It's Winter Olympics time again. The Vancouver games are with us. And I care for no reason other than to follow the curling. And, by extension, to take part in that rarest of my indulgences - namely, to cheer for a British national team.

For an explanation of the sport of curling, look no further than this video from Current TV, shot on location at that Home of Winter Sports, San Jose, California:

Can there be a more appropriate song for the start of the new decade than "1980" by Gil Scott-Heron?

For twelve days, December 7 to 18, Copenhagen is the Naivete Capital of the Universe. Some of the street activities during COP15 are either naive, puerile, or just plain counter-productive. When Tuvalu's brave stand for its own survival is reduced to a series of dumbed-down chants I wonder if many of the protestors have merely ventured to Denmark for a party. There's serious discussions being held inside the conference halls which needs to be held to account and kept on track.

In 1987 Midnight Oil released one of the greatest songs about Australia ever recorded. A song forever associated, through its chorus, with the campaign for indigenous land rights, the official music video a work of art in itself which is, frame by frame, etched into my brain and that of many other Australians of grandchild-bearing age.