"What Happens Next: Our Look Ahead" - Forbes predictions for the next 10 years

Very interesting predictions, estimates, educated guesses, wild guesses, far-out guesses, naive guesses, clairvoyant guesses, delusional guesses and realistic guesses from many specialists - a cool article from Forbes.com. Read it now (including slides captions), and again in 10 years. You'll say Wow!, for a number of reasons...:)


"We asked our staff and contributors to forecast some of the noteworthy events of the next 10 years, a vision of the coming decade sketched from real data, projections and facts whenever possible--though we've injected a dose of rigorous science fiction to fill the gaps.

Add your own predictions in the comments section, and vote on the likelihood of future events in our interactive poll. Be bold. As Malcolm Forbes said, "Being right half the time beats being half right all the time." And time has proved him right."

http://www.forbes.com/2010/09/07/technology-energy-politics-opinions-contributors-2020_land.html?boxes=Homepagelighttop

For example, Forbes.com says this:
"2016: Virtual Jobs

America's first virtual world employee farm opens in South Carolina. Minimum-wage workers serve as bodyguards, gold harvesters in online games.".

Well, I think we could all come up with some ideas - better or worse...

Here's a maximum card that I created in 2006, while attending the Washington, D.C. World Philatelic Exhibition [Exposition].
It is a non-traditional MC, since the traditional FIP maximaphily rules say that an MC cannot have an abstract concordance of subject/theme/topic between stamp, postcard and postmark.
But I think that that rule is terribly wrong. [OMG!]
Yes, I said it. :)
Topical stamp collecting, or topical philately, means collecting by the theme.
In this case, I'd say the theme is "the stimulation of the mind - thoughts, emotions, reactions, actions..."
And yes, that's an abstract thing.
So what?
I still like my maximum card, no matter what. :)
Also, it's an UNICATE/UNIKAT/UNICAT maximum card. Only 1 copy/specimen in the whole world (I guess), since I created only 1.
Have you ever seen another one, identical (down to the pictorial postmark)? Show and tell. :)

The stamp shows a guy enjoying a Virtual Reality helmet - a world between your ears, so to speak.

I used an AD CARD, a category that so many deltiologists [postcard collectors] hate, out of principle!

But I judge a postcard by its individual merits, not by the category it belongs to.

In 2006, I made [between my ears...in my mind :)] my own prediction about Tower Records, who paid for this AD CARD.

"You will soon go out of business...Why should we pay for a whole music CD, when all we want is 1 (one) specific song?"

http://www.zazzle.com/why_stamp_postage-172279254387759379?rf=238693463283865848

We'll never forget 9/11, and (some of us) we'll never forgive it, either! - WTC1 POST CARD from Zazzle.com

WTC1 POST CARD from Zazzle.com

In Virginia, I saw a car license plate with a pentagon-shaped logo, with the Twin Towers inside the contour. The license plate ID, next to that logo, is: ULLPAY.

http://www.zazzle.com/mm_hmm_postage-172554017647834569?rf=238693463283865848

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What would...Vlad Dracula (for example) have done about the 9/11 attack, if he were Dictator of the USA? ...:)

To the yes-men from the Democratic Party, and to the no-men from the Republican Party ("The Audacity of Nope") Vlad could have said [in Fantasy Land]:

"Now, right after 9/11, are you, ladies and gentlemen, contemplating the idea of playing your usual political games? Would you like to shove political correctness down my throat, as I am preparing this wounded country for a proper response, in self-defense?

http://www.zazzle.com/fuhgeddaboutit_postage-172290341172830415?rf=238693463283865848

This attack happened on my watch.

So I, Vlad Dracula, Dictator of USA, will NOT tell "those folks" who planned and executed this suicidal attack:

http://www.zazzle.com/make_no_mistake_postage-172367512928151380?rf=238693463283865848

Instead, I will tell "those folks" that THEY HAVE ALREADY MADE A MISTAKE!

Of the lethal kind. Starting with our almost 3,000 dead, and many more wounded.

Long story short, our enemies will face, eventually, the question "WHAT'S AT STAKE, when you attack Vlad's country?"

Let me tell you: THE STAKES ARE HIGH.

And the stakes, as an element of justice, are a very visual form of communication.

Eventually, our American armed forces will bring most of "those folks" to justice.

What justice? Poetic justice?

http://www.zazzle.com/no_no_no_no_baby_postage-172866537361275772?rf=238693463283865848

Swift justice! 

ASAP. 

Fifteen years on death row, on taxpayers money?

http://www.zazzle.com/i_dont_think_so_postage-172747464236221795?rf=238693463283865848

So: 

I declare Martial Law, 

I suspend the Constitution, 

and I send you, politicians of all colors (including political chameleons) home. 

Go filibuster yourselves in your little precincts.

Take a hike. 

The Appalachian Trail is so scenic and winding - it could take you all the way down to your "dear, dear friend in Argentina", or something. 

Transgressions galore.

[REPORTER]: - Mr.Vlad, what do you think about building a mosque at Ground Zero?

[VLAD] (perplexed): 

http://www.zazzle.com/excuse_me_postage-172194416604632509?rf=238693463283865848

For the next couple of years I will be busy, like Cincinnatus, to run this country my way, at all costs.

I know that, later on, I will be assassinated, but I'll still do it until then.

My legacy to my fellow Americans is more important than a life of luxury and of abuse of power.

Dismissed!

[Also spracht Vlad Dracula, in Fantasy Land].

==========================

The World Trade Center...The Pentagon...9/11/2001...actions have consequences...endlessly.

I created this as a postcard because zazzle rejected this image as a stamp: "it is too violent for a stamp, per our policies from USPS."

Hmm...

                                              
http://www.zazzle.com/well_never_forget_postage-172863772222566854?rf=238693463283865848

http://www.zazzle.com/the_pentagon_postage-172397131759321876?rf=238693463283865848

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Happy PFF (Postcard Friendship Friday)!

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Please join the "Maximaphily, traditional and non-traditional" groups at Facebook and Linkedin! :)