We used to have a "baby bonus" payment about 20 years ago in Australia. It made very little difference to birth rates and was derisively called the "plasma TV bonus". Turns out that even 20 years ago a small lump sum of cash wasn't enough to persuade people to sign up for a lifetime of expenses and responsibilities by having more kids. It was just a handout to middle class families that could already afford to have kids, which is why it was scrapped.

This is literally what happens to Helldivers in Helldivers 2. As much as I enjoy the game I'd rather not have Super Earth become a reality.

ABC News in Australia has been using the passive voice everywhere in regards to Israel until they simply couldn't avoid it any longer now that Israel has killed an Australian aid worker.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/26/australias-abc-staffs-concerns-over-gaza-bias-revealed#:~:text=Staff%20at%20Australia's%20national%20broadcaster,claims%20that%20convulsed%20the%20outlet. ABC staff have been complaining internally about pro-Israel bias in their use of language too

I deleted my 12 year old account the day his buyout went through and never looked back.

GP fees have increased steadily over the last decade but the previous conservative Liberal/National coalition government froze the Medicare rebate in 2014 to try to force more of a user-pays system into place, which led more and more practices to stop bulk billing (only charging the rebate amount, meaning no cost to the patient). The current Labor government (ostensibly centre-left but arguably more centre-right now) has increased the rebate, but it hasn't been enough to significantly reverse the trend yet. Specialist fees have always had an out of pocket cost in my adult lifetime (15-20 years).

The door is still attached, obvious fake is obvious.

The true American patriots are the ones who take the case on the side of the prosecution.

That's the Spirit!

Butterfly, the man's hand outstretched.

I have a web dev joke but [object Object]

Little Bobby Tables

In Australia Coca-Cola is made under licence by Coca-Cola Amatil (not the same company), and the full sugar version uses local cane sugar. I don't know if the recipes for the sugar free versions are different to the US, but I suspect they might be in order to better match the taste of the local full sugar recipe.