Famed faulty forecasts

1.  “Load shedding will be over by August 14, 2009.” Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, on May 26, 2008, and again on January 2, 2009: “Load shedding will be over by December 31, 2009.”

2.  “Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You’re crazy.” Drillers who Edwin L Drake tried to enlist to his project to drill for oil in 1859.

3.  “Louis Pasteur’s theory of germs is ridiculous fiction.” Pierre Pachet, professor of Physiology at Toulouse, 1872.

4.  “It doesn’t matter what he does, he will never amount to anything.” Albert Einstein’s teacher to his father, 1895.

5.  “Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value.” Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre, 1901.

6.  “Sensible and responsible women do not want to vote.” Grover Cleveland, US President, 1905.

7.  “Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?” H M Warner of Warner Brothers, 1927.

9.  “That is the biggest fool thing we have ever done [research on]... The bomb will never go off, and I speak as an expert in explosives.” Admiral William D Leahy, US Admiral working in the US Atomic Bomb Project, advising President Truman on atomic weaponry, 1944.

10.  “Television won’t last because people will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night.” Darryl Zanuck, movie producer, 20th Century Fox, 1946.

11.  “Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons.” Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949.

12.  “Nuclear-powered vacuum cleaners will probably be a reality in 10 years.” Alex Lewyt, president of vacuum cleaner company Lewyt Corporation, in the New York Times in 1955.

13.  “We don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.” Decca Recording Company rejecting the Beatles, 1962.

14.  “That virus is a pussycat.” Dr Peter Duesberg, molecular-biology professor at UC Berkeley, on HIV, 1988.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 2^nd, 2011.