1. In 1990, sci-fi author David Brin published Earth, a novel packed with a number of predictions about the year 2038. In the book, something resembling spam overwhelms email inboxes; there has been a nuclear meltdown at a Japanese nuclear power plant; and the worldsuffers from global warming. "Three million citizens of the Republic of Bangladesh watched their farms and villages wash away as early monsoons burst their hand-built levees," Brin wrote. In the afterword, Brin said that he "exaggerated the extent greenhouse heating may cause sea levels to rise by the year 2040," but some models suggest he may not have been that far off the mark after all.
2. Written in the late '60s and set in 2010, John Brunner's Stand on Zanzibar predicted a popular politician by the name of President Obomi, president of Beninia; random mass shootings; a European Union; and people connecting to an encyclopaedia over the phone.
3. When you turn on your flat screen TV or pop in your earbuds, you're living out the dystopian vision of Ray Bradbury's 1953 book, Fahrenheit 451. In this novel, people bombard themselves with entertainment instead of talking to each other. Much easier to pop your seashell radios in your ears and forget about the books you planned to read. (Via Mental Floss)
Similarly to haunted houses, there are a few cars that are famously believed to be cursed or haunted … In December 2004, some residents of a Cape Town neighbourhood were startled when a Renault Megane suddenly came to life and "leapt" backwards. It repeated the strange phenomenon a couple of times before it crashed into a hibiscus tree. The people were understandably alarmed and there were suggestions the car being possessed by an evil spirit. An exorcist even offered to travel down to South Africa from America so he could drive the "demon" out of the car. Luckily, Renault soon released an official explanation explaining that the Renault's starter was activated by periodic short circuits, caused by a rusty starter cable. A rusty cable that leads to the battery supply relay box caused the short circuits. Since the car was parked in reverse, it "jumped" backwards every time the cable short-circuited, igniting the starter.
