I love Wikipedia for many reasons, but possibly most for its lovely lists of random facts. Take for instance this article on failed predictions made by famous people about everything from the end of the world to the end of Mad Magazine. It’s funny to see how many people assume something popular is just a fad (though the real question would be how many popular things really were just fads).

Some of my favorites:

• “Television won’t last. It’s a flash in the pan.” - Mary Somerville, pioneer of radio educational broadcasts, 1948.
• “Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?” - H. M. Warner, co-founder of Warner Brothers, 1927.
• “We will never make a 32 bit operating system.” - Bill Gates
• “A short-lived satirical pulp.” — TIME, writing off Mad magazine in 1956

Maybe now with Wikipedia keeping track of all our predictions, pundits and commentators will be more careful about what they say…yeah, well, as least with Wikipedia, if your insane prediction does come true, you can always edit it.