The Christmas Newsletter
- G.E.N
- Feb 24, 2025
- 6 min read
Updated: Dec 24, 2025
Contents
Only a certain number of hairstyles are permitted in North Korea (15 for men, 18 for women).
Lake Superior contains enough liquid to cover all of North and South America under a foot of water.
Anne Bancroft was only 35 years old when she played Mrs Robinson in The Graduate.
Of 360,000 children aged 15 in Zambia, only 5 can read at 'globally proficient levels.'
Clare Short (the former Labour MP) and Martin Short (the Canadian actor) are first cousins.
If you laid out all the axons present in just 1 cubic millimetre of brain tissue, they would stretch for nearly 5 kilometres.
To put the men's marathon world record time in context, it's the equivalent of running 100 metres in 17 seconds, 422 times in a row.
Due to the potato famine, and high levels of emigration, the population of Ireland plummeted in the 19th Century - there were half as many people living there in 1950 as there had been in 1850. Even today, the island of Ireland has over a million fewer people than it did before the potato famine, while the population of England has trebled in that time.
The Gonghe Talatan Solar Park in China is comprised entirely of solar panels, and covers an area larger than Manchester.
At the end of 2025, the points gap between second and third place in the Men's Tennis World Rankings was greater than that between third place and 1,000th.
The biggest agricultural exporter in the world is the USA. The second biggest is The Netherlands (ahead of both China and Brazil).
The Italian automotive designer Giorgetto Giugiaro was named the 'Car Designer Of The Century' in 1999, having designed over 200 different models, including the Volkswagen Golf MK1 and the Passat, the Lotus Esprit, the DeLorean (from Back To The Future), the BMW M1, The Fiat Uno and Panda, the SEAT Ibiza, the Hyundai Pony, as well as iconic Alfa Romeos and Maseratis. Over his lifetime he also designed motorbikes for Suzuki and Ducati, camera bodies for Nikon, watches for Seiko, submachine guns for Beretta, an organ for Lausanne cathedral, and a brand new shape of pasta, he named the Marille.
'When we ask for advice, we are usually looking for an accomplice.'
Saul Bellow
'If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs, it's just possible you haven't grasped the situation.'
Jean Kerr
'Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded.'
Yogi Berra
The What Comes Neggst Cup!
The results are in from 2025's prediction quiz, and I'm delighted to announce Sarah W as the winner! She has now been painted, with photorealistic precision, and added to the illustrious trophy.
However, it's all to play for in 2026, so here are 20 questions to prove yourself a champion superforecaster...
(Unless otherwise stated, the prediction timeline runs from January 1st to December 15th, and the competition is open to anyone - the more the merrier! Just send a screenshot or copy of your answers to me directly, or via whoever led you here.)
The 2026 Prediction Challenge
Who will be announced as the next James Bond?
Which famous person - who’s not currently seen as controversial - will get 'cancelled' during 2026?
Make a prediction about what’s going to happen to a specific member of the Royal Family over the coming year.
Name a celebrity who will appear on either I'm A Celeb or Strictly Come Dancing.
Which movie will win the Best Picture Oscar?
This year’s Turner Prize for contemporary art was won by Nnena Kalu, and you could describe her main piece in five words - ‘Hanging sculptures made of scraps'. Using only five words, please guess what the winning artwork of 2026 will look like.
Which teams will finish in the top four of the Premier League and in what order?
Who will win the Men’s FIFA World Cup?
Which publicly traded company will have a great year, and see their share price (as a percentage) increase massively between now and the end of the year?
Which publicly traded company will have a particularly bad 2026, and see their share price fall steeply?
Who will be Prime Minister next Christmas, and who will be Chancellor of the Exchequer?
In five words or fewer, predict the most outrageous thing Donald Trump will do in 2026.
In five words or fewer, predict one surprising geopolitical event that will happen next year - the sort of thing that currently seems unlikely or implausible (like ‘Xi Jinping will be assassinated’ or ‘Macron fires nuke at Denmark.’)
Who will be named Time's Person Of The Year?
What will be the highest temperature recorded in the UK during 2026?
The UK inflation rate is currently at 3.2%, and the interest rate is 3.75%. What will they be in October next year?
According to the ONS, the average house price for the UK in October was £270,000. What will it be in October 2026?
One pint of regular semi-skimmed milk is currently 85p on Tesco Online. What will it cost at the end of this year?
The current price of 1 bitcoin is $87,000. What will it be at 12pm on December 15th next year?
Humanity's Last Exam is a multi-modal benchmark of thousands of expert-level, cross-disciplinary academic questions designed to measure an AI's true reasoning ability - basically testing how smart the current AI systems are by asking them difficult questions that they haven't been trained on, so they have to work out the answers for themselves.
The highest mark they’ve ever achieved is 50.7%, set by Grok this year. What will be the highest mark set by an AI system over the next 12 months?
The Picture Quiz
Can you guess all ten movies from the visual clues? (Click then scroll along.)
First person to get in touch with all ten films wins.
A Free Children's Book
I've started writing little stories for my daughter, and then adding images and illustrations with the help of AI. I wrote this one in autumn, when she became obsessed with acorns and conkers. If you know any young children who might enjoy it, feel free to pass it on.
I was recently asked a good question: 'You can have any living music artist play at your next birthday party, but they only get to play one song and it has to be a cover - who would you choose and what song are they playing?'
Trickier than it first sounds, as it also has to fit the vibe of your ideal birthday party. And don't forget, there's a host of good conversation starters at the link above - perfect fodder for awkward Christmas chats with family members you hardly know.
Pear and Chocolate Crumble
This is basically a Nigel Slater recipe. It's super simple, easy to remember, and delicious.
Serves 4
(For The Filling) 4 or 5 Pears
30g Butter
50g Caster Sugar
1 or 2 tsps Stem Ginger
(For The Crumble)
70g Butter (cold)
70g Plain Flour
70g Demerara Sugar 70g Dark Chocolate
5 tbsp Oats
Make the filling: Peel, half and core the pears. Melt the butter in a pan, and when it starts to sizzle add the pears, sugar and stem ginger. Cook for five to ten minutes, letting the sugar caramelise and the pears soften, then add this mixture to a baking dish. Heat the oven to 180C (or 200C for non-fan ovens).
Make the crumble: Rub the cold butter into the flour, then stir in the sugar and oats. Chop the chocolate into small chunks and add that as well, along with a tbsp of water or milk to help the crumble mixture come together and form little lumps.
Tip the crumble over the pear mixture and bake for around 40 minutes, until the top is light brown. Serve with custard, cream or ice cream.
Content & Recommendations
Don't forget to check out the Good Egg Spotify playlist, and a big thanks to Good Egg Ollie M, who sent me this very cool new magazine he's published with a collective of talented pals:
Think Time Trumpet or The Day Today - it's a collection of funny articles discussing what happened in 2027. The online shop and more info can be found here.
To discover the other pages on the G.E.N site head back to the home page, and if you want to join the network then SIGN-UP HERE.
See you next year
Lots of love
P
