Reading the runes. If we all could do it, bookies wouldn't exist. But it's one of the great journalistic excitements nonetheless. At the start of every year, we take the crystal ball out and gaze into its cloudy depths.

These are the acts that will impress. These are the books to look out for. These are the issues that will engage us. These are the sex positions which will come into vogue. And this is where we are going to go on our Summer holidays in greater numbers than ever before.

If we have summer holidays. Some things are relatively easy to predict. U2 will release a new album. There were those who believed that it would happen in 2013 and said as much. We might even have hinted at it in Hot Press. But this time the stars are aligned. Recent months saw an intensive burst of activity in the studio, of the kind normally associated with finishing an album. The deal with Paul McGuinness
has been finalised and a new management team is in place, in preparation for the tour. A Golden Globe is in the bag for ‘Ordinary Love'. An Academy Award nomination has been sealed. Everyone is chomping at the bit. Take a deep breath...

Manchester United are going to win the Premiership. That was a joke. Any time over the past 15 years, in January, that would not have been an unreasonable forecast. But this year is different. The transition from Alex Ferguson as manager to David Moyes has proven deeply traumatic. Right now, United are fourteen points behind the leaders, Arsenal. That, however, is not the worst of it. They are thirteen points behind Manchester City. And twelve behind Chelsea. Any one of the top three might implode. It happens on occasion in football that a team which starts well hits a wall. But it
is inconceivable that all three will suffer that kind of ignominious collapse. United’s title hopes are doomed. The only real question is: have they a hope of getting back into contention for a top four slot, in order to secure a Champions League place, with Liverpool, Everton and Spurs all playing so well? It is a big ask. In fact United's best prospect of making it into the Champions League next season is by winning it this year.

They are on a level playing pitch with everyone else going into the knock-out stages. Their upcoming game against Olympiakos is eminently winnable. All they have to do is to produce four big performances and the trophy is theirs. It may be highly improbable – but it is more achievable than making up a twelve point-plus difference on the current top three in England...

Speculation is the name of the game. Throughout our Hot for 2014 Special, the resident Hot Press sages do their best to enlighten us on what to expect over the next 12 months. The Whole Hog is far from optimistic. The recent extreme weather patterns are part of an emerging paradigm. Human activity is in the process of mperiling the planet. We can’t predict when the natural world will strike back or how hard. But strikes are on the way. That much is certain.

We are lucky in Ireland: we live in a temperate climate and are less likely to be savaged by a tornado, fried by a heatwave, cryogenically preserved by a cold snap or swamped by a tsunami than most other parts of the world. Bush fires are almost as alien a concept here as earthquakes. But we will not escape retribution when the flood waters rise as a result of earth- warming. For many of us around the coast, disaster is only just a freak high-tide away.

We can batten down the hatches, or demand that the Government build dykes till the salmon come home, but scientists are telling us that only a fundamental change in the way humans behave can stave off the impending disaster.

Our sex guru, Anne Sexton, meanwhile, believes that technology will have an increasing influence over our sex lives. What has happened in Japan is instructive. There, the appetite of young people for sex has diminished dramatically. So has the birth rate. It is said that people prefer the company of their tamagotchis – digital 'pets', originally intended to teach teenage girls what it would be like to nurture children – to that of members of the opposite sex.

That there are too many ‘pets' in the world is obvious. However, no one quite knows what’s happening in the Land of the Rising Sun. The after-effects of World War II are still strongly felt in Japan. There is an underlying awareness that they were on the wrong side. And the collective memories of the monstrosities inflicted on the citizens of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were reawakened by the nuclear accident at Fukushima in 2011. Is this the kind of world you want to bring babies into?

There is more to it than any existential quandary. People’s devotion to gizmos is absorbing time that was previously channelled into relationships. Fifteen years ago, how many of us would have foreseen the current ubiquitousness of mobile devices, or the extent to which they are used, and abused, as a means of communication?

That is only one manifestation of the sometimes bizarre effect of the digital world on the way people behave. There is money in sex. And indulging your fetishes via the internet may seem like a safer and easier option than trying to find like-minded individuals. Right now, however, there is a depersonalised aspect to sex and sexuality on the internet, for anyone who chooses to go there.

Facebook, meanwhile, expects everyone to let the world know their “relationship status” – as if this can always be summarised in a couple of words. On all sorts of levels, the subtleties of the way people negotiate their way through life are being lost in translation. The quality of human discourse is being undermined. No wonder there is an element of recoil.

For Irish artists, however, recoil is not an option. Last year, among the acts we deemed Hot for 2013 were Kodaline, Gavin James, Gangs, The Gloaming and Children of the Son. Our sages proved to be prescient. 2013 was Kodaline’s year: they bestrode the international stage impressively and delivered a hit album at home.

But all five acts made significant progress. And as 2014 starts to take shape, the forces gathering around Children Of The Son suggest that they Bono of U2: an album is on the way may be the first to take on the mantle of international breakthrough artists. I've said it before. They have the songs. They have the musical chops. And in lead singer Jack Matthews, they have one of the most extraordinary vocal talents in Irish music. They have the potential to be huge. All it needs is for the cards to fall the right way.

Hold out your palm. What does the heart line tell you? Now look at the head line. Do more of us than ever before have the wavy imprint of a short attention span? Follow the life line. How many are there: one, two, three? Might there really be discernible differences between people with a long straight line that runs doggedly across the palm and those that arc in a sensuous curve? And what if you are one of those that doesn’t have a fate line?

Will I be handsome? Will I be rich? As the old song says, the future’s not ours to see. But deciding that 'whatever will be will be' is not the answer either. At our best, humans are active agents, capable of shaping the way the story of the world unfolds and maximising the pleasures that keep us in love with life along the way. And so, at the start of a new year, we can at least make a decision, individually and collectively, to play our part to the utmost in making the world a better, more equitable, more tolerant, more loving, more balanced, more hopeful, more habitable and more hospitable place. For everyone. Now, pass me that teacup...