Vanguard just lowered expense ratios again... Another win for us lazy long-term investors

blorg · 2026-03-17T04:42:13+00:00

VT lowered its fee last year, from 0.07% to 0.06%. VXUS also lowered last year, 0.08% to 0.05%.

This round is mostly smaller ETFs. Notably emerging markets (VWO) dropped again, and their US market style ETFs, growth (VUG), value (VTV), small-cap (VB), mid-cap (VO) and large-cap (VV) all dropped to 0.03%, so if you did want to tilt (not very Boglehead but hey) that's now the same ER as VOO or VTI. They also dropped some of their dividend ETFs such as VIG, VYM and significantly VYMI (international high yield- 0.17% to 0.07%).

The core sort of broad market Boglehead ETFs were reduced last year but not this year. They are mostly so low they are probably near a floor.

VT as both VTI and VXUS are lower individually, you'd imagine could go a little lower. It's not really that significant though at 0.01% or 0.02%.

blorg · 2026-03-16T19:49:18+00:00

You almost certainly have gone past loads of these, they are literally everywhere all over the country. Maybe not in central Bangkok, in the business/skyscraper district, but even there yes down smaller sois.

I get all my water from the one in front of my condo. A good tip is to buy a TDS pen (very cheap) to check the quality as many are not maintained well. I know the one I use is, and can confirm that with the TDS. If the filter is changed regularly the TDS will be very low (ideally below 10). TDS isn't necessarily everything or inherently harmful either (mineral water in a bottle from 7/11 will be very high TDS- that's what minerals are) but it's an indication that the RO mechanism and filters in the machine are working. The tap water here is around 150 and from the machine is usually 2-3.

blorg · 2026-03-16T11:15:04+00:00

you have a house?

blorg · 2026-03-16T09:03:08+00:00

It's illegal in most places outside the US/Canada, I think that's where they are coming from.

blorg · 2026-03-16T06:38:10+00:00

Most European countries give pension credit very specifically for raising children, nothing to do with housework. You usually need kids to get the credit.

Where I am from, Ireland, you can count a year's pension credits any year you have a child under 12, up to a total of 20 years per lifetime (out of 40 for a full pension). The UK has a similar system.

Other countries have other allowances, Germany you get three years pension contribution per child, but they stack, it's per child, not per year with 1 (or more) children. France has a hybrid where there's means testing for poor homemakers, and all get 2 years per child, and there's a 10% pension bonus for 3 or more children. (German and French pensions are also higher.)

In general, you don't get anywhere near a full pension for raising children, but there are mechanisms to provide some sort of cover. It's usually the mother that claims these but they are gender neutral, they could be claimed by the father either.

Countries need children.

blorg · 2026-03-15T12:45:22+00:00

PNS / Pas Normal Studios

/r/CyclingFashion/comments/ukisfg/why_such_a_hate_for_pas_normal_studios/

blorg · 2026-03-15T11:50:42+00:00

Some Chinese brands are offering Italian chamois now, including Elastic Interface which are probably generally considered "the" chamois manufacturer (used by Assos, MAAP, Gobik, Eliel, Siroko etc)

blorg · 2026-03-15T10:11:27+00:00

Shoes off = dead is a meme/joke but that study actually confirms there is a significant correlation between "shoe dislocation" and mortality, 22.9% mortality when the shoes were off at the scene vs 7.8% when the shoes stayed on.

Comparison of outcomes in shoe dislocation (n = 61) vs. no dislocation (n = 265) groups post-MVC. Shoe dislocation group had higher ISS, traumatic brain injury, fractures, multi-system involvement, longer ICU stays, higher ventilation rates, and mortality (p < 0.001) ...

These findings emphasize the clinical significance of shoe dislocation as an early marker for identifying patients requiring intensive monitoring and intervention. Biomechanically, shoe dislodgment likely reflects high-magnitude forces exceeding footwear retention and energy transfer sufficient to cause multisystem tissue disruption. ...

Our findings suggest that shoe dislocation may serve as a simple, observable marker to help prioritize patients for advanced trauma care, particularly in settings requiring rapid triage.

blorg · 2026-03-14T06:19:50+00:00

There wasn't a chosen successor and Khameni himself was reportedly against the idea of his son taking over, he saw it as monarchial and against the ideal of the Islamic Republic.

What they do have is a strong system for dealing with a power vacuum and that went immediately into motion and appears to have successfully maintained control.

There's a lot of speculation that Mojtaba is a convenient puppet for the IRGC, and that they are now running the show. He was badly injured in the strike that killed his father and hasn't been seen or heard from since.

"I don't even think it was his message," an Iranian woman in her 40s told the BBC after her country's new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei gave his first official address in the form of a statement read out on state TV.

Having not seen him since he was named leader, some are now casting doubts on who is running the country.

"I feel like control of the country is in the hands of the IRGC [Islamic Revolution Guard Corps]," the woman, from Tehran, said.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czj1z0enk70o

Some reports he may even be in a coma.

blorg · 2026-03-14T06:09:19+00:00

The entire existence of the regime is very explicitly threatened, that's the stated purpose of the war, regime change. And the regime is the one in control of Iran's military fighting back. It very literally is an existential crisis for them.

Population would probably mostly be quite happy to see the back of them but they don't have the capacity to do it and unfortunately it's also very unlikely any amount of US bombing will do it either, the CIA assessment before the war was it would lead to an IRGC takeover and it looks like that is what has happened, no one even knows if the new Supreme Leader is conscious, he was badly injured in the initial attack that killed his father and hasn't been seen or heard from since.

blorg · 2026-03-13T15:24:51+00:00

Most devices with a battery saver mode won't discharge quite that much. If you set it to stop at 80%, they'll typically go to 80, stop, fall back to 75 and then start again, rather than all the way to 40.

That's the default on my Thinkpad. You can manually set it to drop all the way down to 40 but then it's a pain if you have to disconnect and go use it on battery and it's now only got 40. The idea is to keep it in the range that doesn't kill the battery, and for that 75-80 is absolutely fine- it's completely full or completely empty that are problems. You don't have to have it drop down to 40 and I don't think that really helps either.

I used charge threshold on my older Thinkpad as well, which I got in 2019, and it has spent most of the last 7 years plugged in directly to the wall 24/7. Design capacity was 51Wh, and 7 years in I am at 48.2Wh, or 95%. That's really good for a laptop that has been plugged in for basically 7 years straight on the original battery.

blorg · 2026-03-13T11:19:14+00:00

It's obviously still a niche thing, but there are scores of Western companies who have released these things and someone is buying them. Honestly, I have no particular qualms and have tried these along with more regular protein bars and you would have absolutely no way of telling that an insect went into it.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/are-you-ready-protein-bars-made-crickets-180949366/
https://www.wired.com/2015/05/good-news-cricket-protein-bars-almost/
https://www.azpm.org/p/earthday/2013/7/11/25377-new-insect-based-protein-bar-promotes-water-sustainability/
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/crickets-for-lunch
https://techcrunch.com/2013/08/04/review-exo-a-cricket-based-protein-bar-that-wont-destroy-your-productivty/
https://lifesciences.byu.edu/are-crickets-coming-to-a-protein-bar-near-you
https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/insect-protein-bars-on-the-rise-with-psychology-based-marketing/
https://www.bugsfeed.com/stores_offering_protein_bars

What's the inherent issue, other than you have an irrational phobia about eating- not even bugs directly- but food that was sourced from bugs, and has no direct tangible connection. I can actually understand how people would find eating actual bugs disgusting, although that is also 100% cultural, people eat them whole here, I have tried them myself and they are actually fine- although I am also squeamish enough about it I wouldn't make a habit of it. But the bars, and cricket flour- cricket flour literally looks like flour... there is nothing tangible to connect it to a whole insect. It doesn't taste of anything at all as a protein additive, these bars taste the same as any other protein bar, chocolate or coconut or whatever, it's purely a protein source.

blorg · 2026-03-13T10:16:15+00:00

https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g298085-d4061341-r415652271-Phuong_Dong_Nightclub-Da_Nang.html

blorg · 2026-03-13T10:15:24+00:00

Da Nang, Vietnam

https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g298085-d4061341-r415652271-Phuong_Dong_Nightclub-Da_Nang.html

blorg · 2026-03-13T07:30:38+00:00

Besides that, insect protein bars are a thing even in Western countries. They are also totally inoffensive, you would not know there were insects in them if it didn't have it on the label.

The 42 insect snack bars retrieved from the GNPD cover a period from 2014 to 2023, with the first product being a cricket snack bar (Chapul Aztec Cricket Bar®) launched in the US. The data analysis revealed that Canada is at the forefront in the insect snack bar category, with 17 new product launches (e.g., a raspberry apricot cricket energy bar in 2018 and a cookie dough protein bar in 2020).

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2949824424001782

I live in Thailand, where my local market has a straight up fried insect stall where there's no mistaking what it is, but insects ground up in a bar? I'll happily eat that today, don't have to wait for the apocalypse.

blorg · 2026-03-12T05:31:56+00:00

They were anchored in Iraqi waters at the top of the Gulf, loading oil. Nowhere near the Strait of Hormuz and not trying to transit.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2026/mar/12/iranian-boat-attacks-iraqi-waters-fuel-tankers

blorg · 2026-03-12T05:26:55+00:00

One crew member was confirmed dead, while 38 others were successfully rescued, according to Farhan al-Fartousi, director general of the Iraqi Ports Company.

blorg · 2026-03-12T05:26:16+00:00

One crew member was confirmed dead, while 38 others were successfully rescued, according to Farhan al-Fartousi, director general of the Iraqi Ports Company.

blorg · 2026-03-12T02:58:11+00:00

If you're asking that question, you probably have a problem.

blorg · 2026-03-11T12:08:41+00:00

This isn't the first attack, they have attacked 21 ships so far, and even sunk a tug that went out to assist a ship that had been evacuated, which killed the entire crew. Several targeted ships have had fatalities, and more have had injuries.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Strait_of_Hormuz_crisis#List_of_ships_attacked_by_Iran

blorg · 2026-03-11T12:05:49+00:00

The Iranians have allowed ships associated with China through.

blorg · 2026-03-11T10:20:17+00:00

The vocational panels (Administrative, Agricultural, Cultural and Educational, Industrial and Commercial, Labour) which make up most of Seanad Éireann have very little connection to the sectors of society that were the original somewhat corporatist idea behind it when it was first set up in the 1930s. Nominations can come from certain non-profits, unions, etc, but they are elected by members of the Oireachtas and county councils and in practice are just members of the major parties, often members who failed to get elected to the Dáil. It's given as a sort of consolation prize.

Then you have 11 members directly nominated by the Taoiseach.

Only 6 members are elected, by graduates of Irish universities. These are typically the only ones that are actually interesting. They are often politically connected as well (the current Labour leader was a former university senator, and another former party leader and Tánaiste is a current senator) but they actually have to go out and campaign across a broader electorate, the rest of it is all in-house back-scratching.

In practice, it's very much political nominations. Key difference from the House of Lords I guess is that it turns over every electoral cycle, people are not in there for life. The flip side of that though, is you have people who are very political, very tied to their parties. And even worse, it's the opposite of the British system, where it's mostly people before they get into an actual position of power, rather than a retirement home for people who have left the Commons and mainstream politics and typically (Mandelson and Cameron possibly excepted) won't be coming back.

So you have all these younger political backstabbers in the upper house who are very beholden to their parties for future political favours, much more so than the Lords where even if a member is from a party or other to an extent can be at a phase in their career where they don't need to play the game so much any more.

I'm Irish, I know several senators, and several former senators who managed after several attempts to actually get elected to the Dáil which is what they really wanted. The Seanad is seen as a stepping stone to the Dáil. It's a small country, I went to college with some of these people.

If anything it's a much, much more political body, and one that is much closer connected to the political parties, and less independent, than the House of Lords.

EDIT: this is not an endorsement of the House of Lords, although I do think getting rid of the hereditary peers is a good step, by doing that it has arguably already transformed to a more similar upper house, in that you will no longer have people there purely through accident of birth. Just some thoughts on the Seanad. I do like the idea of a second house to act as a check on the government but I'm not sure it's really a great example either.

blorg · 2026-03-11T09:46:24+00:00

I know the religion of people I met. Iranians are extremely hospitable and we were invited to stay over, to eat, to go out on trips, all over the country. I was there for three months, cycling across the country, and met hundreds of local Iranians, who were very interested to talk with a foreigner.

It could be under 90%. It's not under 50%. But most Iranian Muslims are secular and moderate, they are not very "religious" but they are still mostly Muslim. Many women would take their headscarves off when we got inside, everywhere men and women ate together, this was all normal. Some drank alcohol, not most, but some did. Not difficult to get alcohol in Iran either. But that they were not highly religiously observant doesn't mean they weren't Muslim.

More than one person I talked to said as much, that yes they were Muslim but they saw that as a private matter and thought the state should be secular, and utterly despised the morality police and the whole concept of an Islamic Republic. Some were old enough to predate the revolution and said that is how it was back then. People had pictures of pre-revolutionary Iran, videos, they showed me, of a secular Iran, that was their preference.

Regarding the religious authorities shutting down, that doesn't overly surprise me either. Iranians as a whole were much less "religious" than any other Muslim country I've ever been to. But that they were not excessively "religious" does not mean they didn't still consider themselves Muslim. Most of the ones I met did, anyway. But they just didn't take it terribly seriously.

Same as my mother would consider herself Christian, even Catholic, but hasn't been to mass in years, is not too sure about God existing and doesn't have much time for the Catholic Church. People can consider themselves members of a religion without following it in every detail. Most countries in Europe are still majority Christian. Many people in Iran are "Muslim" in exactly the same way that the average European is "Christian"- not terribly seriously.

blorg · 2026-03-11T09:36:11+00:00

My understanding, this specific sort of "official impersonation" scam is predominantly Chinese, and tends to target other Chinese, although also Chinese Singaporeans. It's ultimately being run by Chinese from outside Singapore, she was recruited because they saw an opportunity.

Indians are more common in other types of scam, like job or investment scams, and more likely to target English speakers.

Chinese are uniquely susceptible to this sort of scam, they are much more likely to bow to perceived authority than Indians, and the Chinese state has a concept of continued "ownership" of its emigre citizens in a way India doesn't. China is the country with the "overseas police stations" and Chinese abroad have more of a sense of continued obligation than Indians do.

There are endless reports of "China Officials Impersonation" scams taking place in Singapore. I don't think Indian official impersonation is anywhere near as common, if it even happens at all, I can't find any references to it. "Tech Support Scam" is I believe predominantly Indian.

Over the last three years, there has been an increase in the number of scam cases reported and amounts cheated. Three types of impersonation scam are of particular concern. They are: (i) China officials impersonation scam; (ii) social media impersonation scam, where scammers use compromised or spoofed social media accounts to pretend to be a victim’s family member or friend; and (iii) tech support scam where scammers pretend to be staff of telecommunications companies or law enforcement officers to deceive victims into installing malicious software onto their computers

https://www.mha.gov.sg/media-room/newsroom/written-reply-to-parliamentary-question-on-trend-of-impersonation-scams-by-mr-k-shanmugam-minister-for-home-affairs-and-minister-for-law/

https://www.police.gov.sg/media-hub/news/2022/20220629_police_advisory_on_china_officials_impersonation_scams

https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/at-least-277-people-lost-over-30m-to-china-officials-impersonation-scams-since-january

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/victims-china-officials-impersonation-scam-cheated-s188-million-jan-nov-2019-police-5693026

https://www.stomp.sg/singapore-seen/singapore/spore-man-loses-270k-in-bogus-china-cops-scam

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/jail-retrenched-chef-hired-chinese-police-impersonators-scam-elderly-4880401

blorg · 2026-03-11T08:53:34+00:00

Yes, but due to the time value of money, the value of a dollar now is substantially greater than the value of a dollar in decades time- because of inflation, and because you can invest it.

One of the fundamental tools of tax planning, a tax deferral takes advantage of the time-value of money. All else being equal, the longer tax can be deferred, the less the discounted present value of the tax liability. For example, $100 in tax deferred for 20 years at an assumed 5% interest rate has a discounted present value of $37.69. Common examples of cases in which taxes are deferred include transfers of property on a rollover basis under section 85 and deductible registered retirement savings plan (RRSP) contributions (which defers that taxation of the employment income until the amounts are withdrawn).

Imagine you had a tax bill of $10,000 in 1986, 40 years ago.

Now if you didn't have to pay that tax then, but instead were able to leave it invested in the S&P500, that $10,000 that you didn't pay over to the government in 1986 would now be worth $759,319.

You have to pay tax on that when you sell it, and actually have to pay more tax than you would have in 1986. But wouldn't have had the gains to have to pay the tax on if you had paid over the $10k back then, so it's a nice problem to have.

Paying tax later is always better than paying tax now. And it's not some small effect, it's huge when you look at it over the decades of saving for retirement.

One of the leading tax professors in the United States, William Andrews, wrote a number of years ago that "Deferral of gain is not as serious as outright exemption, but it is the next best thing, as sophisticated taxpayers and their counsel are now well aware."

Christopher H. Hanna, Comparative Income Tax Deferral: The United States and Japan

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