# Anti-Nostradamus. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 25, 2009, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-nostradamus/487373 "2009-02-25T15:58:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-nostradamus/487373/21 "2009-02-25T23:03:19Z")
I still think the iPod will never catch on. ---
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-nostradamus/487373/22 "2009-02-25T23:05:29Z")
> [@Khadaji](#): > > Last season I said that while the Steelers (my favorite team) had an awesome defense, they did not have a strong enough offense to go to the Superbowl. Strangely enough, I was telling everybody around here that the Steelers were going to be in the Super Bowl, “but only if they could get past the Bills in the playoffs.” Yeah. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2009, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-nostradamus/487373/23 "2009-02-26T04:40:44Z")
2004: “I know this house is expensive, but this is San Francisco. The price growth curve may slow down, but prices won’t actually fall.” 16 months later: “Hey, the market value of the house has gone up $115,000. Time to re-finance and take some cash out.” 3 years later: under water. Sigh… In my defense, the cash out at least was spent almost entirely on home improvements. Roddy ---
**Author:** ![DataZak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ea666f/32.png) [@DataZak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DataZak)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2009, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-nostradamus/487373/24 "2009-02-26T04:58:52Z")
I agreed with Maggie Thatcher when in the 1980s she said that (I’m paraphrasing), “_Whoever thinks the ANC can take over power in South Africa is living in cloud cuckoo land_”. More recently, I was convinced that there is no way in hell Americans would elect a black man as their President. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2009, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-nostradamus/487373/25 "2009-02-26T05:22:36Z")
March 16, 2003, watching the snow sift down with a friend: “Ah, it’s a spring storm. Those are never too bad.” March 17, 2003. Work cancelled, school cancelled. March 18, 2003. Garage roof collapses from weight of heavy spring snow. March 19, 2003. My electricity finally comes back on. At last I can dig my car out. March 22, 2003. My friend finally got _her_ electricity back on and sent me a very snide email. January 2009, to broker: “Sell Netflix. It’s done nothing for four years.” I had a sell order at 36. _For four years._ February 2009. Netflix at 36. 37. 38. Etc. (Sad story of every stock I’ve ever owned.) ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2009, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-nostradamus/487373/26 "2009-02-26T05:35:01Z")
1998: As a Bills fan, I predicted that they were making a huge mistake in signing Doug Flutie. I said his best years were behind him and he could no longer play at the NFL level. August 2005: I was watching the news with some co-workers and there was a report about a new hurricane named Katrina that had formed out in the Gulf and was expected to hit land hard. I confidently said that the news always exaggerates how bad storms are going to be and this hurricane would not be as bad as predicted. ---
**Author:** ![Uncle\_Brother\_Walker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f08c70/32.png) [@Uncle\_Brother\_Walker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncle_Brother_Walker)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2009, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-nostradamus/487373/27 "2009-02-26T06:31:16Z")
Back in the day: My friends and I were real autograph hounds. We would drive _miles_ to see a band at a non-show event (record store appearances, radio spots, etc.) A friend calls me one day all in a tizzy. “Dude, we’ve got to get to the mall. (Local record store) is having an autograph session today and it’s going to be packed!” “Who’s there?” “METALLICA!!!” 'Who?" 😕 I had barely heard any of their stuff. This was prior to the release of their first album, but I thought they were just another speed metal band. Didn’t think they’d have the legs to sell out a bar show, much less an arena. Many years and many :smack:'s later… I know, I was wrong. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2009, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-nostradamus/487373/28 "2009-02-26T06:44:40Z")
Within my lifetime, there will no longer be any organized religion (prediction made in the '60s) ---
**Author:** ![Lisa-go-Blind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Lisa-go-Blind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lisa-go-Blind)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2009, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-nostradamus/487373/29 "2009-02-26T06:57:12Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > August 2005: I was watching the news with some co-workers and there was a report about a new hurricane named Katrina that had formed out in the Gulf and was expected to hit land hard. I confidently said that the news always exaggerates how bad storms are going to be and this hurricane would not be as bad as predicted. This is what I was going to say. I was in school at LSU and class would be cancelled for the next day or the rest of the week; I don’t remember exactly. It had been a pretty normal thing for school to be cancelled for a hurricane that never delivered. In fact, we had gotten two days off the previous year for Hurricane Ivan, and those two days were as bright and sunny as could be. So when meterologists forcast that the levies might collapse and New Orleans would be plunged underwater, I laughed, rolled my eyes, and tried to get some friends to go with me to a movie that night. Luckily, they were probably smarter than I was and I ended up staying in that night. The next day is when it hit and everything changed. This is what I always think of when I hear people complaining that the citizens of New Orleans “had it coming” and “why didn’t they just evacuate?” When it seems like every hurricane comes with a side of predicted mass devastation, there’s no reason to believe that this time, it might be true. ---
**Author:** ![Mudshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Mudshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mudshark)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2009, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-nostradamus/487373/30 "2009-02-26T09:13:12Z")
Who would want a flat screen TV? What a waste… ---
**Author:** ![KRC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2009, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-nostradamus/487373/31 "2009-02-26T11:25:18Z")
My mother, sometime around mid 1980: “No one’s going to vote for Reagan. Humans are rational and they won’t do anything that stupid.” Bzzzzt. Wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2009, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-nostradamus/487373/32 "2009-02-26T13:38:50Z")
Americans cannot be so stupid as to elect George W Bush. Americans cannot be so stupid as to elect George W Bush _again_. ---
**Author:** ![Arien](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Arien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arien)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2009, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-nostradamus/487373/33 "2009-02-26T13:52:35Z")
That gas prices wouldn’t go down significantly after they hit $4/gallon in July. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2009, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-nostradamus/487373/34 "2009-02-26T14:07:30Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Americans cannot be so stupid as to elect George W Bush. > > Americans cannot be so stupid as to elect George W Bush _again_. I was so going to post this very thing, but I figured Bush-bashing was getting passe’ and all. At least not funny any more. But damn if I didn’t laugh at yours! I even almost reposted the thing about Bush drowning in the river and your having the terrible choice to make about whether to try and save him or else to take potentially prize-winning photographs of his struggle. The question really becomes whether you use high-speed film or flash. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2009, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-nostradamus/487373/35 "2009-02-26T15:39:52Z")
Who needs more than 640K of RAM? Oh, wait…that wasn’t me. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2009, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-nostradamus/487373/36 "2009-02-26T16:02:41Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > Who needs more than 640K of RAM? The actual quote from Bill Gates is “640k ought to be enough for anybody.” Except he didn’t actually say that. He did say this, however: > [@](#): > > I’ve said some stupid things and some wrong things, but not that. No one involved in computers would ever say that a certain amount of memory is enough for all time… I keep bumping into that silly quotation attributed to me that says 640K of memory is enough. There’s never a citation; the quotation just floats like a rumor, repeated again and again. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2009, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-nostradamus/487373/37 "2009-02-26T16:08:06Z")
In the spring of 2005, I said “Apple will never move to intel processors - if they do, I’ll eat my hat.” It was delicious… ---
**Author:** ![TroubleAgain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e480ec/32.png) [@TroubleAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroubleAgain)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2009, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-nostradamus/487373/38 "2009-02-26T16:51:10Z")
> [@Arien](#): > > That gas prices wouldn’t go down significantly after they hit $4/gallon in July. Oooh! I said that, too!😛 ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2009, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-nostradamus/487373/39 "2009-02-26T19:06:54Z")
Said by a Prof my freshman year in a university engineering program… “Don’t waste time learning to type, you’ll have a secretary to do that for you. As an engineer your time will be far too valuable for typing.” One of mine (when PCs still ran DOS)… “Windows?! If I wanted a Apple I would have bought one, what a stupid idea.” ---
**Author:** ![masterofnone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4bbf92/32.png) [@masterofnone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/masterofnone)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2009, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-nostradamus/487373/40 "2009-02-26T19:28:15Z")
They’re selling bottled water? What kind of moron buys water? It’ll never last. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-nostradamus/487373.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-nostradamus/487373.md?page=3)