Skipping the usual new year's greetings and the "why haven't you written in so long" I would like to get straight to the news.

Now, there's nothing I can really say, that you probably haven't heard a hundred times on the local news programmes about the Tsunami in Indonesia, India and Thailand (amongst others), so I'll just leave it at that saying that of course our feelings are with all those families affected by this disaster.

So onto the slightly weird news stories. A baby hippo in Kenya has become friends with a 100-year old tortoise. They apparently go everywhere and do everything together. So I presume we'll be seeing some weird genetic mixes coming up in the not so distant future.

An idea taken from the Dutch (where else) is going to be implemented in London, whereby a road is left without any signs, lights or rules, and the drivers are expected to drive carefully just by the pschological impact of not having to. This "naked road" experiment of course could first be implemented in Paris as despite all the rules, none of the parisian cars actually follow them.

In another great political move, tea-bags are to be prohibited from being thrown onto the compost heaps, as they carry the possibility of foot-and-mouth infection. I wonder if the same applies to coffee leftovers?

Yet again, some politicians really know how to handle foreign relations. Take Mexico, whose government has just published a booklet explaining how their citizens can survive crossing the border with the US, despite it being illegal. Now maybe this will come in helpful for all those immigrants trying to enter the UK illegally.

Ever had things happen in your online Sims 2 game that couldn't quite be explained? Like after downloading that new dishwasher, your 14 year old daughter gets pregnant, and your wife no longer slaps you for having multiple lovers. Well, apparently the so-called "hacks" for changing how some elements of the game behave are spreading like viruses, and people are finding themselves with new "features" which they hadn't asked for.

Okay, we've all heard of the regular gaffes coming from the mouths of Microsoft's Steve Ballmer, or US spokesperson, sorry, president, Bush (junior - or was that baby?). Now another one from the house of MS, about ethical fair trade. I really can't do it justice by summarizing it, you'll just have to read the article. But I assure you, it's worth it.

Now for those of you with new computers for Christmas, here's a little story to help you understand what Spammers, Spyware and Bot-nets are, and why they help the russian mafia to get your credit card details. Read and learn !

And if you have a webcam connected to your PC, be especially aware, as some simple google searches are showing up webcam images from all over the world, which has now become a new hobby for some this year.

No news post would be complete without the latest virus warning. So, the windows media format has again been used for transferring viruses, this time through it's controversial Digital Rights Management feature. So that's two good reasons to leave this format alone.

Well, that was probably enough to chew on for the beginning of this year.

Stay tuned