h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

100,000 people will drown on the beach in a freak tidal wave

Technically that was last year boxing day 2004......yes I know anal post!

It's odd how it's felt like it was the first event of this year, not the last event of last year though - possibly because it was the start of the relief effort rather than the end of something else.

B

That's my abiding memory of the new year too, B.

The event certainly happened on Boxing Day, but the news went way into the new year, and we have the anniversary to face this month and no doubt documentaries about how early-warning systems could be used to prevent such loss of life in the future, and more survivor horror stories.

Maybe in 2007 this kind of early warning systems would actually be USED? Early???

A bunch of people who have appeared on television once will be taken to an Australian jungle and tortured for our amusement. They will still believe that this will "boost" their "careers". But really, it's just that we want to see sad people being tortured.

I'm not sure how I feel about this. Obviously, I don't watch the televisual productions that result, but apparently a large proportion of tabloid newspaper editors do, with the inevitable corollary that a large number of their readers also watch them (the televisual productions, not the editors), to find out who all the torturees are, and what they were forced to eat yesterday (by 2007, I reckon this will include their own shit).

In 2008, we will round up all the tabloid newspaper editors, send them to an Australian jungle, and tell them to eat their own shit. They will do this in the belief that this will get them on the "telly". But, frankly, we'll just leave them there, and not make a programme about it.

RF