What will 2006 bring? As I try to foresee 2006, leaning on my educated or in reality not so educated guessing, Ill begin with Sudoku puzzles. True, these puzzles are rooted in 2005, but one has to step back a little to get the wider view of the horizon. Anyhow, thanks to Sudoku puzzles, I bet, well all learn how to count, especially the Democrats.

Another trend Im counting on, based on Googles San Francisco experiment, is the free internet; however, this will have some drawbacks because of more spam, specifically voice and video spam. On the positive side of this menace, the laptop industry will prosper because many a laptop will find their demise as a result of the cyber road rage. Then, probably our government will step in and make internet connections a public utility.

With the advancement of internet connections, the news media weve been accustomed to will change drastically, because there will be millions more of bloggers, making the journalists and newscasters face getting outflanked.

A hopeful speculation falls within the movie business. The celebrity culture will be curtailed. Movie studios will prohibit or hold back their actors from spewing false statements on serious human matters with their only source of information being their fame.

Since the smaller screens are invading the movie industry, Hollywood, too, will have to direct their programming toward I-pods and such, and someone will come up with special screen-enlarging lenses or glasses to wear, as in the foregone times when 3-D glasses were in fashion. By the end of the year, gangs of movie watchers will surface and well recognize each gang by the color of the frame of their eyeglasses.

Because U.S. companies will attempt more aggressively to lower costs and boost profits more quickly by outsourcing work to places like China and India, well all have to learn Chinese and the way Indians speak English. Well have to, because even to order our tangible goods, well have to connect to international storefronts.

By the end of 2006, many other gadgets will be added to our cellphones, maybe a cutlery set, a microwave oven, and a raincoat.

The bird flu that threatens us will stay only a threat; however, birds will unfortunately contact the human flu and they too will start to demolish the earths natural resources.

As the baby boomers will be entering the retirement age soon, long term care insurance business will become a very volatile commodity trading activity with very high volume fluctuations. For the future hospitals, construction will begin and these hospitals will resemble communes for those flower children boomers, since it is predicted, five to ten years down the line, some of them will only remember their earlier memories due to old age dementia.

On the more serious side, in the micro and nanotechnology areas, important steps will be taken and possibly we will have a cure to or at least some respite from some of the diseases; however, flu shots will be outsourced and well have to travel to China to get a flu shot.

Another big step in 2006 will be making spare parts from the stem cells of the fat in our pouches. When this news hits the media, there will be more couch potatoes in our homes and even bigger and stronger furniture, houses, vehicles, and hospital equipment will be needed. All these necessities will give rise to new industry sections, making our economy soar sky high.

We have so much to look forward to. Happy New Year, everyone.