The flu outbreak of 1918 killed three times more people than died during WWI. Why is it so? The common flu is easy to catch. We get flu jabs (vaccination) but the flu virus is a shifty one. Evolution makes it very uncanny. Pneumonia, as a secondary stage of the flu can be deadly.

Meanwhile:

The Pentagon chief also said that Washington had recently decided to supply Ukraine with more than $175 million worth of equipment.

Who would have thought the mere suggestion that Captain Cook did not in fact discover Australia would be so controversial?

Jerry Lewis, the comedian and filmmaker who was adored by many, disdained by others, but unquestionably a defining figure of American entertainment in the 20th century, died on Sunday morning at his home in Las Vegas. He was 91.

This cartoon of a woman cricketer by Minns, published in 1885 at The Bulletin, shows a certain amusing sexism. Sports cartoons in these days illustrated:

— the cost of professional Aussie Rule players looking more at the cash to be made than keeping their eyes on the ball, 

— the unruly crowds and players leading to a lot of injuries,

Influential crossbench senator Nick Xenophon has announced he will refer his election to the High Court after discovering he has a form of British citizenship.

In this very well drawn racist cartoon from The Bulletin 1888, Victoria's Premier Duncan Gillies tips a barrel of "chow" rubbish onto the New South Wales garden of Premier Henry Parkes...

Quite funnily these two characters were born in the United Kingdom. Who knows if they rescinded their Pom nationality? They did not have to, the constitution was only declared in 1901. Parkes was born in Coventry, where the population of Pakistanis is now bigger than that of white English people. 

Gillies was born in Scotland, migrated and worked in the Australian gold fields first as a miner then as a businessman. 

A scientific report done every four years has been thrust into the spotlight because its findings directly contradict statements from the president and various Cabinet officials.

The lack of care taken by a number of politicians about something as basic as their eligibility to sit in the parliament speaks volumes about the lackadaisical attitude of Australia’s political class to the rules of their road, which reflects our entirely deficient mechanisms for accountability and enforcement in politics.