The Academy Awards 2008 Predictions including "Best Picture", "Best Director", "Best Actori", "Best Actress", "Best Supporitng Actor" and "Best Supporting Actress" from various blogs and sites:

Best Picture:

Oscar Frenzy: "Well, well, well. It all comes down to this, right? “The Kite Runner” is out for reasons specified above. “His Dark Materials” is probably not going to win since it’s the first of a trilogy and “Atonement” may not have a wide enough appeal. That means the race comes down to “Reservation Road” vs. “My Blueberry Nights.” You would think the obvious choice is “Reservation,” since it’s a serious drama with hefty, possible award-winning performances and backed by Focus. But we still feel it may be a bit too dark and depressing to snag the top prize. Call us crazy, but this may just very well be the first year since 1998 (”Shakespeare in Love”) that another romantic comedy beats them all. It would be fitting, actually, since it is exactly a decade later. Our pick for 2008 Best Motion Picture is “My Blueberry Nights"."

Alternative Film Guide Blog: "No Country for Old Men. Until late last week, things were still somewhat murky in the best film race. No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood were the front-runners, while Juno was the dark horse that could potentially upset the heavy-drama heavyweights. But after the SAG best ensemble and DGA wins, No Country for Old Men, about a drug deal gone murderously wrong, has become the official front-runner."

BetFirms Blog: "Best Picture is a tough one this year, but Juno will likely take the cake on this one. The hot new cast and buzz worthy stripper-turned-screen writer (yep, it’s true) has caught everyone’s eye in the past few months. This fresh story has caught the attention of day time talk shows everywhere and it’s doubtful that it will lose any publicity in the next few weeks. Rivaled by Atonement and No Country for Old Men, the Grammy could very well be stolen by any one of these note worthy blockbusters."

John's  Movie Blog: "No Country for Old Men, pure and simple. It is the best of the lot and the most unanimously praised. There was a time when There Will Be Blood was considered a serious threat but the DGA and PGA wins for the Coens' film are clear indicators that No Country for Old Men is not budging. Some feel that if those two films split among their target audiences, Juno might take the crown but it is still a little too feathery and lightweight (which is probably like Little Miss Sunshine last year). As for Michael Clayton and Atonement, the nominations are their ultimate rewards (though I think Atonement is the close second here)."

Wizardgold is scratching the surface with Soccer Mystic: "After my disappointments with the interface of Soccer Mystic yesterday , I thought I should actually read the user guide. It is good to try out software without doing that first because you get a better idea of how intuitive it is, and mostly it worked well enough.[...]For example in the Bookmaker tab (which only places lay bets) I can set how much I want to stake, how much I want to have as profit or just go by the minimum bet amount and then by using the Margin Maker checkbox on the unders side of the market, see what odds I need to have the lay bet go in at to make the money. It is similar to making a back bet on the unders then laying off as the price comes down when no goals are scored at the start of a match. The difference being that the back bet part of the trade is replaced by making a lay bet on the overs side.[...]The ability to have the stake size determined by the price you want to make per tick is useful too. This is because of the tick sizes not being equal.".

The Gambler discusses the stock markets and FTSE. "Did watch the FTSE going up and down all day. US cut interest rates and markets recovering. I was going to post yesterday that this fall in stock markets is a load of nonsense. Just a few American people getting into negative equity. It really should not cause this world wide panic. Funny enough this rate cut might be seen as a panic measure, and may have a short term negative effect. I would not be surprised if the markets go down again. The FTSE could drop a lot. At some point people will realise how stupid this all is, and buy back into the market. If the FTSE falls to 5300 then I would expect it to rise sharply. A buying opportunity maybe. Anyway it is all quite interesting, and possibly teaches us one or two lessons on how to trade on Betfair and the exchanges."