Margins of Error We can't seem to let the future alone. Even though we often get predictions about it so wrong. Because, as Niels Bohr once said, "Prediction is very difficult. Especially if it is about the future." What are the origins of political polling (beware of awful interface design)? And how is political polling evolving?
posted by jeanmari on Sep 8, 2008 - 5 comments

Countdown to a Meltdown : long but fascinating speculative retrospective on the causes and impact of the 2009-2016 economic collapse. [via Marshall Brain]
posted by pheideaux on Nov 25, 2007 - 73 comments

Gone by 2040: Religious Hierarchy, Japan's Passivity, The Chinese Communist Party, Auto Emissions, Monogamy, The Euro, The War on Drugs, Sovereignty... To mark their 35th year in publication Foreign Policy magazine asks 16 influential thinkers which ideas, values, or institutions will be gone by the year 2040. Also discussed on NPR radio today.
posted by StarForce5 on Oct 13, 2005 - 50 comments

It t'was foretold by the ancients! "Come the millennium, month twelve, In the home of the greatest power, The village idiot will come forth To be acclaimed the leader." - Nostradamus [1555] I consider myself someone with mental fortitude. I consider myself not given to listen to foolish ramblings of portents. But in this case I must concede!
posted by thacker on Feb 2, 2001 - 24 comments