November 15: a fine day for making predictions

1. 198145th anniversary
   Said on this day

   Soil Scientist, 1981: First Big Forests 'Will Die in the Next Five Years.' The Big Forests Stayed Put

   A Göttingen professor told DER SPIEGEL's 1981 acid-rain series that the first big forests could no longer be saved. Germany later counted over a million more hectares of forest.

   Waldsterben: The First Big Forests Will Die Within Five Years · Prof. Bernhard Ulrich (soil scientist, University of Göttingen), quoted in DER SPIEGEL

   Deadline set: By November 1986 (five years from November 1981) · status: Busted

   Somewhere, a calendar braced itself.

2. 199036th anniversary
   Said on this day

   Quake Forecaster Iben Browning Adds a World Depression to His Calendar; the US Gets a Ten-Year Expansion

   Weeks before his New Madrid earthquake date, the climatologist told St. Louis executives tidal forces pointed to the most severe depression since 1776.

   Worst Depression Since 1776 Bottoms Out at the End of 1992 · Iben Browning (climatologist and business consultant, Sandia Park, New Mexico)

   Deadline set: About the end of 1992 · status: Busted

   The clock started ticking here.

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