Predicted Hot Trends

OCTOBER 2001:

Security consultants agree — companies have never been more willing to pay for security than they are now. But what are the basics of a safe office? Is your workplace secure?

Irradiating mail could damage shipped goods - If the postal service begins irradiating mail, the technology could kill more than anthrax.

Oil prices could rise soon - Conflict overseas means higher oil and gas prices at home. While that may not be the case at the moment, it could happen very soon.

The Insurance Industry Is Braced for Bogus Claims Related to World Trade Center - Scam artists collected names of people pictured on hundreds of signs and in newspapers after Sept. 11, officials said, then posed as police detectives in calls to family members. The callers asked for the kinds of personal details that could be used to perpetrate insurance fraud. There's been no insuance fraud reported so far, but the industry is braced for an onslaught of bogus claims.

The Manhattan district attorney's office is conducting a grand jury probe into mob-connected truckers who allegedly stole tons of scrap metal from the World Trade Center - and sold it - instead of transporting it to the Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island, where it was supposed to be examined for evidence.

Thinking of redecorating your home or buying a new one? Think color, casual and smaller, the 2002 edition of the Old Farmer's Almanac says. In wall color, pastel and white are out. Strong colors, such as blue-green, salmon, plum and spicy orange, are hot.

Men are undergoing more plastic surgery than in past years, while women are having less.

Insurance industry next in line for assistance - The Bush administration and Congress are preparing legislation to have taxpayers pay major insurance claims arising out of terrorist attacks.

"Wake up, America, life is violent.'' - That is the admonition of John Douglas, a former FBI agent who headed the agency's behavioral crime unit. Douglas, who developed techniques used in compiling psychological profiles to help predict and anticipate the acts of known and unknown criminals, was 40 blocks away from the World Trade Center towers when they were brought down in the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11. He said tapping into the psyche of the terrorist is essential in order to prevail over those who wish to harm America.

Toy makers respond to parental sensitivities by de-emphasizing violence. In the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, more and more parents are trying to rid their children's lives of violent toys.

Mayor Rudolph Giuliani says it could take a year to finish the cleanup at the World Trade Center, citing the difficulty in removing tons of debris from the massive grave.

SEPTEMBER 2001:

Search and rescue workers face a new threat at the World Trade Center site - the possible collapse of an underground sea wall built to provide a stable base before the World Trade Center towers were erected. The twin towers rose 110 stories, but also went 70 feet into the bedrock below, with a 3-foot-thick concrete wall acting like an underground dam against New York Harbor water seeping through surrounding landfill. Recovery experts fear rubble and debris may be all that is holding the walls of that underground structure in place. If the material is not removed carefully, it could send water from the harbor into the space, and possibly into nearby subway tunnels that run under where the Trade Center buildings stood.

Americans Learn to Live With Terror - Some of the challenges Americans face in the wake of last week's attacks.

Crews have removed 68,943 tons of debris from the World Trade Center site, but an estimated 1 million to 2 million tons remain, and officials have said it will take at least six months to clear it all.

Could you be drafted? Even as the nation's armed forces mobilize for what the commander in chief vows will be an all-out war against international terrorism, there is little chance the government will take the drastic step of reinstating the military draft.

The FBI Counterterrorism Division has posted a cyberattack warning in effect until Oct. 11.

Nations should be prepared for bioterrorism attack that could kill millions, WHO warns. Advances in technology have made it possible for terrorists to kill millions of people with chemical or biological weapons, the U.N. health agency warned.

Bookstores in New York City and beyond reported significant increases in store traffic over the weekend, apparently as Americans seek out ways to cope with the loss the country suffered on Tuesday and to educate themselves. They sold quite a few books on New York City and maps of New York City, and a great many books on Middle Eastern studies, on the Taliban, the Koran and Islam. Books about 16th century French astrologer and doom forecaster Nostradamus were also flying off the shelves. The Internet was rife with postings that claimed the prophet had forecast the fall of the World Trade Towers.

Attention conspiracy theorists - Rumor has it Microsoft made a deal with the US government to monitor certain illegal activities in exchange for the anti-trust settlement.

A safety agency in the United States has determined injuries from amusement rides has gone up 47 per cent since 1993.

A new study suggests a disturbingly large number of adolescent girls are on a path that could lead them to eating disorders such as anorexia or bulimia.

You might not have seen them yet, but these hot trends could be everywhere this fall: disposable cell phones, makeup erasers and skateboards with 24 wheels.

The shipping industry warns that the time-honored tradition of rescuing people at sea may be at risk. Ship owners are bound by international maritime law to come to the aid of any vessel in trouble on the seas, a law adopted two years after ships failed to respond quickly to distress calls from the sinking Titanic. But the shipping industry warned that a dangerous precedent already exists for ships to simply shirk their duties, particularly if they fear getting caught up in the kind of standoff currently facing a Norwegian vessel. .

With nearly a million Americans laid off, should you be worried about your job?

Is it 'War'? Formal declaration by U.S. seen as unlikely, unnecessary. The war the commander in chief has pledged to win will likely be an undeclared one.

Consumer watchdog groups warned of fraudulent e-mails seeking donations to help the relief efforts in New York and Washington. A typical message claims to be part of an "Express Relief Fund" or "Victims Survivor Fund," said the groups. One message said that donations would go to the Red Cross, but the donation link from the e-mail led to a Web site unconnected with that organization.

Scouring the Internet in Search of the Tracks of Terrorists

CIA taking heat from all sides - they did not get the intelligence information needed to predict that this was about to happen, to be aware of this kind of event coming our way.


AUGUST 2001:

New findings show Yellowstone still a volcanic hot spot. Visitors to Yellowstone are wandering through the caldera of one of the largest active volcanoes in the world. Though no one is predicting it, the instruments note that this seemingly serene plateau has the potential to blow so hard it would make the 1980 Mount St. Helens explosion look like a sneeze.

Arriving college students are finding no room in the dorms - and there's increasing evidence that dorm-life disruptions can threaten a student's academic success. Freshmen living off campus are more likely to perform poorly or drop out, according to college officials and higher-education experts.

Women have made enormous inroads in Japan's male-dominated society over the past half century. But there are still places where they're not welcome such as the inside of tunnels under construction. The reason? Bad luck. Japanese superstition holds that by entering the tunnel under construction, women would arouse the jealousy of the mountain goddess, and cause disaster.

High tech school supplies have hit the shelves - A number of stores are featuring high-tech versions of old standbys, lining their school-supply aisles with pens that light up, take messages, and do multiplication; pencil boxes that tell fortunes and provide French translations, and combination locks that look like mini-cellphones.

Not only is doing two things at once a waste of time, but researchers say it could also kill you. A new study warns employers and cell phone users/drivers that multitasking is inefficient and dangerous.

Rats Swarming U.S. Cities - Numbers of the Rodent are Rising Across the Country.

Recent amusement park accidents, along with reports of roller coaster riders experiencing brain bleeds, have some people concerned about one of America's favorite attractions. Are roller coasters and amusement parks safe?


JULY 2001:

The next miracle turf - it is called seashore paspalum, a native coastal grass with varieties that look and feel like mainstream grasses such as Bermuda and St. Augustine. However, the real beauty of paspalum is its ability to thrive on brackish water and, some think, saltwater. In drought-stricken Florida, the potential benefits are clear and it is being tested on golf courses.

Living in the city may make you crazy - Urban dwelling has never been known for its soothing effects, but new research suggests that people living in large cities are more likely than small-town residents to exhibit psychotic-like symptoms such as paranoia and delusions. Some experts believe early exposure to infections may affect the developing brain in a way that makes it more vulnerable to schizophrenia and it is speculated that people born in urban areas are exposed to more infections during prenatal development and childhood.

Big Brother? In Tampa, Fla., police are testing a surveillance system that can automatically pick out faces in a crowd to find criminals. Is your city next?

Gas rip-offs are on the rise - As gasoline prices have risen there's been a corresponding increase in the number of "drive-offs," or gasoline thefts by motorists, according to the National Association of Convenience Stores.

A dead crow found in a backyard in Florida has tested positive for West Nile virus, marking the virus' first appearance in the state.


JUNE 2001:

Target employs crystal-gazers such as Robyn Walters, vice president of trend analysis. Walters predicts trends and launches them into the production pipeline months before they're seen on the store's shelves and clothing racks. The up-to-the-minute trends for summer 2001 are a huge influence of stripes, polka dots and Hawaiian florals and graphics.

Discounts for vacationers have been spreading as airlines, hotels and car rental companies react to the biggest drop in business travel they have seen in 25 years. With the exception of Southwest Airlines, May was the worst revenue month for airlines, a leading airline analyst reported.

You're going to be hearing a lot about safe rooms. Built to withstand tornadoes or terrorists, safe rooms can be installed anywhere in a home. It can stand up to a tornado's 250-mph winds and the flying 2-by-4 wood stud the storm drives through your wall. It can hold off a Category 5 hurricane, an earthquake or a band of masked evildoers who have come to plunder your house. Safe rooms are being pushed heavily by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, by the concrete industry, which makes many of the materials, and even by the Federal Housing Administration, which will let you borrow up to $5,000 extra on a new house mortgage to cover the price of a safe room.

I.D. Theft on the Rise - The number of identity thefts reported by U.S. banks and other financial institutions more than doubled in 2000 from the previous year, the government said.

Telecommuting hasn't grown at the clip many experts first predicted in the 1970s, according to the latest government statistics. There were 21 million workers in 1997 who did some work at home as part of their primary jobs, a number that grew by just 1.5 million since 1991. All of this is bad news to the politicians and business leaders who are increasingly hoping that telecommuting will be a quick fix for the country's traffic woes.

Travel bargains abound this summer - A recent study from PriceWaterhouseCoopers forecast the second quarter of this year to be the slowest for the lodging industry in 10 years. The competition to attract leisure travelers is fierce during this year because free-spending business people are traveling less.

World Wakes Up to Use of Dead Babies in Nuclear Tests in 1950s - More than 1,500 cadavers - many of them babies - were gathered from half a dozen countries from Europe to Australia in the 1950s for secret studies on the effects of radiation conducted by the now defunct Atomic Energy Commission, according to U.S. government documents. Project Sunshine, which was conducted under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.K. Atomic Energy Authority, attempted to study the absorption of strontium-90 in human tissue, primarily bone. For many unsuspecting parents, the experience was nightmarish.


MAY 2001:

With AOL Raising Rates, Will Internet Access Costs Soar? For the moment, most Internet industry analysts are saying AOL — by far the biggest, most-profitable Internet service provider in the United States — will not lose business because of its 9 percent, $1.95-per-month hike, which takes effect in July. Industry observers are reluctant to predict a specific monthly price rate at which users will rebel. Some AOL competitors, including Microsoft, view the online service's rate hike as a chance to grab users away.

There's a tetanus vaccine shortage - and that's a reason to be more careful in your garden or when doing sports this summer.

The good news for Americans age 50 and older is that the economic well-being has never been better. The bad news is that there are cracks in the pillars on which this unprecedented affluence rests.

Could You Be Naked on the Net? Celebrities and Hollywood stars have had to cope for several years with the problem of faked nude pictures circulating online. But now ordinary individuals are falling prey to the problem. Could you be one of them - even if you've never posed for a nude photo in your life? If there is a picture of you somewhere on the Web, someone with common image-editing software, and a little time and expertise, can easily graft your head onto someone else's body and repost the image.

Children of Chernobyl - Fifteen years after the world's worst-ever nuclear accident, researchers have reported that new evidence of genetic damage from the Chernobyl disaster has been discovered. Mutations in children born to victims who were subjected to high levels of exposure to radiation after the Chernobyl accident were said to be 600% higher than offspring whose parents were not exposed to radiation.

In the future, entertainment will call you on the phone. It happened on Friday, April 13 to those already unraveling the fictitious murder of Evan Chan. The Web-based mystery is both a game and an insanely elaborate promotion for Steven Spielberg's upcoming picture, "A.I."

Humans could be reaching new evolutionary heights because tall men have more children and height is estimated to be about 90 percent genetic. Researchers have discovered that tall men are more likely to divorce and remarry and when they do they usually choose a younger second wife. The average height of humans has been increasing. Eleven-year-old Japanese boys are five inches taller today than their counterparts 50 years ago. In Britain the average height of adolescent boys has shot up nine inches since the 1830s.

People with allergies are suffering this spring in Philadelphia, New York and Connecticut, where tree pollen has been measured at unheard-of levels. Things haven't been much better around the Great Lakes.


APRIL 2001:

Wonton Foods of New York is now printing tiny ads on the backs of fortune cookie slips.

Napster to Employ New Filtering System - Tech Recognizes Tunes, Regardless of Their Name. Embattled song-swap company Napster has brought aboard a mechanical sleuth to help sniff out the copyrighted files still changing hands through its servers. The company made an agreement with a technology company that creates unique "digital fingerprints" for songs.

Gasoline supplies this summer are likely to be just as tight as during last year's record pump price spike. Gas prices in April are already as high as was previously expected for the height of the summer driving season.

Increasingly in South Florida (and elsewhere across the U.S.), people are getting illegal cosmetic silicone injections - sometimes at parties. The results often are tragic. One cheap injection of silicone can migrate to other parts of the body, cause inflammation and cost thousands of dollars to correct with a gradual regimen of steroid injections or surgery, and the complications can happen at any time during your lifetime.

Will Florida face the rolling blackouts that plagued California The utilities don't think so. They say their plans will satisfy the state's future energy needs. Out-of-state power suppliers aren't so sure.

Energy watchdog foresees tight gasoline supplies this summer - Crude oil inventories are so low that major importing countries could face tight gasoline supplies and volatile prices at the pump during the peak summer driving season.

Trials of the future may span the globe - The courtroom of the future - complete with two-way remote testimony, three-dimensional images of evidence and automatic speech transcription -- had its first trial, albeit a mock one.


MARCH 2001 -

Energy crunch predicted for summer. It could be a tough summer, with energy supplies in the U.S. at last year's levels, or tighter.

Dioxin is one of the most toxic substances on Earth. Scientists now say Americans have 22 times more of it in their food than is considered safe. Meat and dairy products are considered the biggest sources. Dioxins concentrate in animal fat, and the best way to avoid them is to eat more fruits and vegetables.

Mass victimization crime, or online theft from thousands of people simultaneously by one individual, is less than two years away and the perpetrator will probably get away with it, researchers predict.

Tattoo advertising on the arms of players could be next in the NBA.

A Scottish golf club plans to have the first golf course on the moon.

Predicting the success of relationships.

Do you put aside enough money to secure your future? A new study suggests most think they do — but they do not. Take the interactive "money habits" quiz.

Peru - Imminent collapse of Machu Picchu? - London's New Scientist magazine quoted Japanese geologists as saying the earth below the hallowed site perched on a mountain saddle 8,366 feet (2,500 metres) high in the Peruvian Andes, was shifting and at risk of a major landslide. The Japanese team said the back slope of Machu Picchu was moving downward at 0.4 inches (1 cm) per month. "This is quite fast and it's a precursor stage of a rockfall or rock slide."


FEBRUARY 2001 -

The National Transportation Safety Board Says Air Accident Survivability Is High - of all passengers involved in commercial aviation accidents in the last 16 years, 95.7 percent survived. A passenger who randomly flies on a U.S. domestic jet every day could fly for 19,000 years before dying in an accident. There is cause for concern, however. With the Federal Aviation Administration forecasting a 53 percent increase in passengers in the coming decade, some 1 billion people are expected to take to the skies annually by 2010.

You can't tell by looking, but scientists say the Sun has just undergone an important change. Our star's magnetic field has flipped. The Sun's magnetic north pole, which was in the northern hemisphere just a few months ago, now points south. It's a topsy-turvy situation, but not an unexpected one - this always happens around the time of solar maximum. Earth's magnetic field also flips, but with less regularity. Consecutive reversals are spaced 5 thousand years to 50 million years apart. The last reversal happened 740,000 years ago. Some researchers think our planet is overdue for another one, but nobody knows exactly when the next reversal might occur.

Your chances of being audited by the Internal Revenue Service have plunged to one in every 204 tax returns filed, the IRS reports. That's the lowest audit rate that experts can ever recall, and half the rate of just two years ago. Last year, the IRS audited fewer than 1 in 100 tax returns from families with incomes of $100,000 or more, a 31% decrease over the 1999 rate.

A trend in pop culture is the revival of past favorites. Popples, G.I. Joe, and Tickle Me Elmo are some of many classic toys attempting a comeback this year.

Will another powerful earthquake rip through western Washington State or the region after the latest big one? Since major earthquakes happen on average in the Seattle area every 30 or 40 years, can residents of the region breathe easier for awhile? Despite considerable improvements in seismology, no one knows for sure.

Many in El Salvador believe the end of the world is coming. Constant small quakes have the entire country in a state of anxiety. The two massive earthquakes that killed more than 1,200 people have been accompanied by nearly 4000 smaller jolts over the past five weeks, sending panic-stricken people fleeing into the streets day after day.

JANUARY 2001:

As the new century progresses, fewer and fewer of us will live on the land. Half of humanity will live in "megacities" like Tokyo and Sao Paulo, Brazil - human hives of 12, 15, even 25 million people, experts predict. Untamed nature will exist only in scattered remnants, preserved like artifacts in a museum. In the next century wars will be fought over water. Global warming's effects are expected to be most dramatic in the Arctic and in coastal regions; but beyond that, scientists have little idea how they will be distributed over the globe. Perhaps some of the world's greatest cities will be laid low, its most productive breadbaskets and fisheries devastated.

Turning Out the Lights of the Nation? Entire U.S. Could Face Electric Woes Much Like California's. They say what is happening in California could potentially happen elsewhere if the right conditions exist. Now, industry experts say, the more than two dozen states moving toward deregulation will be looking more closely at California, not as a model, but to learn what not to do.

A new system which uses fingerprint scanners to let kids pay for school lunches is getting raves from students and school administrators, but is making privacy advocates nervous. The scanners make stealable lunch money, lose-able swipe cards and the stigma of being known as the free-lunch kid things of the past.

After weeks of Stage 3 power alerts and rolling blackouts, a majority of Californians are gloomy about the future. According to a Field poll released last week, Californians, by a margin of 49% to 43%, admit to being pessimistic about the direction of the state, even while they are not similarly pessimistic about the direction of the country.

A flaw in software that helps drive the Internet could let hackers disrupt Web operations worldwide unless corrected quickly, a U.S. Defense Department-funded research center said. Internet traffic such as Web access, electronic mail, and file transfers could be redirected to arbitrary sites chosen by an intruder.

Coffee giant Starbucks is partnering up with high-tech leviathan Microsoft and the lesser-known MobileStar Inc. to deliver high-speed, wireless Internet access to coffee houses across the nation.

DECEMBER 2000:

U.S. Disasters Hit Record Low In Year 2000! The United States has had almost no major natural disasters this year. The year 2000 dawned with apocalyptic fears -- biblical, technological, meteorological -- but has so far turned out to be downright benign.

Remember all those doomsday prophecies about California sliding into the ocean? As it turns out, Louisiana is the state everyone should have been worrying about - it has the lowest-lying major metropolitan area in the country. The squishy alluvial soil beneath New Orleans is literally sinking at a time when sea levels are rising because of global warming. Without a bold conservation plan New Orleans could be a very exposed island and perhaps on the verge of extinction by the turn of the century.

This time next year, 280 million Americans will be counting the cost of recession. The country that makes up a quarter of the global economy is facing the big chill. At least, that is what the economic doomsayers tell us. Signs of economic distress have been growing in the US for some time. US household wealth fell in 2000, an event that has always been the harbinger of recession.

The predictions in the Trends Journal's winter 2001 issue are chilling. "These are the most dire predictions we've ever come out with," said Gerald Celente, editor and publisher of the journal, published by Trends Research Institute in Rhinebeck, N.Y. "The reason we did it is that we want people to understand they have to undertake recession-proofing strategies. . . . I'm not a gloom-and-doomer, but we felt it would be irresponsible for us not to let people know there's a storm on the horizon."

A year after the Y2K bug, U.S. officials are once again warning about perceived dangers to a United States increasingly stitched together by bits and bytes of computer code.

Fuel-cell driven cars of the future could be powered by hazelnuts, New Scientist magazine says. A university professor in northern England believes hazelnuts could produce the hydrogen needed to generate an electric current for electric and hybrid cars.

The top tech stories of 2000 - Some dire predictions of 1999 were shot down in flames, some ideas succeeded beyond anyone's dreams, and some optimistic projections proved to be so much whistling in the dark.
Glimpses into the future of media.

The new BMW version of the legendary Mini Cooper promises to be the next ultratrendy vehicle - like the Volkswagen New Beetle and Chrysler PT Cruiser.

The notorious era of "beer and babes" advertising may be history, but it's being replaced by a new phenomenon: "bytes and babes" advertising.

Suddenly, the "social conscience" market is hot. You see more and more businesses linking themselves to a do-good cause. As a form of advertising, helping a charity isn't expensive. The companies hope that their contributions will burnish their image: raising sales, improving customer loyalty and creating warm feelings around their brand.

NOVEMBER 2000:

Many toys going high tech. The parade of robotic pooches is just the beginning. Look for miniature musical key chains, a radio-controlled car that rivals the Batmobile and an Elmo that does much more than laugh.

On the edge of a cellular shopping revolution? Expectations for m-commerce, or shopping on the cellular phone, are high, at least in Europe, where mobile phone penetration is much higher (some 50 percent of adults) than in the US (35%), although still lower than Israel, where more than 60% of the population owns a mobile phone. Still, the analysts are logging in with very different predictions for the success of m-services that will allow purchases on-the-move - like when you're stuck without change for the Coke in the vending machine, cellphone users can order a drink by cellphone and charge it to their monthly bill.

The Swiss branch of McDonald's plans to open two Golden Arch hotels in that country by spring.

Can Germany screen software written by Scientologists? Should it try? German officials have asked Microsoft to pull the disk defragger from Windows 2000 because it was written by a company whose owner/CEO is a member of the Church of Scientology, a group considered by the Germans to be an "unwelcome cult," and a threat to network security if loaded on a desktop PC.

Could terrorists attack the United States with weapons of mass destruction? Highly unlikely, say defense experts. So why is the Clinton administration spending billions to foil a most improbable threat?

Empty-nesters, enjoy your empty nest while it lasts. More than 60 percent of college students plan to live with their parents after graduation, according to an American Demographics magazine survey.

A virtual war - Since the beginning of October, pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian/Moslem hackers have been battling it out in cyberspace - spamming some sites with junk mail and false requests until overload knocks them off the Web and defacing others. The unprecedented battle raging in cyberspace may have serious consequences for the entire Internet. It's a new type of warfare, launched by young civilians who go into combat armed with a mouse and a keyboard, and who, even after several battles, have yet to suffer even one human casualty.

OCTOBER 2000:

The disclosure that confidential material for a future Microsoft product was viewed and possibly copied by hackers who broke into the company's internal computer network sent a shudder through the Defense Department, Congress and Internet security firms. The attack proves what many in the Internet security business have said for years: Even the largest corporations and governments are vulnerable to cybercrime.

By one government measure, Americans are spending money faster than they save it and are recording the lowest savings rate since the Depression.

Dmitry Kolesnikov, the sailor whose last, scribbled note was found on his body in the wreck of the Russian Kursk nuclear submarine, had a premonition of death before he left home for the last time, his wife said.

Crime in the United States fell again in 1999, the eighth consecutive decline, with the murder rate dropping to 5.7 per 100,000, its lowest level since 1966.

Daniel McFadden, 63, received the coveted Nobel Prize for designing statistical techniques that predict how people will behave when they choose among limited alternatives, whether it's where they live, how they commute or what they buy.

Some experts are predicting that energy prices will double this winter for all sorts of supply-and-demand reasons. And they say the situation could really get grim if the weather turns especially cold. Steps you can take to minimize the effect of this year's higher fuel costs.

The richest generation of American teen-agers is making retailers across the nation stand up and take notice... When they shop, they know just what they want and they'll drop $100 to get it, no problem. Whatever they like becomes the next big trend.

The inspector general of the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority said that several subway lines were "potentially in danger of experiencing a train collision, derailment or serious delays" because supervisors failed to make hundreds of inspections of signal equipment.

Want to see what Bill Gates' house looks like? How about an aerial view of your own backyard? Thanks to a new Web site that contains photos taken by spy planes and satellites, it's all there on the Internet, for anyone to see.

As many as 50 million U.S. adults are in danger of becoming functionally "illiterate" in coming years because they lack knowledge of or access to the Internet, a newly released study says. Gartner Group Inc., a technology consulting firm based in Stamford, Conn., projects that 75 percent of U.S. households will be linked to the Internet by 2005, up from 50 percent today. This uneven distribution of Internet access means that large parts of the U.S. population are in danger of being left behind economically and socially.

Sony Corp said it will begin selling a new pet robot by the end of the year as a mechanical pal for its popular "Aibo" robot dog.

This winter's oil "crisis" in the industrial world may just be the beginning of huge increases in the demand for oil worldwide. Demand for oil is exploding in the emerging economies - especially in Asia.

Luckless birds, wayward engine pieces and frozen aircraft stowaways are plummeting from the sky - There's an awful lot of stuff falling from airplanes these days.


SEPTEMBER 2000:

U.S. earthquake experts say no matter where you live, be prepared - 44 of the 50 states are at risk.

U.S. Government officials are increasingly concerned about potential cyberattacks motivated by everything from mischievousness to intelligence-gathering, crime and sabotage. As authorities rely more and more on computer networks, "there is a greater likelihood that information attacks will threaten vital national interests."

A one-cent rate increase - to 34 cents for first-class mail - is thought likely to take effect sometine in January 2001. Currently before the Independent Postal Rate Commission.

Palm personal digital assistants are no longer being overlooked by virus creators. A virus posing as video-game emulation software is making its way through the underground circles of Palm users, ZDNet reports. Once loaded on a Palm, it erases all data on the device.

A German company says it has developed a luxury lawnmower that does away with old-fashioned blades or wires and slices grass by laser, cutting it so finely that the pieces can simply stay on the ground as fertilizer. The two-seat lawnmovwer is powerful enough to be registered for road use - and costs $30,000.

The music industry is set to unleash crowd-pleasing fare to cash in on pre-holiday buying fever. Records by Madonna, U2, the Backstreet Boys, Ricky Martin and Limp Bizkit are expected to explode out of the gate. The commercial potential of others — the Spice Girls, Joan Osborne, Paul Simon — is difficult to predict. (USA Today)

Documents created with certain Microsoft programs can contain invisible "Web bugs" that give their authors the ability to track those documents — and even text copied from one document to another — over the Internet. Microsoft acknowledges such bugs could exist, but says there's little evidence they are being used.


AUGUST 2000:
"City officials have said that before that Philadelphia had as many as 1,500 houses that are in imminent danger of collapsing, in addition to 15,000 that aren't about to fall but are still eyesores that it wants to get rid of. But with officials unable to recall another time in which so many buildings collapsed within a three-day period, (at least 12) no one had an easy explanation for why - after more than four decades of urban blight in some of the the city's battered neighborhoods - this seems to be happening so quickly."

Thousands of people have been hurt or killed from falling merchandise while shopping in giant warehouse stores.

Natural gas prices are rising to their highest levels in decades because production is down and consumption is up. The U.S. Department of Energy predicts that natural gs users could see their highest heating bills in 15 years this winter. Wholesale natural gas prices are currently about 50% higher than they were at the same time last year.

2001 New Car preview - More than 50 of the 255 models for sale in the U.S. market will be completely new or redesigned for the 2001 model year, and the others will have slight modifications or upgraded features. Get your first glimpse of what's in store for the first full model year of the new millennium.

As prices fall and marketers target teens, communication and organization devices are expected to be as hot this year as cellphones, CD players and pagers were the past three years.

Orange, the retro color of Creamsicles and 1970s decor as well as the trendy hue of iMacs, has returned to the design psyche. If predictions are correct, orange may soon be the color you paint your walls.


Many huge trends are started by a few people or a few small changes that cause a population to start acting differently. Such changes are the subject of the new book, The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell.

"Spooked by predictions of a cold winter and reports of low supplies of heating oil — and potentially higher oil prices — consumers are taking advantage of contracts that allow them to lock in a guaranteed price for oil."

JULY 2000:

Good economic times have produced fat treasuries in cities across America, but leaner days are ahead, a survey said Tuesday. Financial officials and other administrators in 73% of 353 cities surveyed say their communities are in better financial shape than in 1999, the National League of Cities says. However, surveyed city officials are showing signs of pessimism. The 73% of the cities reporting a better year is a slight decrease from the 75% in 1999. It also is the first decrease since 1994, when 54% said financial conditions had improved. Looking to 2001, the survey says 63% of the cities expect to be in better shape financially.

"GIANT fruit, vegetables or even rice grains could appear on supermarket shelves following the identification of the main gene that determines the size of tomatoes. It's the first time that a gene for a quantitative trait such as height or weight has been found. "

Pets may have to wear seat belts in the United Kingdom. A survey showed that nearly all motorists who travelled with their pet had been distracted by it. About 11 per cent of these motorists said this distraction had almost caused a crash.

The return of the blimps - More than 70 years after the Hindenburg disaster, airships are still a rare sight, mostly kept afloat for advertising and for televising sports events. But German companies are promoting new uses for blimps, from tourism to shipping.

Teen pregnancy declined nearly 8 percent nationally from 1995 to 1997. Reported pregnancies fell from 9.8 percent to 9.1 percent among 15- to 19-year-olds, the government reported. The drops continue a downward trend begun in 1991. Abortions declined by nearly as much.

A twin study suggests that environmental factors account for two-thirds of cancers. The study examined the medical records of 44,788 pairs of identical and fraternal Scandinavian twins. On average, environmental differences accounted for 65 percent of cancers. Prostate cancer (42 percent heritable) is the least susceptible to the environment, followed by colon (35 percent) and breast (27 percent).

"We're trying to build a Web browser for parrots," says biologist Irene Pepperberg who hopes to set up chat rooms in cyberspace for clever but bored birds. And once the birds are online, Pepperberg will be turning her attention to dogs.

"If your beer starts to taste funny in the coming months, don't blame the barman. It could be that the brewery has run out of an arcane fungicide antibiotic vital for checking the quality of the yeast from which beer is brewed. It is in short supply and "there are no known substitutes."

JUNE 2000:

Ex-Saudi Oil Minister Ahmed Zaki Yamani predicts oil crash in the next 5 years - says the "oil age" will end. "I can tell you with a degree of confidence that after five years there will be a sharp drop in the price of oil," he was quoted as saying. "The price will stay high for the moment because of high demand." The picture for oil willbe even more dire in 30 years time, Yamani said. "Thirty years from now, there is no problem with oil. Oil will be left in the ground. The Stone Age came to an end not because we had a lack of stones, and the oil age will come to an end not because we have a lack of oil."

The booming digital economy is draining Silicon Valley's electricity, California's energy regulators say. They have decided to temporarily shut down power in the more heat-ravaged parts of the state. Technology leaders are eagerly waiting for more power plants to come on line to keep up with the Internet's rapid expansion.

Caterpillars munching on corn may inadvertently contribute to their own demise by helping the plants summon aid. Plants are known to send out chemical signals when they are under attack by insects and animals. Such signals may help other plants put up chemical defenses, or may attract predators that eat the insects.

Many families showed their appreciation for their dads this year by giving them much more adventurous gifts for Father's Day. Popular presents include a day filled with rock climbing, race car driving or flying lessons.

Old wiring in airplanes, space shuttles and nuclear power plants could pose serious safety risks, warns the Clinton administration. Bad wiring has caused several shuttle mission delays, and it is being investigated as a cause of the crashes of TWA Flight 800 and Swissair Flight 111 in 1998.

MAY 2000:
The Energy Department said that gas was the most expensive since it began keeping records for the three-day Memorial Day weekend, the traditional start of the summer driving season. Motorists hitting the road for Memorial Day weekend ran into not only the highest gasoline prices on record, but also some of the wildest swings in price. The nation's most expensive fill-up will likely be in Chicago, where self-serve regular averaged $1.84 a gallon, while the cheapest gas was in Atlanta: an average $1.38 a gallon, up 9 cents.

McDonald's in California is experimenting with a transponder on windshields of cars that will automatically deduct food purchases from drive-through patrons' accounts. Several million motorists in the U.S. - mostly in the Northeast - use similar devices that send signals to receivers at toll booths. These systems indentify the car and deduct the toll from a prepaid account.

"Rock and Pour" Milk Jugs - New in a limited market is this pitcher-like jug, so easy to pour that a four-year-old can use it. The ordinary plastic jug was created 50 years ago.

Danny Glover has a message for parents: "Teach your children well and listen to them, too. The spread of technology makes it all the more important to prepare children for the future... Too many people sleep through great periods of social change. There are great dialogues taking place that are determining the future of our nation."

After leading a round of air fare increases over the weekend, Continental Airlines surprisingly rescinded its decision Monday. Analysts said it was uncertain whether other carriers also would abandon the increases of $10 to $30 a round trip on business and leisure fares. But they predicted future attempts to raise fares this summer.

Forget all the newest gadgets. The most tiring household tasks today are the same ones cited 60 years ago. Despite the latest electronic, ergonomic and timesaving devices that aid the harried householder, the most tiring household tasks are still scrubbing and mopping the floors, tidying up, vacuuming and doing laundry. What we need are products that decrease bending and stretching while mopping, new types of flooring that are easier to clean, and better cleaners, say researchers.

APRIL 2000:
Instant justice has arrived, cyber-style. A laptop program called the electronic judge is being tested on the streets of Brazil. The electronic judge is rushed to the scene of an incident and gives a verdict within minutes, issues on-the-spot fines, orders damages to be paid and even recommends jail sentences. It forms part of a scheme called Justice-on- Wheels, which has been designed to speed up Brazil's overloaded legal system by dealing swiftly with straightforward cases.

California officials want to take recycling to the next step - turning toilet water into drinking water.

University of Massachusetts researchers predict that by 2007, the average National Football league lineman will stand 6 feet, 4 inches tall and weigh 300 pounds. Since 1920, when the average lineman was 5 ft, 9 inches and weighed 189 pounds, players' height has gone up by 8%, while weight has gone up 53%.

"Donated human remains are processed into medical products that generate hundreds of millions of dollars for U.S. companies despite laws barring profit from body parts. Although grieving families are told that the donations are a gift of life, a newspaper found that material harvested from the dead fuels an industry that is expected to have $1 billion in revenues by 2003...People who donate have no idea tissue is being processed into products that per gram or per ounce are in the price range of diamonds."

Forecasts of 30 million visitors to Rome this year are being tested during Holy Week, when the largest crowds are expected. But some hoteliers and restaurateurs grumble that millennial hype has actually scared away visitors.

Experts have concerns that in the next 18 months wireless viruses will spread to handheld Internet devices and the Internet connected appliances that futurists think will dominate homes in the near future. We are not that far from the day when your refrigerator could get a virus - it is maybe only five years in the future.

MARCH 2000:

Clinton administration officials predicted lower oil and gasoline prices in the United States by midsummer, thanks to a production boost and additional oil increases anticipated from non-OPEC nations. Other sources say no relief will be seen at the gas pumps until fall.

Stronger-than-expected economic growth has added years of life to Social Security and Medicare. The strong U.S. economy has delayed the projected insolvency date of the Medicare trust by eight years, to 2023, and the Social Security fund by three years to 2037. The new data marks the third consecutive year stronger-than-expected economic growth has added new years of life to the retirement programs. Medicare, the health insurance program for the elderly and disabled, had been projected to run out of cash in 2015, according to last year's update. The Social Security insolvency date was 2034 last year.

The U.S. economy was even hotter in the last three months of 1999 than previously thought, roaring along at the highest rate in almost 16 years and confounding economists who keep expecting it to slow down.

In the fall of 1998, when Lego launched Lego Mindstorms — a new generation of Legos that could be manipulated using microcomputers, light and touch sensors, an infrared transmitter and CD-ROMs. Computer programmers quickly hacked the Mindstorms' code and began devising ever-more complex creations: a miniature photocopier, a coin sorter and a variety of robots that can bark like dogs, climb stairs or carry the morning paper. Programmers have figured out how to control them with everything from their CD players to Palm handheld devices.

First there were robot dogs. Then robot cats. Now Japan's third-largest toymaker showed off a school of robot fish it says will swim into Japanese stores this fall. In addition to finned fish, the "Aquaroid Fish" line includes a jellyfish and a crab. Fins, tentacles and pincers are all solar powered, and a computer brain keeps collisions with other marine life and aquarium walls to a minimum. Cost - aboout $140.

Some experts predict that the era of earlier and earlier retirement is over. More and more people are going to find some mix of work and leisure to be the preferred way of life in retirement.

No Internet Tax Likely Anytime Soon - "A federal commission appears ready to endorse a congressional extension of up to five years of the current moratorium on new Internet taxes. Agreement remains elusive on the contentious issue of whether states' sales taxes should apply to e-commerce. Extending the freeze beyond October 2001, when it is set to expire, seems to have support from a majority of the 19-member Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce heading into its final meeting this week in Dallas. "

It has been predicted that the pilot's map light in the cockpit ceiling of the MD-11 could have been the source of ignition in the 1998 crash of a Swissair plane off Nova Scotia which killed 229 passengers. Boeing, which makes the MD-11 model planes, is urging airlines using that type of aircraft to check the lights often until they can be replaced, and to install fire-resistant tape to protect insulation. The Federal Aviation Administration is considering whether to make such checks mandatory.

"A growing number of 'suitcase cartels' are using corrupt baggage handlers to switch Latin American travelers' bags with suitcases full of drugs. At best, travelers lose their luggage; at worst, they're framed for drug possession.

" Futurists have just the thing for sports fans tired of fighting the crowds in packed stadiums on Earth -- an arena in space. As they envision it, space tourists in the 21st century will be able to Velcro themselves down in their seats and enjoy a cold beer and a hot dog while cheering for the home team. That's the vision of Patrick Collins, a professor at Azabu University in Japan. Along with engineers at Hazama Corp. in Tokyo, Collins foresees various kinds of sports centers sprouting above Earth."

There are now as many people overweight in the world as underweight, a new study says.

FEBRUARY 2000:

Getting some supernatural help at work - heard about the Office Voodoo Kit?

After a cold and snowy winter, the date of this year's annual bloom of cherry blossoms on the 3000 Japanese cherry trees in Washington D.C. has been officially forecast as the first week of April, with the peak on April 4. Robert DeFeo, a horticulturist with the National Park Service has successfully predicted the peak bloom for the past nine years.

Prices that now average $1.41 a gallon in the United States could stay high into the summer travel season. Some analysts even predict pump prices up to $1.60 and $1.70 per gallon before the problem eases.

Fashion Trends Coming for Fall and Winter - Olive, camel, pink, burgundy, teal and turquoise are the colors at the cutting-edge; bursting florals vie with sequins, geometric prints and snakeskin.

A Las Vegas TV producer and photographer were fired for creating "on the scene" footage of October 1999's California earthquake by rocking their video truck.

A string of new Internet companies have develped e-mail technology that enables your friends to include banner ads in their e-mail messages and earn commissions on any purchases you might be swayed to make. Companies include: epidemic.com, Favemail, SuperSig.com and Tomeo.

Weddings of the 21st century may begin to show a bit more color. There's a new trend in the works and it is beginning this Valentine's Day. Many brides are choosing to add color to the traditional white gown. More from everythingvalentine.com

JANUARY 2000:

College Students Are Glimpse of Internet Future. If you want a glimpse into the future, just peek into a dorm at University of California. The computer dominates every aspect of these young lives. While one roommate does research, another chats online with friends and a third roommate downloads music. This dorm, like thousands of others across the country, has recently been wired with high-speed Internet access called Ethernet.

Welfare moms hired as psychics in city program

Short vacations are becoming the norm - Weekend trips of two or three days now amount to more than half of all travel in the U.S. The trips are shorter,but we are taking more of them. The number of weekend trips by Americans increased by 70% between 1986 and 1996. The travel industry, expecting the trend to continue, is increasingly tailoring its offerings to fit such schedules. Just 5% of all U.S. travelers left the country in 1998 and 55% stayed within 600 miles of home.

Weddings are getting to be more and more spectacular productions, especially in Las Vegas. At the MGM Grand, Merlin is the master of ceremonies, woodland spirits escort the wedding party and a fire-breathing dragon attempts to interfere with the vows - all on stage. Wedding packages cost $4,995. At the Las Vegas Hilton, bride and groom can dress in their intergalactic best and wed aboard the USS Enterprise, while Star Trek characters look on. Wedding packages start at $2000.

According to an article in the January/February issue of Metropolitan Home magazine, it's easier than ever to predict the future market for collectible design and furnishings. According to Metropolitan Home, here's what to look for.

Due to high fuel costs and labor issues, industry experts say ticket prices will go up. However, you probably won't see a fare hike right away.

"Next time you turn on the lights, think about this: A new federal study of power outages last summer has concluded that the reliability of the U.S. power grid has been "considerably eroded." A big factor, it found, is that utilities that used to cooperate are now fiercely competitive. The problem will get worse unless corrective action is taken... The North American Electric Reliability Council, an industry group, last month wrote to the House Commerce Committee, stating that last summer's power outages show "we are facing a real and immediate crisis." he council, whose members operate the transmission of power across the country, warned that "we may not be able much longer to keep the interstate electric grids operating reliably.">

Millions of mothers across Asia are expected to bring a big baby boom during the Year of the Dragon regarded by Chinese as the luckiest time to have a child in the 12-year Chinese astrological calendar. This year is especially auspicious for Chinese because it's the millennium, or "Qian Xi," the "Year of a Thousand Happinesses." For many, the joy of having a dragon and millennium baby may be overshadowed by worries that the children will face greater competition in college entrance exams and in job markets. More deliveries are expected at the end of the dragon year because many people do not want to have babies in the following Year of the Snake. The baby boom may force doctors to further curtail the time allocated to maternity checkups, already rushed at an average of three minutes. Many women were under pressure from their superstitious mothers-in-law to have dragon babies. Some women ignored their own advanced ages and put off their pregnancies in order to get dragon babies. The expected baby boom contrasted with the Year of the Tiger two years ago when many women avoided pregnancy because a tiger baby is considered rebellious. Some astrologers say a baby will have the best luck if it is born in the middle of the dragon year when gold, one of five elements in earth, dominates. Taiwanese fortune teller Liao Ju-tien says for a baby to do well it must also have good interaction with its parents, meaning the horoscopes of the three match well. "Not every baby born in the year will have the same luck and achievements," he said.

DECEMBER 1999:

Who's Monitoring My Crystal Ball? How much privacy are we willing to trade for convenience and a cash discount?

Just a few months ago, trend forecasters were predicting that millennium fever and frenzied partying would start well before New Year's Eve. Instead, celebrations were canceled for lack of interest. Some of the blame was put on Y2K computer problems, high costs, and fear of terrorists, but there's something below the surface that has increased the anxiety level - it's being called the millennium blues. We are anxious that the apocalypse is coming and that the Earth will end in a fireball; that Y2K would mean the end of civilization as we know it; that this might not even be the turn of the millennium and we'll have to go through it all again on Dec. 31, 2000; maybe you haven't accomplished everything you thought you would have or should have by now. The Maryland Project is an Internet based study of how people view the calendar change.

My prediction: that most predictions will be wrong - by Mike Littwin.

NEA Unseals 40-Year-Old Prophecies On Nation's Schools. They predicted that students would be well-prepared for careers in space, television would play a critical role in instruction, and all schools would teach the universal language adopted by the new world federation of countries.

Ten years ago, Internet prognosticators sounded overzealous when they suggested that an interconnected network of computers would recast every facet of society. Some of the most futuristic and utopian predictions may never play out, of course. But the Net does seem to be bringing irrevocable change to one part of life: buying stuff...Paul Saffo, the director of the Institute for the Future, a forecasting firm, expects the Internet to yield a range of new products. "Just as television produced new products, like TV Guide, TV dinners and Ginsu knives," he said, "we'll be buying new stuff that never existed before because there's been no good way to sell it."... Traditional retail shopping, Nat Goldhaber, chief executive of Cybergold, predicted, will lose its social function "as people use the Internet for the purpose of social interaction." "I'm sort of a radical in this regard," he said. "But no matter how dramatic you think the Internet will change the world, you're underestimating it."

Fashion designers have issued long-range forecasts for the next millennium that are even more Delphic than their ones for the next season.

More than half of the one billion mobile phone subscribers in 2003 will be connected to the Internet via those phones, say analysts at phone.com. A VIP predicts that Net phone sales will really take off in the second quarter of 2000.

Despite a strong overall record, safety has become a bigger worry for airlines as the skies fill with more passenger and cargo and air traffic controls get overloaded. Fatal crashes aside, there were three near-misses this year on U.S. runways—at Chicago's O'Hare, New York's Kennedy and Los Angeles airports— evidence of a serious safety problem. Federal transportation officials last spring began studying how new flight data technology, such as video and real-time data transmissions, could improve aviation safety. The idea of cockpit video cameras appears to have gained ground since 217 people died in the Oct. 31 crash of an EgyptAir plane into the Atlantic Ocean.

Despite all the griping about gridlock, a new ABCNEWS poll finds that most working Americans don't have to travel all that far to bring home the bacon. Surprisingly, these figures haven't changed much in the past decade.

"Driven by fashion and advertising, the Christmas and millennium consumer orgy highlights the inequalities between rich and poor. 'More, more, more' is the maxim of the consumer society, a maxim that is spreading fast from its neuralgic centre in the USA to the remotest corners of the world. The trend-setters are the rich and super-rich, whose income and numbers have exploded in the past 20 years. A recent poll showed that one third of Americans would like to join the six per cent that have 'really made it'. They estimated they could do this with an income of US$102, 000 (1994 dollars) - twice the amount they said they needed just five years earlier.
In the meantime, the gap between the rich and the poor within and between countries continues to grow. What Americans and Europeans spend on perfumes each year could meet the annual cost of giving every woman in the world access to reproductive health. European spending on ice cream alone would pay for water and sanitation for all, leaving another US$2 billion as loose change. Such disparity points to the income-concentrating tendencies of the current economic system. While a privileged few overconsume, the consumption options of millions are so limited that they are confined to a hand-to-mouth existence. They are society's 'disappeared'. ..The challenge now is for governments to do what they have agreed to do - and for citizens to consider also how their lifestyles are affecting the future of our planet."

Retailers are waiting for 1999's sleeper hit - sleepers are toys that prove unexpectedly popular. One is proving to be Music Blocks, a $70 toy that allowes 2-year-olds to play brief passages from mozart. Sales are already brksk for the blocks and for the $60 LeapPad, an electronic book that allows a youngster to press a wand to a word he can't read and the book sounds it out. Also predicted to be hits are Ellie's Enchanted Garden and Redbeard's PirateQuest - both are plastic play sets that activate a game on your home computer. Spotting a sleeper is a vital skill in the toy industry. Most retailers have to decide what to order as early as February during the annual Toy Fair in new York. Other possible hits are the $50 Stone Cold Steve Austin wrestling doll that you can plug into a computer to dial up new rants and raves, the $54 Radica Rider, a virtual snowboard that translates your body movements onto an electronic display on the board, and $60 Amazing Ally doll with 32-megabytes of memory. More affordable are the $25 Barbie Beaded Handbags and $25 Coin Bank Safe with its own alarm.

Almost half of the world's young people hope the fireworks of the millennium celebrations will end with sex, a survey commissioned by condom-maker Durex showed Wednesday. Canadian youngsters were the most hopeful, with 63 percent saying they expected their celebrations to include making love, according to the survey. The poll of nearly 5,000 people aged 16 to 21 in 14 countries found that nearly two thirds planned to use condoms as their method of Y2K contraception, but 16 percent would take no precautions.Of those who had not yet had sex, 17 percent planned to begin the new millennium by losing their virginity. In Britain, just over 60 percent of youngsters expected to end the year with a bang, while 48 percent of Polish party-goers and nearly half of young Czechs were hopeful. But in Taiwan the mood was more restrained, with 15 percent hoping to make love on the night, making its young people the least lustful in the world.

The flow of new U.S. Internet users seems to be drying up, according to a report issued today by New York-based Cyber Dialogue. The Internet market research firm concluded that the growth of the U.S. Internet audience is declining largely because many adults cannot afford a personal computer or they believe owning one is unnecessary--and many surf the Internet and never return. The latter group of one-time users totaled 27.7 million Americans in September, compared with 9.4 million in 1997, the report found. "Marketers can no longer count on a rising tide of new users in the United States to float all boats," Cyber Dialogue vice president Thomas Miller said.

Female Crime Rate Declines - Most Violence Is Against Other Women, FBI Says. Women commit about 2.1 million violent crimes each year in the United States. Three-quarters of violent crimes committed by women are relatively mild simple assaults on other women. By comparison, men commit about 13 million violent crimes each year, just over half of which are simple assaults, and 70 percent of their victims are males. The violent crime rate among women dropped by 25 percent from 1994-1997.

High tech will be driving force for real estate, analysts predict. Many small merchants will be pressed by Internet retailers and will go out of business, and their stores will be consolidated with financially stronger ones. Increasing numbers of apartment landlords, meanwhile, will pass along water, sewer and other costs to renters.

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