"It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door, You step into the Road, and if you don't keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to." - J.R.R. Tolkien Its really a simple thing to go out and see the world. Planes are flying to interesting places all the time. You just need to get on one. I'm not really an expert on this (but who is?), but I'll try to give you some advice and maybe some encouragement before you go out of your door.

2008 is over, and it's been quite a year. There are plenty of metaphors to go around. Some refer to the Black Swans (which couldn't possibly exist). Another author writes about the tipping point. I like to think of the present as our collective Wile E. Coyote moment. The usual method of predicting the future is trends analysis. I took some flak last year for saying that trends do change, and when they do, that they can change quite rapidly. Kuro5hin's first six annual predictions stories predicted a few curve balls, but most predictions were continuations of the old trends. I felt the call to reprise my role as K5's Nostradamus again this year when I noticed that a few have become entranced by the false prophet. Some predictions in last year's piece were wrong, some are still developing, and some have come to pass more-or-less as predicted. After reviewing last year's hits and misses I will offer my take on what the future has queued up.