2008 - It's All Over!

Goodbye 2008! A year when previously unknown Sarah Palin becomes the most popular woman in the world but she and McCain lost to Obama. Shoes are flung at Bush, Bertie steps down and Lisbon is rejected. Spitzer was caught in a call-girl scandal and Blagojevich tries to sell Obama’s seat.

A year when Somali pirates start to get bold, 179 are killed in Mumbi by Pakistani Terrorists, Russia attacks Ossetia, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake strikes China destroying poorly constructed schools but the Olympics go ahead in Beijing. Petrol prices reach record high and financial markets crash debilitating world economies. The Large Hadron Collider in Geneva doesn’t destroy the planet and Phoenix finds water on Mars.

A year when Blu-Ray emerged victorious, Kerberos comes online, Heath Ledger’s death shocked the world, the writers guild return to work and eventually so does our Television, God gives us more Clones, Rambo returns, Iron Man is forged and The Dark Knight rakes in $500m. Diablo III is announced and Tina Fey “becomes” Sarah Palin.

Spare a moment to acknowledge the many who have died during 2008: Majel Barrett Roddenberry (76, Actress/Producer), Robert H. Barrow (86, General USMC Ret. - Commandant '79-'83), Jeremy Beadle (59, TV Presenter), Arthur C. Clarke (90, Author), Alexander Courage (89, Composer), Michael Crichton (66, Author), Don S. Davis (65, Actor [StarGate SG-1]), Robert DoQui (73, Actor [RoboCop]), Ronnie Drew (73, Singer), W. Mark "Deep Throat" Felt (95, F.B.I. Deputy Director), Estelle Getty (84, Actress), Gary Gygax (69, Game Designer [D&D]), Mark Haigh-Hutchinson (43, Video game developer [Paperboy]), Bernie Hamilton (80, Actor [Starsky & Hutch]), Isaac Hayes (65, Musician/Actor), Charlton Heston (84, Actor), John Hewer (86, “Captain Birdseye”), Sir Edmund Hillary (88, Adventurer), Patrick J. Hillery (84, President of Ireland '76 - '90), Robert Justman (81, TV Producer [Star Trek]), Eartha Kitt (81, Singer), Victor Krulak (95, Lt. General USMC Ret.), Don LaFontaine (68, Voice Actor), Heath Ledger (28, Actor), Bernie Mac (50, Comedian/Actor), Paul Newman (83, Actor), Conor Cruise O’Brien (91, Politician), Betty Page (85, Model), Joseph Pevney (96, Director [Star Trek]), Robert Prosky (77, Actor [Hill St. Blues]), John Walter Ripley (69, Colonel USMC Ret.), Roy Scheider (76, Actor), Stan Winston (62, Special Effects Artist), Joan Winston (77, Star Trek Campaigner). We also remember the coalition servicemen who lost their lives in Iraq and a further 285 in Afghanistan. May they rest in peace.

My predictions for 2009 are: That Star Trek and G.I.Joe will rock, but Watchmen will rule! We'll see a 240Gb iPod; The economy will get worse before it gets better; Lt. Gaeta will be revealed as the 5th Cylon ruining my steadfast assumption that Tom Zarek will be; Afghanistan will be pacified; We'll get our first concrete details on the Star Wars TV series and I'll finally get my eagles back!

HAPPY 2009!!!