002? Experts are predicting nastier computer attacks next year, possibly even hitting mobile devices, pocket PCs and smart phones. Computer users should expect to see more viruses that try to dupe them into taking action that will execute the malicious code. They also warned of more attacks that lure computer users to visit infected Web pages. In such attacks, victims receive e-mails that include Web addresses that, when visited, automatically download malicious code to the computer.


[ASTRONOMICAL EVENTS]
Close call as asteroid passed Earth January 7th. "The asteroid was large enough to wipe out France or Texas. Dubbed 2001 YB5, the huge rock came within 837,000 kilometres of Earth. Dozens of asteroids pass by Earth each year, but 2001 YB5 came closer than most. It's estimated to be 300 metres across and was travelling about 109,000 kilometres an hour relative to the Earth when it zipped past. Astronomers first noticed the asteroid on Boxing Day but they didn't think it would pose any danger to Earth. If it had hit, it was big enough to vapourize the core of Toronto, and the impact would have knocked people off their feet in Vancouver. On Friday, an asteroid known as 2001 UU92 will pass within 17.7 million kilometres of Earth. Britain's Spaceguard Centre began its Comet and Asteroid Information Network on Jan. 1 to alert people to the hazards asteroids may pose. "

[BIOLOGY PREDICTIONS]
Liars could be caught on a heat-sensing camera that detects their concealed blushing, a new study suggests.

When bacteria search out nutrients or flee from danger they may be using a system similar to the one used in cell phone communications, a new study shows.

[BOOKS]


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[HEALTH PREDICTIONS]
Scientists dive under Antarctic ice for glue-making bugs - The organisms create a glue that researchers think could revolutionize medicine. The unique adhesive works underwater and binds sand grains to form the foram's complex shell home. Consider, for example, lung surgery. After incision, surgeons can't use needle and thread to stitch up the fragile network of air sacs that make up the lung. But they might be able to brush on the foram's bio-adhesive to seal the scar until the wound heals.

An Alberta man has come up with a novel way to beat the winter blues. Larry Pederson has invented a compact light therapy device, small enough to carry in a briefcase or purse.

Allergy specialists are warning that echinacea, a herb commonly taken to prevent colds, can cause life-threatening allergic reactions.

Certain bone marrow cells found in adults can be coaxed into forming a variety of specialized cells, says research that gives new hope for growing replacement body parts for treating disease.

[LONG-TERM CLIMATE PREDICTIONS]
Melting ice in the Canadian Arctic threatens not only the Inuit way of life, but also the country's sovereignty over the Northwest Passage.

Slimmer polar bears could point to global warming. One of the long-term effects of global warming may be thinner polar bears, says a northern scientist working in western Hudson Bay, Canada.

Antarctica appears to have bucked the global warming trend and cooled during the past 35 years, scientists report.

A multi-billion-dollar drought dominated the weather news in 2001. The dry spell may be a sign of more to come, a leading climatologist says.

A series of troubling reports in recent years have suggested Antarctica is warming and shedding its ice shelves at an alarming rate, but a new study that used a highly precise image-snapping satellite suggests at least one prominent ice sheet — the West Antarctic Ice Sheet — is in fact getting thicker. The West Antarctic Ice Sheet contains enough ice to raise sea levels more than 16 feet if it were to melt. The report, plus other findings that desert valleys on the continent have cooled recently, appear to contradict predictions that global warming is melting the continent's massive ice reservoirs.

Natural disasters caused at least 25,000 deaths worldwide in 2001, more than double the previous year. Total economic losses were figured to be $36 billion, and catastrophes related to extreme weather were said to be a result of continued global climate change. 14,000 people killed in an earthquake in India in January alone - compared with 10,000 deaths the entire previous year and losses of around $30 billion.

[MOVIES AND TV]
Sundance Film Festival breakout buzz - Upcoming independant films that could strike it big.

The next Star Wars sequel isn't scheduled to open until May 16th, but a line is already forming in front of a theater in Seattle.

Next time you watch television, take a good, long look at the show. Notice anything strange? Probably not, but chances are getting better and better every day that the program you're watching has been "time reduced using a patented technology from Prime Image in San Jose. Using a process called "microediting," the length of movies, programs, or anything on television can be cut down without chopping entire scenes. It works by eliminating duplicate frames of video, actually creating time where it did not exist before. The process lets TV stations use the time saved to run more ads.

[POLITICAL PREDICTIONS]
What happens if the United States actually captures Osama bin Laden or Mullah Mohammed Omar? Experts say the legal battle could rival the military campaign. It's unclear where a captive Omar or bin Laden would go first, or how their trials would be conducted, or what punishment they would face.

Terror war's next phase will differ from bombing campaign - Sources say the United States will focus on terrorist groups in Somalia, Sudan, Yemen and the Philippines and does plan on long-term use of U.S. military forces.

[SEASONAL WEATHER PREDICTIONS]
Global patterns explain wacky winter - Puzzled by this winter's strange weather extremes? When there's no El Niño, there's a higher variability in temperatures. There's a greater chance that records will be set.

There are signs that El Niño, the massive warming of the Pacific Ocean that can rearrange the world's weather, may be forming again. If a full-blown El Niño does form, Americans would most likely start to feel its effects next fall and winter.

[SPIRITUAL PREDICTIONS]
Scientists investigate the link between the human mind and spirituality - Does research show new evidence for faith, or a challenge to religion? Believers from every tradition and around the world have reported similar sensations of religious experience - a feeling of completeness, absence of self, or oneness with the universe, feelings of peace, freedom from fear, ecstatic joy, visions of a Supreme Being.

[STOCK MARKET PREDICTIONS]
Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan said that signs are emerging that the U.S. economy is "beginning to firm," sounding a much more optimistic tone from just a few weeks ago.

Will Silicon Valley bounce back in 2002? Battered by the most painful economic shakeout in recent memory, Silicon Valley lost some of its luster in 2001. But industry watchers are cautiously optimistic about a rebound in 2002.

What does 2002 have in store for the U.S. economy? A look at what lies ahead for various segments of the economy, including housing, employment and retail.

Signs of economic recovery are emerging. Reports show consumer confidence up, new home sales soar.