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The Wasteland Gazette prepares to wind down.

What if there was a channel on TV for workers?

This food timeline started as a way to explore the revolution in Australian food that has occurred during the baby-boomers’ lifetime, but has since expanded to include more about the previous decades (and century) as well. Also included are overseas events and trends that had an impact here. The entries are brief, but there are lots of links if you want more information.

It’s no surprise to see American food outlets spreading their tentacles across Australia. It’s much more surprising to see an Australian food chain expand its reach to America. Bakers Delight has grown from a single store in Hawthorn, Melbourne, to more than 700 locations across Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the USA. The bread chain […]

The post 1980 Bakers Delight founded in Melbourne appeared first on Australian Food Timeline.

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

If I didn’t see it, I wouldn’t believe it: As President Joe Biden touts the first 10 drugs subject to Medicare price talks, Republicans are searching for their own message that would resonate with voters on the downsides of his signature domestic achievement. Piggybacking on the pharmaceutical industry’s strategy, Republicans are working to persuade Americans that the Biden plan will stifle innovation and lead to price controls, several strategists say. “The price control is a huge departure from where we have been as a country,” said Joel White, a Republican health care strategist. “It gets politicians and bureaucrats right into your medicine cabinet.” However, the effort to reframe the drug price debate comes as Democrats prepare to run on the issue up and down the ballot next year against a Republican Party unlikely to cede any ground with campaign attacks and more likely to focus on the border and inflation. A new poll from nonprofit KFF shows that 58 percent of independent voters trust Democrats to lower drug costs compared with 39 percent of Republicans.

Francoise Barre-Sinoussi on her Nobel Prize-winning discovery of the viral origins of AIDS, the emotional toll of her work, and her relationship with doubt.

The post Why a Scientist Must Always Doubt appeared first on Nautilus.

“This was an unexpected victory in a long fight against an illegal cartel of three corporations who have raised their insulin prices in lockstep.”

The post Biden Administration Adds Insulin to Drug Price Negotiation List in Major Blow to Big Pharma appeared first on The Intercept.

If he listened to Rudy, he surely did. A problem for Meadows: He listened to Rudy instead. And he knew Rudy was drunk: Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office has repeatedly grilled witnesses about Rudy Giuliani’s drinking on and after election day, investigating whether Donald Trump was knowingly relying on an inebriated attorney while trying to overturn a presidential election. In their questioning of multiple witnesses, Smith’s team of federal investigators have asked questions about how seemingly intoxicated Giuliani was during the weeks he was giving Trump advice on how to cling to power, according to a source who’s been in the room with Smith’s team, one witness’s attorney, and a third person familiar with the matter.  The special counsel’s team has also asked these witnesses if Trump had ever gossiped with them about Giuliani’s drinking habits, and if Trump had ever claimed Giuliani’s drinking impacted his decision making or judgment.

The spot-on imitations of other birds by the Australian lyrebird exemplify what Darwin missed about female birdsong.

The post Call of the Liar appeared first on Nautilus.

They shouldn’t but they do. This country is nuts. Dan Pfeiffer analyzes the current polling and the task ahead in his newsletter today: Last week, Donald Trump was arrested and arraigned for being part of a criminal organization that tried to illegally overturn the 2020 election. His mug shot was released and quickly went viral. Trump fumbled the COVID pandemic that cost hundreds of thousands of American lives and even more jobs; and he is personally responsible for overturning Roe v. Wade. On the other side, President Joe Biden conducted his presidency with decency and compassion, exceeding even the most optimistic expectations of what could be achieved with a Republican Party that won’t acknowledge the legitimacy of his electoral victory. Unemployment is under 4%, the economy is growing and inflation has been coming down for months. Yet somehow — against all common sense — the 2024 election between a competent President and an incompetent criminal — will be incredibly close. He goes on to lay out the latest polling which shows that Trump and Biden are within a point of each other. It’s appalling.

Nobody can say anything about Joe Biden except how old he is. Nothing else is relevant apparently. Except that his age is actually irrelevant, particularly when you look at what he’s done. Any progressive should be proud of accomplishments like this: The Biden administration Tuesday identified 10 expensive prescription drugs that have been chosen for price negotiations with pharmaceutical manufacturers as the government seeks to ease the financial burden on older and disabled Americans. The announcement marks an unprecedented step in a long political war over the nation’s exorbitant drug costs even as the pharmaceutical industry is still trying to block the plan. Half of the drugs chosen first for price negotiations are medications to prevent blood clots and treat diabetes and were taken by millions of people on Medicare in the past year, according to a list released by federal health officials who oversee Medicare, the vast public health insurance system. Others are used to treat heart trouble, autoimmune disease and cancer. Consumers will not see benefits swiftly; the lower, negotiated prices are due to become available in early 2026.

Anthony Albanese needs to see for himself what the Chinese economic miracle looks like close up. It is time for Anthony Albanese to begin to understand what it is we are balancing with China, and what a challenge that is going to be. That the prime minister has mostly, but not entirely, clarified his position Continue reading »

In 2011, Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant, roughly 250 kilometres north of Tokyo, was hit by a magnitude 9.0 quake and tsunami. Three reactors stopped immediately but the loss of electricity supply led in the days and months that followed to breakdown of the cooling system and to a series of hydrogen explosions and meltdowns of Continue reading »

Stuart Rees has provided us with a penetrating look at the hyper-masculinity of recent utterances by the government Minister Pat Conroy. As is now de rigueur for most of the MSM (including, sadly, the ABC) these utterances are focussed on justification for AUKUS and naturally, implicit demonisation of China. SNAFU – but wait: there’s more! Continue reading »

A tonic for readers who are drowning in news about China, climate change and socioeconomic problems… Boldly refusing to follow the pack mentality of the mainstream media, and not afraid to reject the Cold War mindset, Pearls and Irritations is essential reading for those who want to make a positive difference in politics and policy-making. Continue reading »

In 2009, after receiving a report from prominent Catholic priest Frank Brennan which recommended it, the Rudd Labor government abandoned the quest for a national human rights act. Instead it established a parliamentary human rights committee which came into operation in 2011. But, as one might expect, this committee was dead on arrival. It is Continue reading »