2006 has been designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification (IYDD). The official website is iydd.org

"The England boys richly deserve their MBEs and OBEs and I was delighted when I heard on the TV I was going to get my own Sun gong!"

- attributed to Gary Pratt, The Sun, 30.12.05

I think it's fabulous how the Blair Government has opened up the honours lists to people who would never have been contemplated in stuffier times. But I think they're going a bit overboard in rewarding national sporting victories. A dangerous precedent was set when England won the 2003 Rugby World Cup, and now we have the 2005 Ashes squad all getting gongs.

Yesterday it was 44.2 degrees in Sydney, the second-hottest day in recorded history. Today it's in the low twenties, very dark outside, and drizzling. No real complaints about that, they've had some hideous bushfires near Gosford over the past couple of days, but there's a Test match due to start at the SCG in a couple of hours.

The webcam at the SCG doesn't appear to be operating at the moment. I'll be blogging about the Test this week as time permits. Feel free to comment.

Happy new year.

I've done a three-part obit on Kerry Packer on my cricket blog. Go here, here and here.

There's been a lot of inaccurate twaddle written in the overseas media about the late Kerry Packer over the past week. I could get nasty and single out some exceedingly bad pieces of near-fiction that I have seen in some of the Indian newspapers, but I would have expected better of CricInfo than to describe him as "one-day cricket's inventor".

"There is a problem with gambling in this country, but the problem doesn’t lie with people who can afford to gamble and afford to lose."

- John Howard, talking to 3AW's Neil Mitchell about Kerry Packer after he reportedly lost $32 million in a night at the casino, 1.9.00

If Kerry Packer had not organised a breakaway cricket tournament, someone else would have. Not as well, and probably not for another ten or twenty years.

"I've been to the other side son, and there's f#$king nothing there."

- Kerry Packer, on his heart attack in 1990, during which he was clinically dead.

Kerry Packer, who died on Monday night, was one of the most remarkable characters of modern-day Australia. His career, his lifestyle, his personality made for a capitalist's wet dream. But he wasn't so much a captain of industry as he was the overlord of a feudal empire.

Kerry O'Keeffe used to call him the "Oswald" in the Australian one-day team alongside (Shane) Lee and (Ian) Harvey. But Andrew "Roy" Symonds has suddenly decided to snap into gear as a wannabe born-again dreadlocked Andrew "Fred" Flintoff. Or maybe, even more ambitiously, a Jacques "Jacques" Kallis with personality.

Oh dear. This press release from the Liberal Democrats in the UK on Christmas Eve:

Liberal Democrats : Father Christmas should say 'No, No, No,' to private transport - Brake