Happy Fun-with-Evidence Friday. I often wonder why people make bold, public predictions. Aren't they just asking for folks to gather up some evidence and prove them wrong? The sites WrongTomorrow.com and BusinessWeek.com are doing some of that taunting.
Wrong Tomorrow is a clever site that tracks how well predictions survive the test of time. They monitor when a particular prediction will be testable and then label it right or wrong. Let this be a lesson for all of us next time we start to open our mouths.
Business Week has a good piece, The Worst Predictions About 2009. One that might have seemed safe until very recently is: "Tiger never does anything that would make him look ridiculous," appearing, sadly, in the brand-new January 2010 Golf Digest.
Only because it's Friday. You know celebrity gossip isn't my thing. But while we're on the subject of Golf Digest and TigerGate, I'll mention the new Wall Street Journal story "How Tiger Protected His Image" which claims the golfer agreed to an interview and cover photo in Men's Fitness magazine -- in exchange for the National Enquirer tabloid squelching a story about infidelity. This wasn't recently: It was in 2007. Even though Golf Digest "spent as much as $1 million annually on donations to the Tiger Woods Foundation, printing the charity's annual report and sponsoring many of Mr. Woods's preferred tournaments.... In return, Mr. Woods agreed to contribute monthly articles on golf techniques and limit his appearances in competing publications." (The story appears on page W6 of today's Wall Street Journal print edition.) Adding insult to injury, Woods appears on the cover of the new Golf Digest. Oy.
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