With our media cycles accelerating to the point of time travel, some great 2009 lists caught our eye before the year even began. More risky than lists that summarize past events, we especially like prediction lists for offering a thrilling vision of what the future might look like. To get an idea of what the year just begun has in store, here are Listicles’ Top 10 2009 Prediction Lists:

• 9 To Watch in 2009: Entertainment Weekly offers a glimpse of the youthful faces that will take over multiplexes and radio waves in 2009. Having just seen the trailer for the new Terminator movie (below), we’re especially excited about the Australian bad-ass Sam Worthington.

• 10 Ways to Prepare for a Post-Oil Society: This outstanding listicle takes an incredible breadth of material into consideration and offers terrific goals for the year(s) ahead. Of course the details about achieving those goals are a little abstract. (via The Huffington Post)

• 50 Things to do For Your Career in 2009 (parts one & two): This sharp and snappy listiscle features some great advice for a touchy job market. We especially like numbers 16 (”start a blog”) and 37 (”sign up for 5 blogs”). 2009, year of the blog.

• 5 Reasons to Stay Alive Until 2010 At Least: io9.com’s entertainment predictions cover some great terrain. Namely, that superheroes are decidedly last year, paving the way for a year of movies re-making someone else’s childhood favorites (Transformers, Star Trek, G.I. Joe). Also, more top-shelf directors making ambitious genre movies, like Terry Gilliam’s return with The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus:

• Top 10 People Who Should Be Unemployed in a Just 2009: A delightful scatter-shot rant about several media big wigs (Bill Kristol and Michael Bloomberg among them), the closing suggestion that “Everyone in New York” (specifically those in media and publishing) should be unemployed hits a little too close to the scary truth for our tastes.

• 10 Things We’ll Miss About Dick: Amid all the kerfuffles over George Bush’s departure, we often forget we’re about to lose another entirely despicable leading man. Fortunately, 23/6.com reminds us just how much more we’re losing on January 20. They forgot his trademark smirk though:

• 6 Clean Tech Start-Ups to Watch in 2009: As green technology becomes increasingly profitable, it’s also becoming more and more accessible to tight budgets like our own. All the companies in this listicle are working towards creating more small-scale, small-budget green innovations, like Sungevity, a company that gives users estimates for installing their solar panels through their website.

• 6 Alternative Green Investment Strategies for 2009: Another practical green listicle from TreeHugger, we were so captivated by their first proposition (”Invest in Björk and nearly bankrupt Iceland”) that we almost never read their other great suggestions (like number 6: “Keep your cash local with community-supported investments”).

• 10 Phrases That Will Shape Politics in ‘09: A fascinating look at the year in punditry ahead, The Huffington Post’s Jeffrey Feldman outlines the media catchphrases we’ll be using during 2009. We especially like “shovel-ready”, meaning how close to starting construction a public works project is.

• 10 Reasons to be Hopeful About 2009 and 3 Reasons to be Terrified: This optimistic take on the times to come even spins some typically negative things (the failing economy) into sources of renewal. The final reason to be terrified, with its implications of fascism and vigilante justice, is indeed quite terrifying though: “Mad Max world.” Strange, though, we don’t remember Mad Max presenting all that terrifying a vision of the future…