I've revived the old scrapbook concept that I was using a few years ago, however I've outsourced it to newsvine.com.

I'm using it to link to business and politics-related items about the Cricket World Cup - I figure there will be enough bloggage and reportage of the match play that I can stick to my own niche.

Occasionally there'll be a story which I might want to blog further over here, but for all the clippings, please go to rickeyre.newsvine.com.

"The Socialist Equality Party insists that the only realistic solution to climate change is the abolition of the profit system and the destructive division of the globe into rival nation-states."

- Patrick O'Connor, SEP candidate for Marrickville (source: World Socialist Web Site)

"Of all the world-class swimmers who have competed for Stanford, Michael McLean ranked among the best. In four events, the 2006 graduate's times were among the 15 fastest ever recorded at the school. But you'd never know it by looking at the Stanford media guide. Coach Skip Kenney expunged McLean from the team's record book after he and the swimmer had a falling-out."

The San Francisco Chronicle takes up the story.

Item one: Last Saturday, and it's reported that Maxine McKew, the high-profile ALP candidate for preselection to oppose John Howard in the electorate of Bennelong, has received death threats - something that made the papers worldwide.

I have never met Brian Burke.

Yesterday, Fairfax launched brisbanetimes.com.au, the website of their new newspaper, the Brisbane Times. The thing is, however, that there is no print newspaper called the Brisbane Times. The website is the newspaper.

Anything that chips away at the Murdoch monopoly in Brisbane is welcome. The question is: will the arrival of the Brisbane

Airline Partners Australia's proposed buyout of Qantas received the green light from the Federal Tip With No Iceberg, Peter Costello, today, but only after undertaking to comply with the national interest by:

Democracy throws up some baffling results sometimes, especially when most of the eligible voters don't bother.

Last weekend the voters in the Cherokee Nation approved a constitutional referendum, rescinding citizenship of the descendants of pre-civil war slaves.

As stated in a Cherokee Nation news release issued on Saturday:

Youtube video produced by the Marrickville Greens drawing attention to the toxic waste created by the dumping of obsolete computers. Features Fiona Byrne, who is running for the State seat of Marrickville in the March 24 election.