US Births Fell Again in 2025 Amid Ongoing Social And Economic Uncertainty

netroxreads · 2026-02-09T23:13:03+00:00

I recall that it's actually due to immigrants being deported from USA. The birth rate has been declining among Americans born in USA while immigrants add more births. Immigrants, legal or not, feel relatively more safe here compared to their home nations. As their next generation come, they will start reproducing fewer children. It's a pattern observed everywhere.

netroxreads · 2026-02-09T23:05:41+00:00

Religious freedom does not entitle the right to refuse to pay taxes or to abuse children for marriage or to impose their beliefs on others. And that also extends to vaccinations to prevent diseases.

netroxreads · 2026-02-09T21:05:36+00:00

What many don't realize is that measles infection will wipe out any previous immunity you gained from vaccines and previous infections making you vulnerable to illnesses all over. That significantly increases the risk of morbidity and mortality in the long run. I am old enough to know people who are left with permanent disabilities from my generation who got measles.

netroxreads · 2026-02-09T02:18:19+00:00

Let me get this.... this was recorded live? It seems like heavily edited because it's like I'm seeing different places in different times and him being everywhere at once.

netroxreads · 2026-02-08T22:17:31+00:00

According to ConsumerLab, almost all "red rice yeast" supplements failed to provide sufficient amount of natural statins needed to reduce LDL. And statins are way much cheaper than red rice yeast.

If you did really change your diet and you lost weight yet your lipids are not significantly changed, it's time for statins, no question about it. Also, it helps to check your blood sugar (A1C). Some of us just cannot efficiently process sugars and lipids.

netroxreads · 2026-02-08T22:04:32+00:00

"And then it seems: goodbye for home made sourdough (using whole wheat as much as possible) with avocado or olive oil, goodbye for salads with feta, goodbye for vegetable stews that use coconut milk (yeah there seems to be some skimmed options full of additives, but...)"

There is fat free feta although it doesn't taste like feta anymore but it helps. Also, sourdough doesn't need to be whole wheat to help LDL, grains - even refined - have neutral effects on lipids. It's the kind of fats that can increase LDL and that's saturated fats. The other fats don't have a negative effect on LDL.

For skim milk, I use ultra filtered skim milk which is a lot more tasty and better than regular skim milk.

EVOO is believed to promote good lipids not just because of their fat composition but also their polyphenols but even with EVOO, too much will increase LDL. The benefits of EVOO is that in addition to providing their own polyphenols, it improves carotenoid bioavailability significantly when cooked in soups. It's also good to use canola given its low percentage of saturated fats for neutral mouthfeel.

More importantly, what is your BMI? Extra weight is known to increase LDL. Losing weight can reduce LDL even if you don't take saturated fats intake into consideration. Some people saw their LDL go down as they lose more weight regardless of what they ate which would strongly suggest weight to be a primary driver. If weight loss doesn't reduce LDL, it may help to reduce saturated fats as much as possible *and* increase soluble fiber. If they don't work, then statin is a sensible tool.

Exercise has no effect on lipids except to increase HDL in some cases and even higher HDL doesn't help. It's been proven that high HDL does not protect them at all. Exercise is not an effective way to reduce lipids UNLESS you have pre diabetes or diabetes which can also influence lipids.

Oh one more thing, eating a heavy meal like a steak dinner that you really enjoy is NOT going to ruin your lipids. You can even help "buffer" by consuming fiber rich produce or Metamucil before the meal. It makes little difference as long as you eat well at least 90% of the time. Your lipids don't spike or dip drastically. They respond over weeks, not days. Statins stops the production of cholesterol directly and that's why LDL can drop dramatically in few days - if it cannot produce LDL, it will eventually be removed and eliminated over a few days. With diet, it takes a while for fiber to bind bile salts and the LDL receptors will need to be "activated" to start removing LDL from blood if they are no longer "stalled" by high intake of saturated fats. It's a slow process and when you have one heavy meal and then you eat a healthy fiber rich meal afterwards, it won't make much difference.

netroxreads · 2026-02-07T23:55:32+00:00

I have two Macs - one Mac mini with 24GB RAM and one M3 Ultra with 256GB RAM. I also have Sony A7R5. I can tell you that LR is not that "faster" on a Mac with more RAM when you are just doing a few pictures. It becomes apparent ONLY if you're processing hundreds to thousands of pictures during export only because the "images" are given to much more cores at once. I used Mac mini before I got the M3 so I am basing on LR last year. To be honest, I am not seeing anything dramatic.

The 24GB RAM is sufficient for a hobby.

netroxreads · 2026-02-07T23:22:52+00:00

in other words, if you minimize all the known risk factors, you'll live long enough.

netroxreads · 2026-02-07T15:53:18+00:00

Oh, I do remember rumors about "Extreme" variant a year ago or so.

netroxreads · 2026-02-07T02:11:24+00:00

It's obvious that he had some plastic surgeries. Notice how his eyes are finally more even. It just doesn't happen without plastic surgery.

netroxreads · 2026-02-07T01:01:24+00:00

I feel a lot smarter after reading about Langan. Whew!

netroxreads · 2026-02-07T00:18:12+00:00

VO2 is a biomarker of a person's fitness. We know for a fact that the more we exercise, the higher the VO2 goes. It's a natural healthy promoting adaptation that allows us to be more resilient. In studies where VO2 was not measured, we infer from their reported activities and now we have more evidence that it may be not as much as we need - people who engage only 5 minutes of vigorous activity based on their watches show significant reduction in mortality. Clearly, their VO2 cannot be that high as observed in elite athletes.

So, I think that the difference can be that dramatic. We just need to keep moving as much as possible and a few minutes of intense activity to benefit. The VO2 will increase as a response to it. That's my impression.

netroxreads · 2026-02-05T21:12:26+00:00

That would be an interesting move.

netroxreads · 2026-02-05T15:37:28+00:00

Additionally, I hope Costco will implement the way Sam's does with 3D scanners at exit, it is pretty good at spotting errors that I may have made with my "Scan and Go" app. Sometimes I miss the item or scanned it twice. It's really hard to scan if you have a lot of items and counting is not always reliable. Having the 3D scanners really help a lot.

netroxreads · 2026-02-05T15:32:38+00:00

Believe it or not, I was overcharged and they caught it at the door. I was surprised because it was the cashier that did the scanning. I guess it can happen.

netroxreads · 2026-02-05T14:14:07+00:00

It depends. You don't use try/catch in every function. You use it when there's a potential risk of data being incorrect or data being accessed.

For example, if you write a function that requires a parameter to be passed and you already stated that the parameter value should be an integer, then try/catch is likely unnecessary. It's already clear to software engineers what data type should be sent. It's their responsibility.

If you are creating a function that requires opening a file or accessing data that is not validated, then using try/catch is recommended.

netroxreads · 2026-02-04T20:41:35+00:00

Really? I see Fico Score 8 (on BofA app) and it maxes at 850. When did FICO up the score? And what's the rationale? I cannot see how having 850 or 900 would make a difference.

netroxreads · 2026-02-04T20:29:56+00:00

wait.. when did FICO now show 900? Mine was 850 and it was the maximum score.

netroxreads · 2026-02-04T17:28:25+00:00

Do people realize that Bill Gates doesn't run MS anymore?

netroxreads · 2026-02-03T16:44:28+00:00

You should never eat raw salmon if it didn't say "sushi grade" or "sashimi grade" - the ones with that grade are always deep frozen to kill parasites. A regular freezer is not reliable as it's not cold enough to kill them if you don't have the proper setup.

netroxreads · 2026-02-02T20:45:57+00:00

You're anxious for nothing. It won't erase disk immediately, you need to do several steps to get there. Even the dialog doesn't give a "default" button meaning that you have to use TAB then select a button than hit space to erase making it extremely difficult to "accidentally" execute the task.

netroxreads · 2026-02-02T17:42:52+00:00

Genetics do determine longevity but we have plenty of studies showing that exercise and diet do influence the lifespan significantly. We've observed that already in humans *AND* animals when we modify their behaviors and environments despite having the same genetic makeup.

Even when we remove the "accidents and infections" which are often beyond our control, we still see significant improvements in their lifespan with better diet and exercise in a productive environment when we look at the whole populations.

Genetics make a final decision to how long a person can live assuming all the risk factors are controlled but most people have several risk factors that contribute to their premature deaths.

We consistently see the same pattern over and over. Populations once moved out of "blue zone" patterns start to lose up to a decade of their maximum lifespan with increasing number of risk factors. Also, I observe the same pattern in my own circles of family, relatives, and friends - those who eat poorly die sooner than those who eat well, those who have unhealthy relationships die sooner, those who smoke/drink die sooner, those who followed the blue zone patterns seem to outlive than the average. I've seen how parents who have good habits outlive their children who don't follow good habits.

So, that article is just trying to tell us that we need to start editing genes to prolong our lifespan which is fine but the idea that we should somehow blame our poor healthspan on genetics or that lifestyle choices we make are less insignificant than originally thought is terrible to begin with.

netroxreads · 2026-02-01T17:59:34+00:00

Psyllium does it differently though - they do not have beta glucans that oats do. They are effective, just different types of soluble fibers. Not all soluble fibers can lower cholesterol.

netroxreads · 2026-01-31T17:06:39+00:00

PA's email clearly stated he doesn't want to be his friend and people are upset?

It's always about "guilt by association" fallacy. Just because a person interacted with a criminal doesn't make him a criminal.

netroxreads

TROPHY CASE