Watching some old 1960s Yankee movies, one can already see the infiltration of Jumbodom: the kingdom come of jumbo food serves. This is the domain of super sized soda serves and towering hamburgers which by then were already creating the genetics for the fat butts of today — by offering upsize for "better value"...

In a week where we are told that chimps are using clever sign language to transfer information, it reminds me of my great uncle. "The difference between chimps and man, is god" once said the great Артур Leonisky. Here, my great uncle was being discreetly satirical, like a chiding precursor of Bertolt Brecht, though Bertold had to rewrite some of his "Mother Courage and Her Children" so the satire could be more obvious to the plebs.

As a young person I had never thought, as I do now, that I would be ashamed to be an Australian. One of the main reasons for that shame, but not the only one, is our policies towards asylum seekers and Aboriginal people. Both issues directly affected me in my former role as Chief Justice of the Family Court, but today I will discuss asylum seekers.

The US military says it has grounded its F-35 Joint Strike Fighter fleet following a fire on board one of the multi-million-dollar jets.

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Shape, form, content (formula), fields, kinetics and the conservation of energy. picture by Gus leonisky.

The Dish — "in a sheep paddock" outside Parkes... Picture by Gus Leonisky.

“Parkes’ Biggest Event Since Gold Discovery”, screamed the headline of the Parkes Champion-Post one August day in 1958.

Australia has a proud history of welcoming migrants to our shores, where they have enriched our society. Where's the political party that celebrates this rather than punishes new arrivals? Richard Hughes writes.

from Crikey …..

Let it not be said that the financial planning industry is just interested in looking after themselves or view their clients simply as a resource to be exploited.

The Commonwealth Bank is facing the prospect of a royal commission into a fraud scandal that left thousands of its customers millions of dollars out of pocket.

A Senate committee has recommended the judicial inquiry as part of its report on the performance of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).

The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) has threatened legal action over comments made by a Tasmanian Liberal MP that eco-charities may be using tax deductible donations to fund illegal activism.

[ABC religion and ethics] Editor's note: Few topics are as contentious today as the role of religion in political debate and public deliberation. Rival positions rely on differing accounts of history, conceptions of "religion" and convictions about the role of the state. Russell Blackford (University of Newcastle) and William Cavanaugh (DePaul University) have both written extensively on this topic, and thus their wide-ranging exchange represents an uncommonly sophisticated treatment of the issues at stake and why they matter.

Perhaps Minister for Immigration Scott Morrison is doing us all a favour through the application of blunt force trauma to those seeking the protection of the “lucky country”?

For those who measure a teacher's week by time spent in the classroom the TALIS report provides a more balanced account. Australian teachers, on average, work 43 hours a week, 5 more than the TALIS average, with 19 hours teaching, seven hours planning and five hours marking.

New Norcia. 

The Bishop of the Australian Defence Force has been charged with a sex offence dating back to 1969.