People without time (They made me do it)

Dr. Who, Donnie Darko, Quantum Leap, Time Tunnel. What do we understand by this? There is a certain fascination in the concept of time travel. Of course time travel is not as easy as the movies or authors sometimes portray it. For one thing there is the problem of your frame of reference. The earth is spinning on its access, falling about a distant start in the outer reaches of the Milky Way in an ever expanding (or so it seems) universe. So if you time travel for even a second who is to say you will not end up in Earth's molten core or the cold vacuum of space? NICE!
No one with any intelligence is inclined to believe in things until they experience them for themselves. This is a good trait. It tends to mean intelligent humans survive. You might not believe in ghosts - you will if you ever see one for yourself. Believe me - or not!!
So is time linear? Or is the reality of space/time somehow twisted in ways our puny human minds can barely conceive? What do we take as evidence of time being not so simple as we perhaps we thought? Predictions, where uncannily accurate, would seem to be evidence of something not quite right. If time is linear how can any of us peer into an unknown future? If we can, to what benefit? If we see something we do not like can we prevent it .. or does the sight of it mean it is as inevitable as the past is past?
I suspect at this point you thinking great, play with words, but do you have a point? Yes, I do. Forget the thought exercise how about a prediction - a nice detailed prediction - one that extrapolation could not possibly explain. Chance? Well there is always chance. James Randi, et al, take out Occams razor on the following: this prediction is made Sat 23 May 2009 that on or about 26th June 2009 a famous (possibly the most famous) and somewhat controversial singer/performer will die way before his time.