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It takes more than blood ties to make a happy family. Adoption can be a fulfilling way to create a family. Here Varsity speaks with Hong Kong families that have transcended genetics and race to build loving and lasting bonds.

We live in a world of unsolicited junk calls, junk letters and junk e-mails. Often we wonder how these cold-callers and message senders managed to get our contact and other personal details. Help could be at hand in the shape of tightened regulations on handling personal data and tougher penalties for those who misuse personal information.

B&B or "bed and breakfast" is a popular choice of accommodation for travellers in many parts of the world, including Asian destinations such as Taiwan and Japan but in Hong Kong, many of them operate in a grey area due to the lack of specific regulations.

The sight of more than 100 topless hunks waving from the upper deck of an open-top bus in Central this summer provoked caterwauls, admiration, criticism and envy. Most of the models hired by American fashion retailer Abercrombie and Fitch to promote the opening of their Hong Kong store, were recruited from overseas. But there were a few locals as well and they reported a much more muted response from customers. What does the whole episode tell us about how the East Asian male body is perceived in Hong Kong?

Associate Degrees were introduced in 2000 to provide more opportunities for students to pursue tertiary education if they failed to get onto a traditional undergraduate programme. They were supposed to lead to either jobs or to eventual entry into a university degree course. Varsity looks at whether they have fulfilled their promise.

Cinema is an experience of sound and vision but that doesn't mean the blind and deaf can't enjoy it too. As Varsity learns, audio descriptions can bring the cinema-going experience alive for the blind. While subtitles that go beyond dialogue to descriptions of other sounds in a film enrich cinema for the deaf.

An official signboard in the New Territories written in simplified Chinese sparked a backlash against the writing system. Purists fear simplified characters will replace traditional characters in Hong Kong.

More and more young people are entering politics in Hong Kong, but what kind of support can they expect? Varsity learns young politicians in the pro-establishment camp have access to far more resources than their pan-demoracy counterparts.

Parents of Dragon Year babies can expect competition for many services and goods. From hospital beds to baby formula and down the road, school places. But for the new parents, there is also a scramble for the services of doulas who give specialised help to new mums.

Hong Kong lags behind other developed economies in providing paternity leave for new fathers but the government is hoping to set an example by giving male civil servants paid paternity leave. Varsity talks to some fathers about what being home during the first days of the children's lives means to them.