J. Michael Andresen

13-15. Death (All Year) Which of these celebrities will pass on in 2013?  A surprise death yesterday! Mikhail Kalishnikov, inventor of the world's most popular assault rifle, passed away yesterday at the age of 94. This makes K the fifth correct answer this year to Questions 13 - 15 in the 2013 Prognostication Quiz . The AK-47's Matthew Sarah M. Michael Stephanie Nadir Leaderboard This causes a dramatic last-minute shake-up in the Quiz leaderboard. Matthew, Sarah. M., and myself each gain our fourth point to tie Liz, Chris C., Larry, and Pete C. at the top with 4 points. With the most optimistic view of stocks this year, though, Matthew takes over first place with the tiebreaker included. He topples Liz, who has had a stranglehold on the top spot since April. Liz is now in second place and will need a Christmas week miracle to reclaim the top spot. 4 Matthew 4 Liz 4 Sarah M. 4 Chris C. 4 Michael 4 Larry 4 Pete C. 3 Jeff 3 Marcus 3 Rachel F. 3 Ru

Entry deadline is 3:30 p.m. CST on Saturday, January 11, 2014 . Send fifteen answers and one tie-break to jmandresen at gmail.com. Anyone with an email address is welcome to enter. The winner receives a deluxe gift bag. Happy guessing! 1. Freedom (January) Freedom House is an international organization that studies democracy and freedom in the world, publishing an annual report on how many of countries are free, partly free, or not free. The 2013 report calculated that 90 of the world’s 195 nations were “free” in 2012. Will freedom advance, stay stagnant, or retreat in this year’s report, covering 2013? Note: the twelve worst "free" countries (with the highest likelihood of being downgraded) are Botswana, El Salvador, Guyana, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Lesotho, Montenegro, Peru, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Tonga. The twelve best "partly free" countries (with the highest likelihood of being upgraded) are Albania, Bolivia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Ecuador, Georgia,

10. Storms Hurricane season in the Atlantic runs June 1 to November 30. There were ten hurricanes in 2012, seven hurricanes in 2011, twelve in 2010, three in 2009, eight in 2008, six in 2007, five in 2006, an all-time record fifteen in 2005, and nine in 2004.   How many Atlantic hurricanes will there be this season? a. 4 or less b. 5-6 c. 7-8 d. 9-10 e. 11-12 f. 13 or more This was a crazy year for hurricanes. The bigwigs were predicting an above-average year for hurricanes, with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicting between 7 and 11 hurricanes this year, well above the recent average. In fact, there were only two storyms made it to hurricane strength (Humberto and Ingrid), and even those barely made it (each only reaching the minimum strength category 1). This makes the answer to Question 10 of the 2013 Prognostication Quiz is A. 4 or less . Only one person correctly predicted that we would have so few hurricanes. I would normally give kud