Australia Offers ‘Best Job in World’ On Paradise Island and I’m going to apply for it!

 

SYDNEY —  It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it.

A real job ad for an island caretaker in Australia that calls for someone to lounge around Australia’s Great Barrier Reef for six months has unemployed people the world over taking heart.

Billing it the “Best Job in the World,” the tourism department in Australia’s Queensland state on Tuesday said it was seeking one lucky person to spend half a year relaxing on Hamilton Island, part of the country’s Whitsunday Islands, while promoting the island on a blog.

Tthe “island caretaker” would be expected to stroll the white sands, soak up the sun, snorkel the reef, “maybe clean the pool” — and report to a global audience via weekly blogs, photo diaries and video updates.

The winner, who will stay rent-free in a multimillion-dollar three-bedroom beach home complete with pool and golf cart, must be an excellent communicator and be able to speak and write in English.

The job, according to the Daily Telegraph, seems too good to be true — work 12 hours a month for six months while carrying out such duties as feeding turtles, watching whales and writing a blog.

The Australia-based newspaper reported on its Web site that no academic qualifications are required for the job advertised in 18 countries. However, strong swimming skills and a love of snorkelling and scuba diving are a must.

The Daily Telegraph reported 850,000 people clicked on the site within the first 24 hours, but as of As of 11 a.m. EST, the Web site for job-seekers had been taken down.

“They’ll also have to talk to media from time to time about what they’re doing so they can’t be too shy and they’ll have to love the sea, the sun, the outdoors,” said acting state Premier Paul Lucas.

“The fact that they will be paid to explore the islands of the Great Barrier Reef, swim, snorkel and generally live the Queensland lifestyle makes this undoubtedly the best job in the world.”

Lucas said the campaign was part of a drive to protect the state’s $12 billion a year tourism industry during the tough economic climate caused by the global financial meltdown.

While the campaign has elements of some reality television shows, a candidate’s looks will not be a prime requirement, Tourism Queensland chief executive Anthony Hayes told AFP.

“No, I don’t think beautiful is what we want, I think charismatic is what we want,” he said. “The reality is we are looking for a fantastic communicator.

“What we want this person to do is travel throughout the Great Barrier Reef and just try every experience, every adventure they can find and report back via blogs and video to tell the world why Queensland is a great place to come for a holiday.”

Tourism Minister Desley Boyle said some people might question whether it was risky to let an unknown person become an unofficial tourism spokesperson for the state.

“I think the biggest risk will be that the successful candidate won’t want to go home at the end of the six months,” she said.

“This is a legitimate job which is open to anyone and everyone.”

Applications are open until February 22. Eleven shortlisted candidates will be flown to Hamilton Island in early May for the final selection process and the six month contract will commence on July 1.

Job-seekers can apply at Islandreefjob.com

 

UPDATE::::::::::::::

Here’s proof I applied and a copy of the return e-mail.

Thank you for your application.
Your video file will be reviewed by our staff and you will receive an email within the coming few weeks notifying you if it has been approved.
If you can’t wait to get the Best Job in the World, you’re welcome to visit the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef anytime. Have a look at these great packages.
Kind regards
Tourism Queensland

UPDATE #2

My blog is linked to their blog!!!

 

Ex-Cowboy Bob Hayes named to Pro Football Hall of Fame

Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He made it!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Hayes was selected for induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday in Tampa, less than 200 miles from his boyhood Jacksonville home. He will join Tom Landry, Tex Schramm as well as former Dallas Cowboys teammates Roger Staubach, Bob Lilly, Mel Renfro and Rayfield Wright in Canton, Ohio, as well as fellow Ring of Honor members Troy Aikman, Michael Irvin, Tony Dorsett and Randy White.

The wait was long – Hayes’ career ended in 1975 – and painful – he reached the finalists stage in 2004 only to be rejected on the final ballot two years after his death – but historic – he is now the only man to win a gold medal, a Super Bowl ring and selection to the Hall of Fame.

Had Hayes not been selected this time, it would have been highly unlikely for him to come through the Senior Committee a third time.

After winning the 100-meter gold in the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo to earn the “World’s Fastest Man” nickname, Hayes revolutionized the NFL with his speed. From 1965 to ’74 with the Cowboys, he caught 365 passes for 7,295 yards and his 71 career touchdown receptions remain a team record.

In an era in which teams did not throw as much as they do now, Hayes changed the way the game was played. Defenses could not cover him man-to-man and developed zone coverages to keep him from beating them deep.

Hayes, who was inducted into the Cowboys’ Ring of Honor on Sept. 23, 2001, was a three-time Pro Bowl pick and was named All-Pro four times.

The enshrinement will be held on Aug. 8.

Former Cowboys greats Lee Roy Jordan (left) and Bob Hayes — wearing his gold medal — were celebrated before a game in 1996.

Trader’s Village is very diverse

Just out on a great looking Saturday here in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

More later.

And finally,

Lacey and I have lunch with Brian Cuban

Lacey came to visit and we had lunch with Brian Cuban today. We had a blast! We then went by the new Cowboys Stadium and the stadium is getting larger and larger.

Tensions Boil Over On Super Bowl’s Radio Row!

Baltimore sports radio host vs. Dallas host … who ya got? Apparently WNST’s “Nasty” Nestor Aparicio attacked The Ticket’s Gordon Keith this morning while both were broadcasting from the Super Bowl.

Awesome. From Dallas Sports Fans:

The incident is the latest in an on-going feud between Nasty Nestor and the Ticket. Apparently, Gordon Keith went over to Nasty Nestor Aparicio with a wireless microphone to attempt to bury the hatchet between the two parties, when Nasty Nestor became angry, grabbed Gordon Keith around the throat and attempted to strangle him. The two were then separated and the police were called.

This is not the first incident between Nasty Nestor and the Ticket. In 2008, at the Super Bowl coverage, Corby Davidson went to Nasty Nestor to make peace. Nestor Arapicio began swearing at Corby Davidson and accused him of having a hidden mic, to which Corby responded, “I swear to the good Lord I do not have a microphone.” Nasty Nestor then called Corby a “(Explitive)-ing Jew.”

Aparicio is the owner of Baltimore’s WNST, and gained notoriety in May of last year with his rant against homeless people in the Baltimore Sun’s B Magazine. Keith is a Dallas radio host, and, well, that speaks for itself.

So yeah, more media throttlings, please. Juvenile antics are still antics; and far more interesting than another interview with Kurt Warner about working at a supermarket.

Let me also add that Gordon Keith had this on his website:

So, as far as I’m concerned, both of these people don’t seem to have a problem using the Jew word in a derogertory manner. I for one, find it very offensive and I’m not Jewish. I wonder when all the N words and J words will be gone if ever?

It all seems very juvenile to me. And who’s to say this all wasn’t set up for ratings for both stations?

Tensions boil over on Super Bowl’s Radio Row(Deadspin)

Cops: Woman Molested Male Friend

Colorado man says he was assaulted after barbecue at his home

JANUARY 29–Meet Janice McCarl. The Colorado woman, 53, was arrested last night for allegedly sexually assaulting a male friend late last year. McCarl, seen below in a Longmont Police Department mug shot, was booked into jail on a felony charge of suspicion of sexual assault. According to a police report, a copy of which you’ll find here, the victim, 50, told investigators that he invited McCarl to a barbecue at his home last November. Following the barbecue, the man contends that he passed out and awoke to find McCarl molesting him. The man, who believes that he was somehow drugged by McCarl, told police that she “had her hands…in his ass.” The man said that when he later confronted McCarl, she laughed and asked, “What did I do, kill somebody.” He added that McCarl eventually acknowledged the molestation and apologized. McCarl’s arrest was first reported today by the Daily Camera. The victim told police that, prior to the attack, he had been “intimate” with McCarl “approximately 5-6 times since July 2008.” McCarl is scheduled to appear this afternoon in Boulder County District Court.

 

Cops: Woman molested male friend (The Smoking Gun)

It’s YOUR move!

Such a Sham, uh, I mean shame

It’s time for Brian Wilson to retire. Like all of us, time catches up.

 

David Wells On Joe Torre: ‘When You Break The Code, You’re A Punk’

Here’s the thing about telling all about your former players, as Joe Torre did in his book, “The Yankee Years.” In the war of words that follows, you’re always going to be outnumbered.

Former Yankee and Country Buffet enthusiast David Wells gets his licks in on Tim Montemayor’s show on Sporting News Radio recently. Let’s listen to the fun.

Joe Torre should be called J-Fraud. He managed guys like Jeter — guys that were very easy to manage — those everyday players. But when there were guys under the bubble that were struggling, or basket cases like me I guess, he didn’t want anything to do with us.

Joe, he wasn’t tough on guys, he just treated you like crap. If you weren’t in his little circle — the circle of trust — then he could care less about you. I’ve had quite a few confrontations with him. It’s like guys get to fly early … I had to fly with the team — it’s stuff like that. If you’re going to do it for one guy, you might as well do it for the rest, and that’s what he didn’t do with the majority of guys.

Among Torre’s boys, according to Wells, were Paul O’Neill, Andy Pettitte, Mariano Rivera, Derek Jeter and Roger Clemens.

Then, on “The Mason & Ireland Show,” 710-AM ESPN Radio in Los Angeles, Wells talked about the line in the Torre book in which he wrote “The difference between Kevin Brown and David Wells is that both make your life miserable, but David Wells meant to.”

“I’m kind of like blown away because of the fact that he’s coming out and he’s bashing,” Wells said. “I found out last night that he was bashing me and Kevin Brown. He bashed Kevin Brown as a player, when he said he tried to make his life miserable. Nobody tries to make anybody’s life miserable out there on the diamond. You’re there for one reason and one reason only, and that’s to win. If I was trying to make his life miserable, I would have succeeded.

“What we do as athletes, that’s our problem, our business, and a lot of guys have come out and destroyed that,” Wells said. “That’s why they don’t have any friends. You just don’t do that, and that’s what Joe did. When you break the code, you’re a punk.”

No telling where this will end; I’m just hoping it doesn’t end soon. Any bat boys or security guards who have a Yankee story they’d like to relate? New York cabbie: “Torre was a lousy tipper.” That book, co-written by me, will be out in May.

David Wells on Joe Torre (Deadspin)

You have to be impressed with Obama so far

President Obama charged Wall Street with the truth yesterday.

From Wire reports:

President Barack Obama fired a warning shot at Wall Street on Thursday, branding bankers “shameful” for giving themselves $18.4 billion in bonuses last year as the economy was spinning out of control and the government was spending billions to bail out many of the nation’s most prominent financial firms.

Speaking from the Oval Office with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner by his side, Obama lashed out at the industry over a report by New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. The bonus pool for New York City financial companies was the sixth-largest ever amid record losses in the securities industry, the report said, although the 2008 figure was down 44 percent from the year before.

It was unclear if banks had used taxpayer money for bonuses, DiNapoli said.

Obama’s remarks were a pointed and unusual flash of anger – if a premeditated one – and suggested that he intended to use his platform to take a hard line against excesses in executive compensation.

“That is the height of irresponsibility,” Obama said angrily. “It is shameful, and part of what we’re going to need is for folks on Wall Street who are asking for help to show some restraint and show some discipline and show some sense of responsibility.

“The American people understand that we’ve got a big hole that we’ve got to dig ourselves out of, but they don’t like the idea that people are digging a bigger hole even as they’re being asked to fill it up,” Obama said, adding that “there will be time for them to make profits and there will be time for them to make bonuses. Now is not that time.”

News of the report, and Obama’s remarks, came a day after the president met privately at the White House with business leaders, including Richard Parsons, the new chairman of the board of Citigroup.

This week, Citigroup, which received an infusion of taxpayer money last year, canceled its plans, at the administration’s urging, to buy a $50 million business jet.

Obama did not spare the company in his remarks on Thursday, although he did not mention Citi by name.

“Secretary Geithner already had to pull back on one institution that had gone forward with a multimillion-dollar plane it purchased at the same time as they are receiving TARP money,” he said, using the acronym for the government’s $700 billion Troubled Assets Relief Program, intended to rescue shaky financial firms. “We shouldn’t have to do that, because they should know better.”

DiNapoli’s report was compiled based on the annual December-January bonus season, mostly through personal income tax collections

“The issue of transparency is a significant one,” he said, “and there needs to be an accounting about whether there was any taxpayer money used to pay bonuses or to pay for corporate jets or dividends or anything else.”

 

It’s about time someone hold people who take advantage of the system’s feet to the fire.