2016 predictions

2016: The year of the anti-tech movement

There is anti-GMO. Anti chemicals..
And in 2016, the next phase of the tech future will be the anti-techs, those who embrace a 1980s MAC and love fax machines… those who disobey the powers that be and want a washing machine WITHOUT WI-FI ..

They keep a little paper over top of their laptop camera just in case big brother or an advertiser is watching..

Deep down they make sense to you.
And in 2016, you may just join in the chorus of rebellion against gadgets..

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The year you'll dread all forms of media.

Politics is on the way.
Donald Trump is coming.
Hillary's arrow is going to be dancing on your night time TV ads..
All forms of media are going be hit hard with political advertising.. there is no stopping it. Pop culture will be transformed into a nightmare of debate and endless punditry. It's coming.

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The predictions from last year. Now to be judged.

I wrote the following 'predictions' in my 2014 review.. 

The campaign for the White House 2016 will become very annoying. Straw polls, debates.. early PR disasters. Jeb Bush . Hillary Clinton .. we will be dreading 2015. A dark horse will emerge and, even more importantly, perhaps third party candidates will start becoming more acceptable to Americans. It better happen soon. Sort of right! Donald Trump was the 'dark horse' who emerged.  Trump may not be the dark horse you wanted but he certainly has shaken things up.

President Obama will look very good by Christmas 2016. The economic turnaround will be slow to start by steamroll by spring, with GDP edging higher by the third quarter. Construction will rebound, at least in some sectors, and Americans will be hopeful again. Somewhat right. There still seem to be some issues. Interest rates.. weak jobs but more of them.. a shaky economy that may actually be in recession in 2016.

There are a few events that will make us fearful. They will come from other nations. They may be terror related, or perhaps just the wrap of daily headlines of murder and mayhem on other continents will make us tremble … This was general, perhaps. But there were things that made us fear. Name terrorism in Paris and then San Bernardino.

Ebola is not over. It never will be. I was too general. This can be considered insignificant. 

The weather will be calmer than predicted. But large storms will strike when least expected in places not used to them. Global warming has caused chaos.. we have become used to the chaos but areas not accustomed to it will be hurt. Not really. It was warmer than expected. But there were lots of weird storms and freak incidents. 

People will continue to stop going to theaters for movies. SONY’s release of the INTERVIEW will set a trend.. people will stream. It’s the future. STAR WARS, THE MARTIAN, JURASSIC WORLD all blew this prediction out of the water. I was dead wrong. And funny enough, this was the year I went to the movies the most in the last five. If I could go back and revise, I would and say "2015 will be the year people turn back to theaters".. 

There will be a number of earthquakes in the Midwest. Some will be sizable, others barely that. But each one will make us wonder if the New Madrid fault line is waking up.. Oklahoma. 

The typhoon season in the Pacific will be dangerous in 2015. Some of the strongest storms ever. The strongest storm ever. This was a year for wild typhoon drama. 

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THE PREDICTIONS FOR 2016

1. Donald Trump will be the nominee for Republicans. He will choose Marco Rubio. Hillary will be for the Dems.. her choice as a running mate: Charlie Crist.


2. Terrorism will be the top story by the end of 2016. As will the fear it generates.


3. There will be a medical development with cancer that will give hope to millions who are afflicted.


4. There will be a bigger emphasis on open-source artificial intelligence. It will be 'power to the people,' with the dawn of the drones. Get ready. They are coming.


5. GMO-free food will gain in popularity. But there will be increasingly and creative ways to mask GMO from consumers. It's the year you'll be deceived even more by fancy packages. Be smart and buy after research.


6. There will be less tech addiction in 2016. People have had enough. Phone free Sundays may turn into phone free weeks. People may give up on Facebook, except for the emergency chats..


7. Health--real health--will be en vogue in 2016. Not fad diets or fraud get thin quick schemes. But real long term health. This is the beginning of a new age of fitting in jeans and having a healthy heart.


8. The Olympics will not be without incident. Massive rains--flooding rains actually--may hit just in time in Brazil.


9. The economy that will matter in 2016: India. China will matter a lot less.


10. It will be hot. All year.. some of the hottest weather on the planet earth in centuries is on the way.

Those are my predictions. Sealed in HTML for a year.
Maybe next year if we're all still here we'll see how I did.