This is how I would like to see the NSW State Election pan out tomorrow:

A hung parliament, led for now by the Labor Party with the Greens and progressive independents holding the balance of power, and getting a couple of cabinet places as part of the deal.

An upper house balanced by Greens, Democrats and other progressive minor parties, with the CDP(FNG), Shooters Party and other redneck small interest groups blown away.

Greens victories in Marrickville and Balmain... and let's go for broke here - Sydney, Heffron, Newcastle, Orange and... Vaucluse.

I can't think of a sadder time in the game of cricket than the present. The news today that Bob Woolmer's death is believed by the Jamaican Police to be murder by strangulation, leaves me utterly speechless. What we need to know now is who did it, and why. Is this the first murder of a leading cricket identity that is related to the pernicious illegal betting industry?

"...we [The Australian] have attacked the Howard Government for its lack of credibility on economic management. We have adopted a rationalist position, criticising the Government for giving too much money to special interest groups in the quest for electoral advantage at the expense of good policy. Against the reforms of the Hawke and Keating years, the Howard Government can be justly accused of being weak on economic reform... for a government that argues its strongest virtue is economic management, the real economic achievements of the past 11 years are slim pickings."

Woohoo! We've made another worldwide top ten!

The Murray-Darling river system has been listed by the WWF as one of the world's top ten rivers at risk of dying. Up there with plenty of heavyweights, including the Ganges, Yangtze, Danube, Nile and the Mekong.

The World Wide Fund for Nature takes up the s

Was John Howard's evacuation from his airplane following its emergency landing in Iraq on Saturday a staged photo-op?

I wouldn't normally link to anonymous sources on Crikey (or anywhere else), but food for thought...

Costa Rica Aims to Become First 'Carbon Neutral' Country
- The Costa Rican government is developing plans to begin offsetting all of the country’s carbon dioxide emissions.
[Worldwatch Institute]

Scientists have discovered that the clouded leopard found on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra is an entirely new species of cat (Neofelis diardi). The secretive rainforest animal was originally thought to be the same species (Neofelis nebulosa) as the one found in mainland South-east Asia.

It's Day Two of the World Cup, and the ICC has just agreed to allow spectators to take bottled water into the grounds so that they don't dehydrate.

Which begs a disturbing question... why has it taken them until now to consider a fundamental health issue at one of the world's major sporting events?

This just in from the World Cup organising body:

BOTTLED WATER ALLOWED IN FOR ICC CWC 2007 MATCHES

If ever there was an argument for the separation of church and state, his name is Fred Nile.

Member of the NSW Legislative Council since 1981 (except for two months in 2004 when he ran for the Senate), Australia's answer to Jerry Falwell is heading the Christian Democratic Party ticket for the Upper House in the March 24 election.

Reverend Nile (a retired Uniting Church minister) always his cards fairly and squarely on the table, and this press release issued last Saturday is no exception: