Mission Possible. 2025 Predictions. The ‘Glades.’ Pure Talent.

Accept The Mission. Your Guess is Better Than Mine. We Should All Have a Bit of Sustainability. Neil Young’s Ohio.

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It is year 2025 and an interesting year it will be with a new U.S. president and conflicts around world. I start the new year of posts writing about someone who reached the pinnacle of athletics, predictions you provided me for 2025, and a couple of examples of sustainability (which I know little about). To begin the New Year, here are three quotes that resonate with me…and I feel confident you will feel the same. All the best for a great 2025.

“Ask yourself about the kind of life you want: What would you do day to day, and with whom, and where? Consider the life you have. Do one thing today, however small, to close the gap between the two.” – Dame Maggie Smith

“In every day, there are 1,440 minutes. Make each one count.” – Les Brown

“I believe in the impossible because no one else does and that gives me an excellent chance at accomplishing it.” – Florence Griffith Joyner

• People take on the ‘impossible’ in different ways. Florence Griffith Joyner’s (a.k.a. Flo-Jo) track career started at the age of seven, but she was forced to give up the sport at nineteen in order to help support her family. She eventually restarted her career at the 1988 Olympic Trials and set the still-standing 100-meter world record time at 10.49 seconds.

For those who remember Flo-Jo, it was apparent that she was an ultimate achiever and not afraid of speaking her mind, being Avant Garde, with her form-fitting bodysuits and six-inch fingernails. Her speed was amazing with her 100-meter record still intact after 37 years. She overcame the impossible, at one time working two jobs and having to train from midnight to 3am. Some tainted her world record and Olympic Gold medals with accusations of drug use, but the record shows she took and passed eleven drug tests in 1988 alone. Flo Jo is one of many examples of people overcoming the impossible. The two announcers at the 1988 Indianapolis Olympic Trials were stunned at the time she ran. That was thirty-seven years ago.

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Predictions: Thank you for providing your 2025 predictions. Here is your list and we will review these at year-end:

• Teleportation gets a good test in 2025. (I think this is “Scotty, beam me up?”)
• Bitcoin hits $200,000.
• Dementia declines due to a greater understanding of genetic mutations.
• Several television station groups, including Tegna and Sinclair, sell out due to financial hardship.
• Electric air transportation becomes mainstream.
• DNA mapping at birth becomes the norm.
• Elon Musk, who cannot stand bureaucracy, gets fed up and leaves his role as the head of DOGE.
• Due to bundling, streaming subscriptions rise up to 60%.
• The Atlanta Braves are shut out of postseason play.
• Ukraine and Russa make peace. (Three readers made this prediction).
• DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion) practices will become more data driven. (Can an HR executive help us understand this prediction?)
• The Buffalo Bills win the Super Bowl.
• Type I diabetes becomes preventable.
• Annual sales of American flags hit a record high.
• Nanoprobes become commonplace to gather vitals usually done by blood testing.

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• No one would refer to me as an environmentalist. I do care about the environment to some degree, often thinking about my granddaughter and the world she will grow up in. Here are two takes on the environment and sustainability, the first about Florida’s Everglades, and the second about apparel manufacturing and production.

I have previously written about the Miccosukee Tribe, specifically my friend Tommy Tiger, who attended the same elementary and middle school in southwest Miami. I once stayed overnight at Tommy’s ‘home’ in the middle of the Florida Everglades..an experience that I will never forget. From Google: Referred to as the ‘Glades’, this wetlands preserve encompasses 1.5-million-acres on the southern tip of Florida. The Everglades is made up of coastal mangroves, sawgrass marshes, and pine flatwoods that are home to hundreds of animal species. Among the Everglades’ abundant wildlife are the endangered leatherback turtle, Florida panther and West Indian manatee – and a vast amount of alligators and crocodiles.

Last weekend, I read an article explaining why the Miccosukee Tribe is working every day to protect the Everglades wetlands, specifically the water levels. Unfortunately, the combination of long droughts and prolonged flooding is reducing native wildlife. Tribal elder Michael John Frank put it this way: “The Everglades is beautiful, but it’s just a skeleton of the way it used to be. Tribe members say water mismanagement has contributed to fires, floods and water pollution in their communities and cultural sites. Climate change, and the fossil fuel activities that caused it, are ongoing threats.“

The Miccosukee Tribe and its Council have spoken at public meetings, written letters to federal agencies, lobbied with state and federal leaders while gathering with stakeholders to hear their concerns. It does look like the Tribe’s efforts have led to state and federal legislation creating the Western Everglades Restoration Project. This is just one step in a long process, but if all goes well, the project will clean polluted water, improve hydrology, provide flood protection, and reduce the likelihood and severity of wildfires.

You can do many things to support the Everglades including a visit to the Everglades Alligator Farm, Captain Jack’s airport rides, or Big Cypress Gallery’s Everglades Swamp Tour. Just remember that there are over 200,000 alligators and 2,000 crocodiles in the Everglades. It is best to stay on your airboat and with your walking tour. 🙂

2. Emily Lane and Bret Schnitker run Stars Design Group, a global apparel and production house https://starsdesigngroup.com/ . Their ongoing efforts as fashion experts and innovators are supported by the way they handle the challenges (and solutions) with apparel production – specifically quality ethical manufacturing.

There are many best practices with apparel manufacturing. There are also worldwide apparel manufacturing practices that continue to be alarming. Emily Lane states that “over 60% of textiles produced are made with synthetic fibers (such as polyester and nylon), which are inherently plastic. These fibers are problematic to our environment due to their inability to biodegrade, taking approximately 500 years to naturally break down.”

Why do we care? There are many reasons but here is a one reason: According to Lane, “a substantial volume of microplastics shed from fibers in apparel, up to 6 million metric tons of these plastics end up in the ocean each year. Of these 6 million metric tons about 35% of the microplastics accumulating in the ocean comes from washing clothes.” As reference, read this article:

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/laundry-is-a-top-source-of-microplastic-pollution-heres-how-to-clean-your-clothes-more-sustainably

Alarming to say the least but there are innovations on the horizon, including a nature-based solution called CiCLO. CiCLO both reduces pollution from micro plastics and helps to accelerate the degradation of synthetic materials. To net it out, CiCLO made fibers will reduce decomposition to five years versus the 500-year duration with fibers made from synthetic fibers.

Emily Lane and Bret Schnitker. Business owners who care about the environment, work hard to promote sustainability, and strive to provide solutions and best practices with apparel manufacturing.

https://www.clothingcoulture.com

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• For anyone challenging the ability for private space exploration companies to scale: In 2024, there were ninety-three orbital launches from either Kennedy Space Center or Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

On the non-orbital side of space travel, Space Perspective, the world’s first stratospheric balloon flight experience company, is planning on a manned excursion to the edge of space (100,000 feet) in 2025. The Federal Aviation Administration’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation has oversight on this type of space travel. Here is a look inside the capsule which is tethered to a balloon. Yes, a balloon.

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For your 2025 planning and calendar:

• Jan 12-16 Australian Open
• Jan 20: College Football Playoff Championship game (and the Inauguration).
• Feb 9: Super Bowl
• Feb 13-16 Daytona 500
• Feb 16: NBA All-Star Game
• Feb 20-26: SHEBELIEVES Cup
• Feb 22-23: MLS opening weekend
• March 27: Major League Baseball opening night
• Apr 3-6: Women’s College Basketball Final Four
• Apr 4-7: Men’s College Basketball Final Four
• Apr 7-13: The Master’s
• Apr 24-26: NFL Draft
• May 3: The Kentucky Derby
• May 17: FA Cup Final
• May 23-25: Indianapolis 500
• May 24: Women’s Champions League final
• May 31: Men’s Champions League final
• May 25-June 8: French Open
• June 7: Belmont Stakes
• June 5-22: NBA Finals
• June 8: UEFA Nations League Final
• June 12-15 US Open (golf)
• June TBD: Stanley Cup Finals
• July 6:CONCACAF Gold Cup Final
• July 13: Club World Cup Final
• June 30-July 13: Wimbledon
• July 5-27: Tour de France
• July 15: Major League Baseball All-Star Game
• July 17-20: The Open Championship
• July 19: WNBA All-Star Game
• July 27: Women’s Euros Final
• Aug 13-24: Little League World Series
• Aug 25-Sep 7: US Open Tennis
• Sept 25-27: The Ryder Cup
• Oct TBD: WNBA Finals
• Oct TBD: The World Series
• Dec TBD: Major League Soccer final

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• Pure Talent. I realize that Neil Young is not a favorite of many. Politics aside, I was, and still am, a huge Neil Young fan for his ability to tell a story, his skills on the guitar, and the way he linked up with Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young. The Kent State University killings of 1970 stemmed from students protesting the Vietnam war and plans for the U.S. to bomb Cambodia. The incident at Kent State supported beliefs by many that the U.S. was at war with itself, and Neil Young’s “Ohio” was written in response to the Kent State shooting on May 4, 1970. The song was also written as an effective response influential in the many protests that helped to end the war in Viet Nam. The song “Ohio” can also reflect the world we live in now, fifty-five years later, with the tragic incident in New Orleans and the Russia – Ukraine and Middle East conflicts. Fifty-five years later, Neil Young is still Pure Talent.

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Adios, pay it forward, be safe, and have a great 2025.