{"id":3925,"date":"2011-01-14T00:45:35","date_gmt":"2011-01-13T14:45:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=3925"},"modified":"2011-01-14T00:54:24","modified_gmt":"2011-01-13T14:54:24","slug":"the-prognosticator-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=3925","title":{"rendered":"The Prognosticator 2011 Checklist"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

TFW readers with long(ish) memories might recall that a year ago, at the start of the decade, I made some predictions for the next ten years covering a range of topics including politics, science, technology and for The FAT Website itself.\u00a0 You can read that full blog here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Anyway, we’re 1\/10th of the way to 2020 and I thought it might be interesting to do a progress check on how I’m going.<\/p>\n

The FAT Website<\/strong><\/h1>\n

1.\u00a0 The FAT Website will have 3D visuals.<\/span>
\nPREDICTION TRACKER: <\/strong>Not so far<\/strong><\/span>.\u00a0 Which is not to say that it couldn’t happen.\u00a0 The biggest most obvious hurdle is that no one has a 3D monitor to view the website.\u00a0 Not looking good.<\/em><\/p>\n

2.\u00a0 The FAT Website will still be running.<\/span>
\nPREDICTION TRACKER: <\/strong>On track<\/strong><\/span>.\u00a0 In fact, the website is currently attracting more hits than it has in a long time (over 300 unique visitors checked out the site at least twice a week in 2010 according to Google Analytics).<\/em><\/p>\n

3. Four TFW bloggers will get married.<\/span>
\nPREDICTION TRACKER: <\/strong>On track<\/strong><\/span>.\u00a0 Dan Tan Bell got married in 2010 and Pat Fat Perraton is engaged and due to get married.\u00a0 That puts me halfway to target with eight years to go.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Note<\/em>:\u00a0 I decided to remove the prediction for whether there’d be a divorce since thats a bit negative really.<\/p>\n

Politics<\/strong><\/h1>\n

1.\u00a0 Australia will have a female prime minister.<\/span>
\nPREDICTION TRACKER: <\/strong>Success!<\/strong><\/span> Julia Gillard stabbed her own party leader Kevin Rudd in the back and assumed the mantle of Prime Minister of Australia without an election.\u00a0 Good job!<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

2.\u00a0 Australia won’t legalize gay marriage.<\/span>
\nPREDICTION TRACKER:\u00a0 On track<\/em><\/span>.<\/strong> The majority of Australians want legalized gay marriage but neither political party has the balls to push through the legislation.<\/em><\/p>\n

3.\u00a0 Australia will get a mandatory Internet censorship filter.<\/span>
\nPREDICTION TRACKER: <\/strong>Not so far<\/strong><\/span>.<\/em> Both parties have talked about it but risk a huge public backlash.\u00a0 Labor probably would’ve pushed ahead with it but they needed to shelve it when they realised they had a close election on their hands.\u00a0 Will surely come up again over the next nine years.<\/em><\/p>\n

4.\u00a0 Australia will get an R-18 video game rating.<\/span>
\nPREDICTION TRACKER:\u00a0 Not so far<\/span>.<\/em><\/strong> Hey, South Australian Labor Party:\u00a0 thanks a lot, assholes!<\/em><\/p>\n

5.\u00a0 Barack Obama to win a second term as American President.<\/span>
\nPREDICTION TRACKER:\u00a0 On track<\/span>. <\/em><\/strong>He’s had a tough two years in office but we’re yet to see a realistic contender in the Republican party.\u00a0 Sarah Palin gets all the attention but polling still tells us that Obama would beat her handily if it came down to the two of them.<\/em><\/p>\n

6.\u00a0 Labor Party will be in power in the UK in 2020.<\/span>
\nPREDICTION TRACKER:\u00a0 Not so far<\/span>. <\/em><\/strong>Well, the fact that they just got voted out this year sets back the likelihood of this happening.<\/em><\/p>\n

Health & Science
\n<\/em><\/strong><\/h1>\n

1.\u00a0 Scientists will successfully clone a human being.<\/span>
\nPREDICTION TRACKER: Not so far<\/span>.<\/em><\/strong> <\/strong> I don’t know what crackpot science fiction movie I was watching when I wrote this but I’m 99% sure there isn’t a remote chance of this happening.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em>\"\"<\/a><\/em>\"\"<\/a><\/em>\"\"<\/a><\/em>\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

2.\u00a0 We will still be globally dependant on fossil fuels by 2020.<\/span>
\nPREDICTION TRACKER: On track<\/span>.<\/em><\/strong> Not that I expected this to change in a year but so far it looks to be a pretty safe bet.<\/em><\/p>\n

3.\u00a0 Scientists will develop a vaccine for HIV.<\/span>
\nPREDICTION TRACKER: Not so far<\/span>.<\/em><\/strong> America’s recent economic woes set back this prediction significantly as they were the country most likely to make progress towards this milestone.<\/em><\/p>\n

Sports
\n<\/em><\/strong><\/h1>\n

1.\u00a0 A team other than Chelsea, Manchester United or Arsenal will win the English Premiere League.<\/span>
\nPREDICTION TRACKER: Not so far<\/span>.<\/em><\/strong> 2010\/11 season = same old shit.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

2.\u00a0 A man will run 100 metres in under 9.5 seconds.<\/span>
\nPREDICTION TRACKER: Not so far<\/span> <\/span>.<\/em><\/strong> When does Ussain Bolt run again?<\/em><\/p>\n

3.\u00a0 Scotland will qualify for a World Cup.<\/span>
\nPREDICTION TRACKER: Not so far<\/span>.<\/em><\/strong> But lets wait and see how they get on.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Media & Technology
\n<\/strong><\/h1>\n

1.\u00a0 3D Televisions will become the standard.<\/span>
\nPREDICTION TRACKER: Not so far<\/span>.<\/em><\/strong> I don’t really expect this to happen for another five years or so, to be fair.<\/em><\/p>\n

2.\u00a0 Most people will download movies instead of purchasing them in a store.<\/span>
\nPREDICTION TRACKER: On track<\/span>.<\/em><\/strong> The rise in popularity of Netflix and AppleTV etc. suggests this should come true fairly soon.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

3.\u00a0 The Audio CD will cease production this decade.<\/span>
\nPREDICTION TRACKER: Not so far<\/span>.<\/em><\/strong> I might have got this one wrong actually because the death of the audio CD suggests the complete absense of music in a physical retail presence.<\/em><\/p>\n

4.\u00a0 Someone will make a film that costs half a billion dollars to produce ($US).<\/span>
\nPREDICTION TRACKER: On track<\/span>.<\/em><\/strong> Tangled by Disney cost $270 million dollars to make.\u00a0 The Hobbit costs $500 million but is actually two films.\u00a0 But I’m confident we’ll get there.<\/em><\/p>\n

5.\u00a0 Facebook will still be the most popular social networking site by 2020.<\/span>
\nPREDICTION TRACKER: On track<\/span>.<\/em><\/strong> No sign of any competition so far.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TFW readers with long(ish) memories might recall that a year ago, at the start of the decade, I made some predictions for the next ten years covering a range of topics including politics, science, technology and for The FAT Website itself.\u00a0 You can read that full blog here. Anyway, we’re 1\/10th of the way to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[745],"class_list":["post-3925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-prognosticator"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3925"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3925\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3945,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3925\/revisions\/3945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}