A Predicting Machine
While a machine may usurp many menial tasks--typing letters, making out
paychecks--it can also work in less mundane ways. One such example was the 
use of machine to predict the results of football game. All the information
about the two teams:speed of backs, weight of the lineman, past performances
of the teams, even the years served by the venerable coaches was fed into
the machine. Extraneous material was avoided. The astute computer printed
out the figure "one" for each team. While this may seem ambiguous to the
average person, it represented in the succinct language of the computer
the actual score of one touchdown for each side:7-7.

the writing on the wall--In retrospect he should have seen the writing
on the wall when his girl friend gave him only a cursory greeting 
on his birthday.
(an incident or event that shows what will happen in the future.)