How did I do with my predictions for 2010

Well with a minute to go to midnight how did I do with my bloody obvious predictions from last year.

1. There will be a General Election this took place on May 6th

2. The boat race will be won by Oxford....or Cambridge...one of those two teams at any rate. Yeah, I was right here too.*

3. The ice and snow currently covering large swathes of Scotland will melt. It did, the last from out the back of my house in Bathgate melted in March.

4. During the Football World Cup in South Africa there will descent from players against at least one official. Take you pick of a number of incidents.

5. There will be new boxing world champions....what you want the divisions, belts etc?...hey these are the bleeding obvious predictions not Nostradamus or some Mayans. Yes.There were quite a few changes check here.

6. Talking of Mayan's somebody somewhere during the year will point out that the end of the Mayan calendar has happened before, and if only some Mayan were creating new far reaching calendars the film 2012 might not have happened. Need to check this one

7. There will be 5 men and 5 women nominated for the best Actor and Actress awards for the 2010 Academy Awards. Yes they were Morgan Freeman, Jeff Bridges, George Clooney, Colin Firth, Jeremy Renner, Meryl Streep, Sandra Bullock, Helen Mirren, Gabourey Sidibe and Carey Mulligan. 

8. David Cameron will smile, look pensive and wave. Yes, he did all of this on the day he walked in number 10 for the first time.

9. Gordon Brown will look glum, look glummer and try not to smirk again. Yes he did the first two quite a lot during the general election. He may have tried and failed with the last during the leaders debates.

10. The Earth will do a complete circuit of the Sun, the moon will make approximately 13.4 orbits of the earth and Vogon Constructor Ships will not demolish us to make way for a Hyperspace Bypass...at least not this year.  Yes, result and not a Vogon in sight.

Of course I also made some considered predictions

So how did they go?

1. Britain will take their best return ever in the Winter Olympics with 5 medals. We'll start with the local pair Sinead and John Kerr who will win their first Olympic medal. Zoe Gillings will snowboard her way to the podium and not to be outdone in form Chemmy Alcock will bring her best to the piste to also lift a medal. On the bobsleigh track two Britons Amy Williams and Shelly Rudman will stand on the podium in the women's skeleton bob. Only Amy medalled, even though it was Gold it was not GB&NI's best performance.

2. The results of the General Election in Scotland give Labour 28, Lib Dems 16, SNP 13, Tories 2. Labour 41, Lib Dem 11, SNP 6, Tories 1. Miserable fail but I would still have guessed more for everyone bar Labour at 7am on polling day.

3. After the result and Gordon falling on his schian dubh, the Milliband brothers tie up most of the remaining Labour MPs nominations between them. Inspired by the Polish President and Prime Minister, or maybe Jedward they decide to run a joint leadership bid. They try to use the name Dedward Milliband, although rumours that Louis Walsh, or PM Cameron are going to either sue or use the 'deadwood' sounding name they decide on Edvid instead. Well they did tie up most of the Labour nominations, some of their supporters lent their nomiation to get Diane Abbott on the ballot. Of course there was no joint leadership bid but they were the last two standing.

4. Andy Murray will win a Grand Slam this year....(I know I said that last year). If he hasn't won the Australian watch out for the US Open. He will reach the semi-finals in all four (if he is fit). Came mighty close to this one in the Austrailian he was leading 6-3, 7-6, 3-0 before Federer came back to win it in 5 leaving Andy in tears. He didn't reach the semi-finals in all four and didn't blame injury for either the French or US exits (although he had a number of trainer calls out in New York).

5. Michael Schumacher will win two of the first three races of the F1 season, but a shunt mid-season brings his comeback to an end when he aggravates old injuries. Oops! Schumey failed to impress upon his return, no major craches ended his career either.

6. Team Sky Rider Bradley Wiggins will ride along the Champs d'Elysee behind his Green Jerseyed compatriot Mark Cavendish to the best finish ever by a Brit in the Grand Tour when he podiums. Brad said himseld he'd done badly in preparing. A couple of crashes cost Cav a close run in the Green jersey. But he won all the sprints he took part in at the line.

7. The Church of Scotland to stop the anti-gay grouping in the church continually breaking the moratorium of silence over homosexual ministers will bring forward a decision on the issue at this years General Assembly. Err no. There are still whispers on this one but it will come to an end at this years General Assmebly, I predict fireworks.

8. Russell T. Davis after bringing back Doctor Who announces that he is try it again. He plans to bring back to the small screen Charlie's Angels with a twist, Charlie is female and the angels are a mixture of male and female eye candy. No word from RTD on this.....yet.

9. A small group of Premier League footballers hold a joint press conference to announce that they are gay. Football fans are surprisingly supportive with the news. Fans of both sets of fans drowning out the homophobic numpties who try and make something of it. Still no out gay footballers in the Premier League and as Qatar have been awarded the 2022 World Cup to Homophobic comments from the FIFA President I don't think it will happen soon, at least not willingly.

10. Strictly Come Dancing sees the return of Arlene Philips as a judge in the new five judges format.Still no Arlene on the main show. She has her own show in development though.

* For the record it was Cambridge that won on 3 April 2010

Six Nations Week Two Predictions

Last week Malcand me were both 100% on the results but he has the edge on points difference. For Ireland v Italy he was 7 points away to my 14, England v Wales 8 to my 10 but for Scotland v France I was only 8 points off, edging his 9. Those are cumulative differences from the actual scores of both teams giving him a 24 to 32 lead.

So on with this week.

France 20 -24 Ireland

Wales 21-10 Scotland
Italy 13-34 England

Game one is in Paris and may well be seen as the Championship decider. Ireland are still unbeaten since 2008. But O'Gara is being retained ahead of the fit again John Sexton, who to me looks as good as O'Gara, just a few years back rather than the one of today. France are without Aurelien Rougerie and Benjamin Fall after injuries they sustained at Murrayfield. However, I think the French scrum half Morgan Parra may have just given added incentive for the French to win in Paris for only the third time since 1952, by calling them cheats. Has he forgotten which player on the same park 'cheated' in the two nations meeting in football.

Wales take on Scotland in Cardiff and I'm sorry to say to the Scots but I don't think the Welsh will be giving away 10 minutes of sin binning a crucial player at the crunch time again. They were almost ready to dominate England last weekend, while the Scots failed to cut out the errors that gave the French the came just down the track from me here. Wales will win this with ease I feel never being troubled by the Scots, even with Euan Murray back for this 'Saturday' game.

On Valentines Day the English won't be wasting any love on their hosts in Rome. I don't think the English will take their foot off the pedal in the second half as the Irish appeared to last week, so I may well have underestimated the score line here. England to win setting up the next game to decide the championship if I'm right all weekend at Twickenham in a fortnight's time.

Six Nations Week One Predictions

Malc is back blogging. Hurrah!! And has laid down the gauntlet of predicting the scores if the Six Nations. So here is my take on the weekend's action.

Ireland 41-9 Italy
England 21-16 Wales
Scotland 16-17 France

Game one is in Dublin. The only decision to be made is in the score. I see Ireland dominating the Azurri. The only real choice is how many tries they can run in, I expect the majority of Ireland's tries to be in the second half.

I think game two may well be between the two teams challenging Ireland for the trophy BO'D is carrying above. However, England will kick their way to victory. They always seem to.

I think Scotland will be up for Les Bleus arrival at Murrayfield. I remember two years ago partying away with some French fans in the Grassmarket into the small hours. I think they will be celebrating again this weekend but only by the skin of their teeth.

2010: Living in the Future (38 Years On)

In 1972 Geoffrey Hoyle wrote a children's book called 2010: Living in the Future.

Well 2010 is now the present, so take a look at the book on Tumblr courtesy of Daniel Sinker and see how close and far out some of the predictions are. Also see how some mix futuristic ideas with old school technology. You can even add a comment if you want.

A interesting thing to have stumbled upon on a Sunday afternoon. Indeed reading it I have a feeling that I actually have read this before, back in the 70s. It would have been the sort of book I would have picked up at my local library.

UPDATE: It gets better Daniel has managed to track down the author and has sent him an email to find out how he thinks the real 2010 compares with his vision of it. There is a Facebook group that was set up to find him, I look forward to hearing any potential response.

My Stating the Bleeding Obvious Predictions for 2010

1. There will be a General Election

2. The boat race will be won by Oxford....or Cambridge...one of those two teams at any rate.

3. The ice and snow currently covering large swathes of Scotland will melt.

4. During the Football World Cup in South Africa there will descent from players against at least one official.

5. There will be new boxing world champions....what you want the divisions, belts etc?...hey these are the bleeding obvious predictions not Nostradamus or some Mayans.

6. Talking of Mayan's somebody somewhere during the year will point out that the end of the Mayan calendar has happened before, and if only some Mayan were creating new far reaching calendars the film 2012 might not have happened.

7. There will be 5 men and 5 women nominated for the best Actor and Actress awards for the 2010 Academy Awards.

8. David Cameron will smile, look pensive and wave.

9. Gordon Brown will look glum, look glummer and try not to smirk again.

10. The Earth will do a complete circuit of the Sun, the moon will make approximately 13.4 orbits of the earth and Vogon Constructor Ships will not demolish us to make way for a Hyperspace Bypass...at least not this year.

UPDATE: As people keep linking to this and not my actual considered predictions I thought I'd better had do that myself.

Ten for 2010

Last year the Blogosphere made their nine predictions for 2009 so here on New Year's Eve (I was going to post this on New Year's Eve but mixed up my 2 and 3 in postdating it) as Iain Dale is doing his today (according to Facebook at 23:30 on Monday) here are my pick of ten happenings for 2010.

1. Britain will take their best return ever in the Winter Olympics with 5 medals. We'll start with the local pair Sinead and John Kerr who will win their first Olympic medal. Zoe Gillings will snowboard her way to the podium and not to be outdone in form Chemmy Alcock will bring her best to the piste to also lift a medal. On the bobsleigh track two Britons Amy Williams and Shelly Rudman will stand on the podium in the women's skeleton bob.

2. The results of the General Election in Scotland give Labour 28, Lib Dems 16, SNP 13, Tories 2.

3. After the result and Gordon falling on his schian dubh, the Milliband brothers tie up most of the remaining Labour MPs nominations between them. Inspired by the Polish President and Prime Minister, or maybe Jedward they decide to run a joint leadership bid. They try to use the name Dedward Milliband, although rumours that Louis Walsh, or PM Cameron are going to either sue or use the 'deadwood' sounding name they decide on Edvid instead.

4. Andy Murray will win a Grand Slam this year....(I know I said that last year). If he hasn't won the Australian watch out for the US Open. He will reach the semi-finals in all four (if he is fit).

5. Michael Schumacher will win two of the first three races of the F1 season, but a shunt mid-season brings his comeback to an end when he aggravates old injuries.

6. Team Sky Rider Bradley Wiggins will ride along the Champs d'Elysee behind his Green Jerseyed compatriot Mark Cavendish to the best finish ever by a Brit in the Grand Tour when he podiums.

7. The Church of Scotland to stop the anti-gay grouping in the church continually breaking the moratorium of silence over homosexual ministers will bring forward a decision on the issue at this years General Assembly.

8. Russell T. Davis after bringing back Doctor Who announces that he is try it again. He plans to bring back to the small screen Charlie's Angels with a twist, Charlie is female and the angels are a mixture of male and female eye candy.

9. A small group of Premier League footballers hold a joint press conference to announce that they are gay. Football fans are surprisingly supportive with the news. Fans of both sets of fans drowning out the homophobic numpties who try and make something of it.

10. Strictly Come Dancing sees the return of Arlene Philips as a judge in the new five judges format.

My 9 for 2009: How I faired

Well here were my original predictions on the first of January, most of these can now be determined.

1. There will be a General Election. I expect it around April

Well we all know that didn't happen.

2. Liverpool will hold on to win the Premier League for the first time.

Those guys from the other end of the ship canal (Man. United) actually equalled Liverpool's record of 18 top flight titles.

3. The Nats will start to drop in the polls as Scottish notice that more and more of their promises are not being met, and blame is shifted to London for things even Holyrood has full control over.

Well they have but probably not as much as I expected. What is startling though is that those in favour of independence for Scotland has dropped quite considerably in the polls.

4. The next Doctor Who will be a black actor.

Well, the fact that we don't see the new Doctor appear until 1 January 2010 doesn't negate the fact that Matt Smith is most definitely WASPish.

5. Andy Murray will win the US Open.

Andy didn't make a Grand Slam final all year. But did win more top level tournaments than any other man on the circuit. I'm tempted to keep this prediction for next year.

6. We'll still be struggling to get out of this recession at the end of the year. Opposition parties will still be screaming at the government to take action that helps the people rather than helping big business, especially the banks which got us here in the first place.

Well I think we score on this one. The pre-budget report was another case of the Government running rough shod over some of the lowest paid.

7. Heath Ledger will be nominated and win posthumously the Best Actor Oscar for his performance in the Dark Knight.

Oh yus! Score!!

8. Barack Obama will lift the US embargo on trade with Cuba. The Govenator of California will celebrate by restocking his humidor with fine Habanas.

Well Obama has made the overtures, but Raul Castro is still making things tough. So I am claiming success on this America is seeking to lift the embargo, already allowing its citizens to travel and starting some forms of trade.

9. There will a major breakdown in the Internet which will lead to a major blackout of communications that will last for a considerable period and be widespread.

Now there were times that hackers did cause a considerable breakdown in some of the world leading sights this year. None of them were for a considerable period though but GMail, Twitter and Facebook were affected globally at times. Anyone remember August 6th.

9 for 2009

Before the first day of the New Year is out I'd better get around to making my 9 predictions of 2009.

1. There will be a General Election. I expect it around April and not being held of to the same time as the Euro elections in June. Because I don't think Gordon is convinced holding off once polls appear to be in favour too long will do any good..

...for the party, bugger the country.

2. Liverpool will hold on to win the Premier League for the first time.

3. The Nats will start to drop in the polls as Scottish notice that more and more of their promises are not being met, and blame is shifted to London for things even Holyrood has full control over.

4. The next Doctor Who will be a black actor.

5. Andy Murray will win the US Open.

6. We'll still be struggling to get out of this recession at the end of the year. Opposition parties will still be screaming at the government to take action that helps the people rather than helping big business, especially the banks which got us here in the first place.

7. Heath Ledger will be nominated and win posthumously the Best Actor Oscar for his performance in the Dark Knight.

8. Barack Obama will lift the US embargo on trade with Cuba. The Govenator of California will celebrate by restocking his humidor with fine Habanas.

9. There will a major breakdown in the Internet which will lead to a major blackout of communications that will last for a considerable period and be widespread.

Well we'll see in 12 months how I've done.

My Predictions

For some reason I’ve been unable to post my predictions on the Apollo Project. So now that voting has closed here are my predictions.

1. Total number of votes cast 68%:

2. First preference votes cast for Ming Campbell 36%:

3. First preference votes cast for Chris Huhne 31%:

4. First preference votes cast for Simon Hughes 33%:

If no candidate scores 50%+ on the first round, the candidate with least 1st preferences will be excluded, and their 2nd preferences re-distributed accordingly.

What do you think will be the result in this final round? (Tip: put 0% next to whichever candidate you think will lose in the first round.)

5. Second round votes cast for Ming Campbell 49%:

6. Second round votes cast for Chris Huhne 0%:

7. Second round votes cast for Simon Hughes 51%:

My reasons for this prediction is that a number of the electorate have probably not been engaged by other polling sources and will go for the names they know, sorry Chris. Only if the turnout is less than 50% which I doubt will be the case to I think Chris will have swayed enough active members to eliminate Simon on first round.