Intuitive Sean David Morton returned to check in on his past predictions and give an update for the year ahead and beyond. Here are some highlights of his forecast:
The flu pandemic will reach its peak in 2006 and Asia will be particularly hard hit with deaths. Gold and precious metals will continue to rise in value. Gold will hit 725 by July-Aug. 0f 2006. Good stock picks for right now: Apple Computer, Pixar, Nuclear Solutions, Azure Dynamics and Magna Entertainment.

The housing market/mortgage bubble will pop sometime within the next six months.A "savagely cold" winter for the Midwest and East Coast will cause energy costs to rise again, with the price of an oil barrel reaching $75-80 by January. The 2008 presidential election will be between Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush. (He declined to predict a winner at this juncture.) Dick Cheney will resign due to "health issues."

The San Francisco region will have three serious quakes in 2006. The precursor will be a 6.5 quake in central California occurring in Feb.-March. This will be followed by quakes centered near Hollister, Vallejo/Marin and the East Bay between April and October.

Betting on the Future

Tonight's guest, Peter Schwartz, has made a prediction on the intriguing site longbets.org(1), a public forum created to stimulate long-term ideas. Members to the site can log in their long term predictions, and then other participants can bet for or against the proposition, with the wagers going to philanthropic causes.

Schwartz's prediction (2) that "at least one human alive in the year 2000 will still be alive in 2150," has already attracted one person to bet $1,000 against it. Ironically, if the person wagering against it is still alive in 2150, she will lose the bet.

In his argument for increased longevity, Schwartz points to the current work in stem cell research, as well as in telomerase, an enzyme in DNA, which may yield new life extension therapies. He further notes that human lifespan doubled from 45 to 85 in the last century. If that was to happen again in the 21st century, we could have 170-year olds walking around!

--L.L.(3)

1. http://www.longbets.org
2. http://www.longbets.org/11
3. http://archive.coasttocoastam.com/info/about_lex.html

Bumper Music

Bumper music from Wednesday November 16, 2005