Weekend Shuffle

Richard Carleton Dies On The Job
He was covering the miner rescue and then collapsed. The spooky photo above is from moments before he collapsed. Now he's dead.

Tasmanian government adviser Shaun Rigby said he saw Carleton collapse soon after asking a question at a press conference about the mine rescue.

"I saw him, and I said 'he's down' and we rushed over there pretty much straight away," Mr Rigby told reporters.

He said a radio journalist began CPR while Mr Rigby called an ambulance and sent someone to the mine site to get medical experts working with the trapped miners.

Among them was Dr Andrew Hughes, the director the Tasmanian Medical Retrieval Service, who has been working closely with the trapped miners.

Dr Hughes was the main doctor who worked on Carleton before was taken away in an ambulance, Mr Rigby said.

He said people had been traumatised by the veteran reporter's death.

"There's people in tears, there's people in shock. It's been horrible - it's just horrible," Mr Rigby said.

He said he had tried to offer Carleton some dignity as he lay on the ground.

"I basically told people to clear the area, get some blankets. Everyone deserves a bit of dignity especially when lying on your back in that situation with 30 cameras (around)," Mr Rigby said.

"People from Nine, Seven, all kinds of people from all kinds of networks helped out.

"And we took them in there (to the mine's media centre) sat them down and had a coffee."

The town of Beaconsfield where they are busy trying to rescue the miners is in shock.

BEACONSFIELD residents are in a state of shock over the death yesterday of reporter Richard Carleton, who collapsed during a press conference on the town's two trapped miners.
West Tamar mayor Barry Easther said the veteran reporter's death was absolutely staggering.

"I think it shook the whole community that somebody of Richard's stature had passed away here in Beaconsfield (while) reporting on this terrible disaster, and certainly the community's thoughts and prayers and condolences are with his family," Mr Easther said.

"I thought it was interesting that he was here. I wondered what the angle would be of the report."

How much more excitement can this town take?
I caught the news while watching the Swans hand out a defeat to the Brisbane Lions; it didn't fill me with any particular sentiment except "that'd be right". I didn't even have a snarky joke on hand, even though the irony of somebody going to cover the news, becoming the news themselves, did not escape me.

Why Sometimes Religiousness Is Next To Craziness

One of the distinctions we make in our society is between fact and fiction. For instance, is a piece of film from Hollywood fact or fiction? Some Cardinals in the Vatican have decided that the movie version of 'DaVinci Code' starring Tom Hanks, has some kind of claim to truth.

Cardinal Francis Arinze, a Nigerian who was considered a candidate for pope last year, made his strong comments in a documentary called "The Da Vinci Code-A Masterful Deception."

Arinze's appeal came some 10 days after another Vatican cardinal called for a boycott of the film. Both cardinals asserted that other religions would never stand for offences against their beliefs and that Christians should get tough.

"Christians must not just sit back and say it is enough for us to forgive and to forget," Arinze said in the documentary made by Rome film maker Mario Biasetti for Rome Reports, a Catholic film agency specializing in religious affairs.

"Sometimes it is our duty to do something practical. So it is not I who will tell all Christians what to do but some know legal means which can be taken in order to get the other person to respect the rights of others," Arinze said.

"This is one of the fundamental human rights: that we should be respected, our religious beliefs respected, and our founder Jesus Christ respected," he said, without elaborating on what legal means he had in mind.

Now this is really stupid. It's only entertainmeent for crying out loud.
And I don't think the Catholics can claim to be overall victims in the history stakes, so this just has the ring of stupidity.

Taking Things Seriously In Iran
George W Bush is making noises about Iran.

"I think that it's very important for us to take his words very seriously," he told the German newspaper Bild. "When people speak, it is important that we listen carefully to what they say and take them seriously.
A transcript was released Sunday of the president's comments made in interviews at week's end.

"For example, when al Qaida speaks, I take their words seriously," he told Bild. "When (Osama) bin Laden says we'll bring harm to the West, I take them seriously."

Bush said: "when Ahmadinejad speaks, we need to take it seriously, and when he says he wants to destroy Israel, the world needs to take that very seriously.

The Iranian leader has said Israel should be "wiped off the map" and has called the Holocaust a myth.

"It's a threat to an ally of the United States and Germany. But what he's also saying is, if he's willing to destroy one country, he'd be willing to destroy other countries."

I think we need to take this seriously.

Still Got This Bug
I've had this flu- like symptom for 10 days now and it's driving me nuts. Right now, it is manifesting itself as persistent sinus headaches.
I'm on garlic and hoseradish tabs.
I'm on echinacia tabs too.
I've stopped using paracetamol and para-ephedrine; it's just not cleearing it up covering the symptoms.
I'm still coughing, though not as badly as last week.
It's a crappy existence.

Yankee Update

The Yankees have won 5 on the trot as they swept the Rangers in Arlington. In the process Joe Torre won his 1,000th game as a Yankeee manager.

Torre got his 1,000th win as Yankees manager, with Hideki Matsui hitting a three-run homer in an 8-5 victory over the Texas Rangers on Sunday that stretched New York's winning streak to a season-high five games.

Torre has a 1,000-645 record with New York, trailing only Joe McCarthy (1,460), Casey Stengel (1,149) and Miller Huggins (1,067). Torre has the longest uninterrupted term among Yankees managers since Stengel from 1949-60.

"I think 1,000 wins as a Yankee manager is pretty incredible considering the company you're in," Torre said. "A thousand is a lot of wins, especially when you signed a two-year contract back in '96. The Yankee record book is a special place to be. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be here this long."

Overall as a manager, Torre is 1,894-1,648, including stints with the New York Mets, Atlanta and St. Louis.

"I'm very proud of him," Yankees owner George Steinbrenner said through spokesman Howard Rubenstein. "He's making the right moves. He knows how to lead the team, and he's shown great leadership."

Players credit Torre for his even-tempered disposition and ability to handle different personalities.

"Look at the job he's done," Bernie Williams said. "He's done just about everything that needed to be done to get the organization back to where it should be."

That's got to be good. They remain 1 behind the Sox in the win column, but 1 shorter in the loss column with the Sox. Apart from Randy Johnson's soft-cock performance where he was bailed out by the ofense, the Yankee rotation had a mostly solid 5 games for the first time in a long time. Even Jaret Wright managed to not get hit by flying objects as he edged out the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. So you could say it was a 'raining small miracles' kind of week.

It Was A Good Weekend For My Fantasy Teams
Both my fantasy teams have clawed their way to 4th.

My AFL fantasy team had its best week in any of the rounds as my team edged out SLEIGHTY's LEGENDS for a win. That's 3 wins on the trot as my team sits at the bottom of the undefeated teams, but hey, I'll take a win any day.

My baseball fantasy team is hanging in the B group of the League as the A group of 2 teams are starting to put the distance on the B group. My team had a reasonable week where they managed to stay at 4th without giving up too much. Breaking the 100 point barrier is going to be the next challenge.

UPDATE: From the Pleiades Mailbag
Pleiades sent in this article: You ever wonder how America keeps going in spite of the debt? Well, here's an article that might open your eyes.

“If the dollar lost its status as the world’s reserve currency, that would force the United States to fund it massive account deficit by running a trade surplus, which would increase inflationary pressures.” (Associated Press)

There’s no prospect of the US running a trade surplus anytime soon. Bush has savaged the manufacturing sector outsourcing over 3 million jobs and shutting down plants across the country. His short-sighted “free trade” policies and enormous tax cuts for the rich ensure that Americans will be left to face skyrocketing energy costs and a hyper-inflationary greenback. There’s no way we can retool fast enough to “manufacture our way” out of the quagmire of red ink.

Currently, the national debt is a whopping $8.4 trillion with an equally harrowing $800 billion trade deficit. (7% of GDP) The ever-increasing demand for the greenback in the oil trade is the only thing that has kept the dollar from freefalling to earth. Even a small conversion to euros will erode the dollar’s value and could precipitate a sell-off.

Presently, oil is sold exclusively on the London Petroleum Exchange and the New York Mercantile Exchange both owned by American investors. If the bourse opens, central banks around the world will reduce their stockpiles of dollars to maintain a portion of their currency in euros. This is the logical step for Europe which buys 70% of Iran’s oil. It is also the reasonable choice for Russia which sells two-thirds of its oil to Europe but (amazingly) continues to denominate those transactions in dollars.

Washington has succeeded in maintaining its monopoly by propping up the many corrupt and repressive regimes in the Gulf States. The prudent choice for Saudi Arabia would be to move away from the debt-ridden dollar and enhance its earnings with the stronger euro. Regrettably, Uncle Sam has a gun to their head. They understand that such a transition would invite the same response that Saddam got 6 months after he converted to euros and was removed through “shock and awe”.

Kind of had to be reason for that I guess.