THE WEEK Jan 4: New Year special

Outer space to become playground

Outer space was a busy place in 2012. We had Felix Baumgartner jump from a vessel at the edge of the Earth's atmosphere. With all of its self portraits and irrelevant Twitter posts, the Mars rover Curiosity turned into a 15-year-old girl who just downloaded Instagram on her iPhone. In 2013, we predict outer space will continue to become a playground rather than a place for meaningful scientific exploration. The United States' space program has lost significant amounts of public funding. Commercial flights to space are becoming for immediate. And one Chinese official announced the country's plans to grow a vegetable garden on the moon. Soon enough, people will be hosting pool parties on the space stations.

Korean pop to go main stream

In 2012, we saw a massive explosion of the song "Gangnam Style", performed by Korean artist Psy. That's evidence enough that K-pop has the potential to be huge. But we also saw a song by G Dragon reviewed in the infamous Rolling Stone Magazine and an awesome performance by the K-pop group Girl's Generation, also known as SNSD, on David Letterman's late night talk show. We expect that in 2013, K-pop will secure a big spot on the world's music stage.

Prepare for the zombies

In 2012, many people around the world began truly fearing the possibility of a zombie apocalypse. There was the story of a naked homeless man eating the face of another man. A college student ate his roommate's heart and brain. And there were other zombie stories, as well. In 2013, we predict the world will grow increasingly fearful of zombies taking over. So, if you're an entrepreneur, think about taking a shot at the zombie industry.

A new year of technology

The Week's special correspondent Conor Lane joins us in the studio to talk about what he expects to see in the world of technology and gadgets in 2013.

Quick predictions

Hillary Clinton will begin preparing to run for presidency in the 2016 US election.

Divorce rates among gay couples will skyrocket in the US. People involved in the gay rights movement in the US should be proud of their victories this year, but we're guessing some of them got caught up in the excitement and will soon realize they married too quickly.

Obama is no longer seeking reelection, so we're predicting that he may make some controversial decisions this year.

We're hoping Lindsay Lohan actually sees her first real jail sentence.

The Los Angeles Lakers will lose in the NBA finals, because Kobe's massive ego will get in the way of big man Dwight Howard.

The new Star Wars movie will be very visually appealing, but the story will be horrible.

Princess Kate's baby will be an even bigger fuss than Beyonce's was in 2012. The baby drama never stops.

（中国日报网英语点津 Helen 编辑）