Headline #25

Do you want a bigger name in the elite cabal surrendering? Forget it. This headline was already maxed out, but we’re looking for extra credit on Headline #25.

It happens in the final throes of our target month, August 2014. It’s not like we really needed this headline…after all, we’ve already had several big financial scandals taking down a CEO here and CFO there.

But now, it’s up at the IMF and the stakes could send this “disgraced tycoon” to the penalty box for a year. I’d argue that the potential 15K-Euro fine is but pocket change should she receive a guilty assessment, but that’s not the point here.

Okay, enough of that…what’s the news?

IMF chief charged with ‘negligence’ over graft case

AFP

By Andréa Bambino 27 August 2014

Paris (AFP) – IMF chief Christine Lagarde, one of the world’s most powerful women, announced Wednesday she had been charged with “negligence” over a multi-million-euro graft case relating to her time as French finance minister.

The shock announcement came a day after she was grilled for more than 15 hours by a special court in Paris that probes ministerial misconduct, the fourth time she has been questioned in a case that has long weighed upon her position as managing director of the International Monetary Fund.

Severity level? Um, pretty small. But how about the hit on our predictive headline? Pretty big, which reminds me…

I’m starting to come to the conclusion that most dream-based predictions that we have do tend to be more extreme than what actually happens. While we do have quite a statistically proven success rate, the level of severity tends to be more subdued when the prediction comes out in real life.

In the future, we’ll be looking at how to incorporate this new observation into future prediction-making. I think a great example was the recent “Gold bar system total crash” meme. Instead of a crash, we simply predicted a multi-week decrease in the metals market, which is exactly what happened.

Headline #6

We didn’t have a perfect score on Headline #6, and this next headline won’t get us to 5.0 either, but it’s one of those striking similes that should have everyone going, “wow.”

Headline #6 projected that, “Entertainer (insert any name that has “Van” in it) to Feed One Million Hungry Americans”

How about this incredible connection between Van and Hungry:

Joran van der Sloot goes on hunger strike to protest prison switch

Published August 27, 2014 | FoxNews.com

Joran van der Sloot — the prime suspect in the 2005 disappearance of U.S. teen Natalee Holloway – has gone on a hunger strike to protest his transfer to a maximum security jail in Peru.

Peruvian prison spokeswoman Janeth Sanchez told The Associated Press that the 27-year-old Dutchman was moved Sunday to Challapalca, located high in the Andes near the Bolivian border. He previously was held at a prison north of Lima.

Authorities said van der Sloot — who is serving a 28-year term for murdering Stephany Flores in 2010 — was moved because he threatened to kill the warden of the Piedras Gordas prison, where he was imprisoned.

Van der Sloot said he has gone on the hunger strike to protest the move, the BBC reports.

We up the score for Headline #6 just a tad to 3.5. This Van is certainly not entertaining, and he’s not literally feeding others. I guess in a way he is actually feeding millions of news-hungry Americans! So, not a perfect score, but I can’t imagine anyone not seeing the connection here.