Handy links to each months artifact, dating back to November 2004. I definitely thought the artifact was the highlight of the issue back when I had a subscription.
Showing posts with label predictions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label predictions. Show all posts
Wired's artifacts from the future
Handy links to each months artifact, dating back to November 2004. I definitely thought the artifact was the highlight of the issue back when I had a subscription.
Global temperatures have not risen since 1998
The World Meteorological Organization's secretary-general, Michel Jarraud, told the BBC it was likely that La Nina would continue into the summer.
This would mean global temperatures have not risen since 1998, prompting some to question climate change theory.
But experts say we are still clearly in a long-term warming trend - and they forecast a new record high temperature within five years.
Link.
Global warming is beginning to sound a lot like the warning I heard all the time in the 90s, that an earthquake was going to split California from the rest of the US. In fact, they made more than one movie about it.
My theory is that many people HAVE to have some kind of apocalyptic threat hanging over their heads. Right now, some believe it's Muslim terrorists and others believe it's global warming. (Previously it was nuclear armageddon, or Y2K, or the "Big One" or SARS or bird flu or the UN's New World Order or...)
Meanwhile, you can't beat this headline:
Lloyd's warns of a lack of natural disasters
Lloyd's of London warned yesterday that an absence last year of natural disasters or man-made accidents was putting pressure on firms to reduce premiums in 2008.
Link.
Cue very small violin.
"The domestication of biotechnology will dominate our lives during the next fifty years"
Freeman Dyson:
Read more. Via Instapundit.
I predict that the domestication of biotechnology will dominate our lives during the next fifty years at least as much as the domestication of computers has dominated our lives during the previous fifty years.
I see a close analogy between John von Neumann's blinkered vision of computers as large centralized facilities and the public perception of genetic engineering today as an activity of large pharmaceutical and agribusiness corporations such as Monsanto. The public distrusts Monsanto because Monsanto likes to put genes for poisonous pesticides into food crops, just as we distrusted von Neumann because he liked to use his computer for designing hydrogen bombs secretly at midnight. It is likely that genetic engineering will remain unpopular and controversial so long as it remains a centralized activity in the hands of large corporations.
I see a bright future for the biotechnology industry when it follows the path of the computer industry, the path that von Neumann failed to foresee, becoming small and domesticated rather than big and centralized. The first step in this direction was already taken recently, when genetically modified tropical fish with new and brilliant colors appeared in pet stores.
Every orchid or rose or lizard or snake is the work of a dedicated and skilled breeder. There are thousands of people, amateurs and professionals, who devote their lives to this business. Now imagine what will happen when the tools of genetic engineering become accessible to these people. There will be do-it-yourself kits for gardeners who will use genetic engineering to breed new varieties of roses and orchids. Also kits for lovers of pigeons and parrots and lizards and snakes to breed new varieties of pets. Breeders of dogs and cats will have their kits too.
Read more. Via Instapundit.
83 Stories To Look For In The Upcoming Major League Baseball Season
ESPN provides a handy list if you haven't been paying attention up til now.
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