How come a lot of paywalled articles end up on the first page of HN these days?

It's plain lobbying. Legal in US but not in UK and most other countries.

Still happens in the UK behind the scenes. A lot of the political elite have links with the businesses.

Such as ex-PM Tony Blair and the BAE Systems deal with the Saudis.

That's the most obvious one - yep :)

Some indian ayurveda recipes use poison to cure poison.

Some indian ayurveda recipes use heavy metals to cure diabetes. They don't succeed, but they do cause heavy metal poisoning.

http://www.bcmj.org/bc-centre-disease-control/heavy-metal-po...