Top 10 news stories this year

Some people think that a year starts in January and ends in December. They're wrong.

I'm not sure how many years out of education you have to be to have lost sight of the academic calendar, but it's probably hundreds. So for those of us who have the September to August template as deeply embedded into us as our skeletons, this is for you.

The Top 10

Kieron's been a Mirror man for a while now and so is convinced that Katie and Peter have some sort if importance. I was listening to him until he said that, but then I obviously had to disregard his opinion. And Thom's been world servicing for too long now: he thinks that foreign wars are interesting, even if you haven't been to that place on holiday. So I had to disregard him too, a bit.

I've gone for:

1. Obama's election
2. Lehman Brothers being allowed to collapse
3. Swine flu
4. Mumbai attacks
5. Israel's invasion of Gaza
6. Michael Jackson's death
7. MPs' expenses
8. Obama's inauguration
9. Jade Goody's death
10. G20

And the most over-hyped stories:

1. The Beatles Re-mastered.

Why we've all had to go bonkers over a dead pop group re-releasing their old albums is beyond me. It's just massive PR stunt. Of course some of their stuff was great, but they also wrote Yellow Submarine for God's sake...

2 Hadron Collider

It didn't work, did it.

3. Sachsgate

Russell Brand rang Andrew Sachs and was rude down the phone. We've all prank-called a grandad in our time, surely.