Welcome! Bienvenue! G-Day! The United Nations has designated 2008 International Year of Planet Earth, Sanitation and the Potato! From the International Year of Sanitation 2008 website: “Proper sanitation: It’s a seemingly mundane thing that most people in the developed world take for granted. But at least 2.6 billion people – some 41 percent of the global population – do not have access to latrines or any sort of basic sanitation facilities.” The UN’s intent is to raise awareness and accelerate work toward the goal of improving sanitation for half of the current population without it by 2015.

According to the UN International Year of the Potato 2008 website: “The celebration of the International Year of the Potato (IYP) will raise awareness of the importance of the potato – and of agriculture in general – in addressing issues of global concern, including hunger, poverty and threats to the environment.”

2008 is also the second International Year of Planet Earthh. This is a three year international observance designated by the UN, and 2008 is the central year of the triennium. “The International Year of Planet Earth aims to ensure greater and more effective use by society of the knowledge accumulated by the world’s 400,000 Earth scientists.”

January 1 is also the 25th anniversary of the switch to TCP/IP, the protocol that organizes and routes data and makes sure that when you go to a web address like google.com, apple.com, or ikiw.org, the correct web site appears.

The image at right is a photo of the New Year’s Eve fireworks in San Francisco. Happy New Year!