There's something I can't comprehend. Why do the good people of Sydney insist on all those carbon emissions into the atmosphere to mark the New Year?

Anyway, have a good one. It is now the Year of the Dolphin.

Saddam Hussein was killed today. He was put to death by hanging at the direction of the Iraqi Government following a trial for one of his lesser alleged crimes against humanity. His death means that other, even more serious, charges against him will never be brought to account - notably the use of chemical weapons against Kurds in 1988. Likewise, the complicity of governments friendly to Iraq prior to the 1990 invasion of Kuwait will be more difficult to explore.

I can never understand how, if the taking of human life is such a heinous crime, the punishment can be the taking of human life. I have no sympathy for Saddam Hussein over his actions across the past forty years. But he should have been locked away for the term of his natural life.

Many of the albums featuring songs I have listed in the A Christmas Carol Playlist series can be purchased through amazon.com

I have set up a section in my blogshop where the CDs can be purchased. Take a look at my Christmas Blogshop. I earn a commission on any sales made via my website, and seeing as I intend to ensure my websites pay their own way in 2007, I would appreciate your support :-)

Your heart must be bleeding as much as mine for CVC Asia Pacific, the private equity company that recently bought a 50% stake in PBL, the owners of the Nine Network in Australia. Just think of all that lost advertising revenue because the Fourth Test finished two days early.

190: The approximate number of overs left unplayed when the Melbourne Test finished two and a bit days early.

244,351: The cumulative number of spectators at the MCG over the three days of the Test, an average of 81450 per day. The record cumulative crowd for a Test in Australia was 350,534 for the MCG Test against England in 1936-37, a six-day Test thus averaging a mere 58422 per day.

I'll write more about the Melbourne Test on what should have been either Day Four or Day Five, but for now here are my votes for Day Three of the Melbourne Test, ie, the day that Australia thwacked England by an innings.

Three points: Brett Lee; two points: Shane Warne; one point: Stuart Clark.

With one Test remaining, we have a clear leader. No prizes for guessing who...

Ever since rejecting the petty, power-mongering King George III of England during the war for independence, Americans have seemed to miss having royals to coddle. But whenever we give kingly treatment to a president upon his death, we cheat history.

- Editorial on the death of Gerald R.Ford, Boulder Daily Camera, 28.12.06

The memorial tour for the 38th US President will roll over the next few days. With Ford being an Episcopalian by religion, the Episcopal News Service has details on his funeral and his Episcopalian background.

Melbourne cricket fans denied two days' unbridled adulation of Shane Warne as Test finishes early. Film at 11.

I finish this series with that most English (and most secular) of Christmas traditions, the wassail. It's such an integral part of Christmas that Dictionary.com made wassail its word of the day for December 24.

Here's a recipe for wassail I googled earlier.

So as Christmastide rolls on towards New Year, here is my Wassailing playlist - mostly traditional wassailing songs, and finished off with a delightful Christmas single from 1992 which sounds like it was the outcome of too much wassailing.