I know there was a post about Lifeblood donations as early as four months ago, but given the critical levels of nearly every blood type outside AB+/- across Australia, I thought this derserved a new post for awareness.

As per Lifeblood, a prolonged flu season has led to many cancelled donations, "contributing in a 60% fall in supplies since June." At this rate, 16,000 donations will be needed over the next week for a safe supply across needed blood types.

As a reminder, you don't need to know your blood type to donate. Lifeblood has also updated their eligability rules, especially for men who have sexual relations with men (many gay men still mistakenly believe they're still excluded). So if you're unsure of your eligability please check their website or give them a call!

The Greens have confirmed WA senator Jordon Steele-John has taken leave from the party room after reports from the Sydney Morning Herald about allegations of inappropriate comments towards women.

Greens leader David Shoebridge said the party was taking the situation seriously.

Personally I imagine myself with kids and a family one day, but it's hard right now. I'm in my early 30s, living in a crappy single bedroom apartment and it's about the best I can do right now. I'm burnt out from putting my best into work and I only just feel like I'm treading water. After work I barely have the energy to put myself out there and go meet people.

I'm finding the "not having kids is selfish" group to have pretty weak arguments overall, it mostly seems to boil down to talking over the child free crowd with "I'm a parent therefore you are wrong".

The only thing I can agree with is that our replacement rate is low. But I certainly don't think that obligates anyone to have kids for the country.

Are you watching the debate? What do you think about it?

Hi all,

I have a preteen daughter. I was looking to get her a subscription to a magazine that had something similar to the dolly doctor section, but from my search nothing like this exists anymore and instead everything is just pushed to be online.

There were compilation books published years ago, but these are no longer in print.

Dr. Melissa Kang who wrote Dolly Doctor for years also has the series "Welcome To..." Though it's not quite the same as a monthly magazine that kids can write into with their own questions, and also chunks content to a small manageable amount to engage readers.

What resources are people in Aus buying or subscribing to for their kids today in this space?

Orrrr if anyone has any of the dolly doctor complication books they're happy to sell I would like to buy!

Perpetrators of financial abuse who use the tax and social security systems to create debts as a form of coercive control could soon be held liable.

The federal government today announced consultation over whether courts should be given greater flexibility to transfer a tax or social security debt to the spouse responsible for financial abuse in family law proceedings.

"For decades, academics and policymakers have focused on individual responsibility for improving material conditions. The social security system has intentionally been designed to reflect the manufactured view that if you’re in poverty, it’s your own fault, and if you remain there, it’s because you’re not trying hard enough to get out.

What we really need is a government that will invest in secure public housing where people aren’t treated like disposable commodities, as they are in “community” housing. What we need is lower energy bills provided at cost by a public retailer and not corporations designed to enrich CEOs and shareholders. We need supermarkets that sell groceries we can afford, not foodbanks who prioritise their own existence over people’s needs.

The solutions are right in front of us. They will benefit the whole community, not just those in poverty. And the price? Saving untold numbers of lives.

Jay Coonan is an anti-poverty activist and co-coordinator at the Antipoverty Centre."

Attribution science is increasingly being used to link individual companies to specific climate harms. A new, free tool aims to make it even easier.

As the tobacco industry learned, these efforts may prove akin to trying to hold back the tide, especially as public awareness of the field grows and access widens—as one Australian research team is attempting to do with the Carbon Impacts Tracer. Professor Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick, a climate scientist with Australian National University and a coordinating lead author for the next IPCC report, leads the team that sought to expand on the work in the October 2025 study published in the journal Climate Action that looked at Australian petroleum giant Woodside’s contribution to climate change. She says the goal was to make the latest attribution science free and easy to access.

“The field of attribution has grown rapidly in the last 20 years,” Perkins-Kirkpatrick says. “It’s had an evolution and this is the next phase of the evolution. Finally, we can show with a reasonable degree of certainty how every tonne of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere does really matter.”

The tool, funded by the Australian National University, the Lethal Humidity Global Council and 21st Century Weather, is intended for use by anyone—journalists, campaigners, planners, government assessors, litigators, activists, and even fossil fuel companies. The Lethal Humidity Global Council is financially supported by the Minderoo Foundation, the personal charity of Australian iron ore billionaire Andrew Forrest.

When I first started with optus, the 365 prepaid deal was $180, now its going up to $395.

I just want a decent deal with a decent amount of data that doesn't cost a ridiculous amount.

Cost of living is killing me man

Is anyone else playing the drinking game where you have a sip of your drink every time the moths on the tv screen land in the actor's mouths?