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In 2015 ...

With the help of U.S.-led coalition attacks on Islamic State, the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad will survive another year. To his east, however, without the aid of Western ground troops, the security forces of the Baghdad regime will do little to reverse territorial losses. Increasing numbers of pundits will question whether Iraq still exists as a nation in the traditional sense.

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The price of bitcoins will stabilize but not rise significantly against the dollar. More merchants around the world will accept the virtual currency, although most will immediately convert their bitcoin receipts to dollars or euros.

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Magnus Carlsen will lose the world chess championship to Fabiano Caruana, who will become the first Italian to win the title. (Bonus 2016 prediction: A freshly energized Carlsen will be victorious in a rematch.)

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The new “Star Wars” movie will include an "Easter egg" shot in which the USS Enterprise appears for a few seconds. We will also see at least one extra made up as a Vulcan.

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Recent high valuations for tech startups will turn out to be a bubble after all, as a maturing industry begins to face an analogue of the problem that has plagued, for instance, book publishers: the difficulty of getting overwhelmed consumers even to notice a new product or service, no matter how excellent it might be.

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My beloved Washington R-word football team will endure another losing season with the same name. But after a likely third consecutive last-place finish in 2015 -- and the 10th losing record in what will then be the 17 seasons since he purchased the team -- owner Daniel Snyder will yield at last to the force of karma, and announce a switch. I’m still betting on “Bravehearts,” although a lot of the smart money is on “Redtails.” My favorite remains “the Washington Scandal.” (What will make the difference is which name best fits the iconic fight song -- thus no “Hogs” or “Warriors” or the like.)