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BECK
Mon Mar 13, 2006 9:42 am


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FAMOUS PREDICTIONS .... BY EXPERTS


"Everything that can be invented has been invented."
--Charles H. Duell, Office of Patents, 1899


"There will never be a bigger plane built."
--A Boeing engineer, after the first flight of the 247,
a twin engine plane that carried ten people.


"Ours has been the first, and doubtless to be the last, to visit
this profitless locality." -- Lt. Joseph Ives after visiting
the Grand Canyon in 1861.


"There is not the slightest indication that nuclear energy will
ever be obtainable. It would mean that the atom would have to
be shattered at will." -- Albert Einstein, 1932


"We don't like their sound. Groups of guitars are on the way out."
--Decca executive, 1962, after turning down the Beatles.


"It will be years--not in my time--before a woman will become Prime
Minister." --Margaret Thatcher, 1974


"With over 50 foreign cars already on sale here, the Japanese auto
industry isn't likely to carve out a big slice of the US market."
--Business Week, August 2, 1968


"Computers may weigh no more than 1.5 tons."
--Popular Mechanics, 1949


"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."
--Ken Olson, president of Digital Equipment Corp. 1977


"This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered
as a means of communication." --Western Union memo, 1876


"No imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent
to nobody in particular?" --David Sarnoff's associates in response
to his urging investment in the radio in the 1920's.


"Who wants to hear actors talk?" --H.M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927.


"I'm just glad it'll be Clark Gable who's falling on his face and
not Gary Cooper." --Gary Cooper, after turning down
the lead role in Gone With The Wind.


"Market research reports say America likes crispy cookies, not
soft and chewy cookies like you make."
--Response to Debbi Fields' idea of Mrs. Fields' Cookies


"We don't need you. You haven't got through college yet."
--Hewlett Packard excuse to Steve Jobs, who founded
Apple Computers instead.


"I think there's a world market for about five computers."
--Thomas J. Watson, chairman of the board of IBM.


"The bomb will never go off. I speak as an expert in explosives."
--Admiral William Leahy, U.S. Atomic Bomb Project.


"Airplanes are interesting toys, but they are of no military value
whatsoever." --Marechal Ferdinand Fock, Professor of Strategy,
Ecole Superieure de Guerre


"Stocks have reached a permanently high plateau."
--Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University, 1929


"No matter what happens, the U.S. Navy is not going to be caught
napping." --U.S. Secretary of Navy, December 4, 1941


"While theoretically and technically television may be feasible,
commercially and financially it is an impossibility."
--Lee DeForest, inventor


"Radio has no future. Heavier-than-air flying machines are
impossible. X-rays will prove to be a hoax."
--William Thomson, Lord Kelvin English scientist, 1899
