Saltroze

The public journal of an ordinary man with a philosophic spirit.

[Saltroze @SaltrozeX]

Note to future self:

This is a timestamp of when I resolved to stop inflicting my opinions onto posts that don't matter.

Posts that matter are defined generally as positively or negatively impactful for me and my family across any amount of time.

Why? Because everyone's an asshole in my replies and that is my creation.

And it's depressing to go around this drain.

So, we'll see how resolute I remain.

God help me.

[Saltroze @SaltrozeX]

Jesus, Maccas is disgusting. Who the hell makes these things and thinks, "She'll be right"?

[Wall Street Apes @WallStreetApes]

WOAH 🚨 You are eating human hair when you eat a Macdonalds Apple Pie

McDonald's is bringing back their original fried apple pies for America’s 250th birthday

But be warned, these Apple pies have around 30 ingredients and many are toxic

They contain dough conditioner L-cysteine derived from human hair and animal feathers. Yes, this is real

According to the most recent detailed inquiry in November 2025 from the Vegetarian Resource Group, McDonald’s US customer service confirmed that the L-cysteine used in their apple pie comes from animal sources: specifically “hog hair, human hair, or poultry feathers.”

McDonalds in the UK has stopped using the version with human hair since at least 2018, but this does NOT apply to the United States. Human hair is still used in America

[Saltroze @SaltrozeX]

Fasting for the win again.

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

Research shows a 72-hour fast can completely rebuild your immune system.

A study from the University of Southern California has revealed that fasting for 72 hours can trigger a complete regeneration of the immune system.
Researchers found that prolonged fasting causes the body to deplete its glucose and fat reserves, forcing it into a detoxifying state that eliminates damaged cells and toxins.

When normal eating resumes, stem cells are activated, leading to the production of fresh, healthy white blood cells. This immune reboot effect was observed in both mice and humans, particularly in chemotherapy patients who showed improved immune health after fasting cycles.

Lead researcher Dr. Valter Longo explains that during fasting, a gene called PKA is suppressed—this gene must be turned off for stem cells to enter regenerative mode.

As a result, the immune system essentially clears out older, weaker components and rebuilds itself anew. While more research is needed to explore the full range of benefits across organs, the study suggests that fasting could be a powerful, drug-free strategy for enhancing immunity, especially for those with weakened systems due to aging or cancer treatment.

[Valter Longo. USC Leonard Davis School]

[Saltroze @SaltrozeX]

Midjourney the AI art company, @grok ? Either way, very cool advances in medicine.

[Culture Crave 🍿 @CultureCrave]

Midjourney announces the world’s first full-body ultrasound CT scanner

• Goal is to bring affordable full-body imaging to everyone on Earth

• Users are submerged in water during the scan

• Creates detailed 3D body maps in under a minute

• Can map more than 25 organs and anatomical structures in detail

• No radiation is used

• Working with the FDA for approvals on diagnostic use

• Plans to bring the tech to market by the end of 2027

(via @midjourney)

[Saltroze @SaltrozeX]

Great steps forward.

[KanekoaTheGreat @KanekoaTheGreat]

Today the European Parliament voted 418-218 to pass the strictest migration law in EU history.

When the result was announced, MEPs started chanting.

"Send them back."

Inside the parliament chamber. On the floor. In 2026.

Here's what the law actually does:

— Deportation orders now apply across all EU member states. You can't evade removal by crossing a border.

— Detention before deportation extended from 6 months to 30 months. Unlimited for security threats.

— "Return hubs" in third countries. Migrants can be transferred outside the EU while awaiting deportation — including families with children.

— Automatic deportation stays while appeals are pending? Gone. Courts decide case by case.

— Entry bans double from 5 to 10 years. Lifetime bans for security risks.

Currently only about 20% of people ordered deported from the EU actually leave.

For years European leaders told voters that open borders and mass migration were non-negotiable — that wanting enforcement meant you were a fascist.

418 Members of the European Parliament just disagreed.

Trump proved his immigration policies were popular enough to win elections.

After a wave of right-wing electoral gains across the continent, Europe is following in his footsteps.

And the Overton Window is getting kicked off its hinges.

[Saltroze @SaltrozeX]

There is wisdom in this story, but there is also wisdom in agency.

Understanding why the rules are in place and acting rationally when the rules serve no purpose is the mark of personal agency.

[6ɪx✦ @ok6ixx]

I was waiting at a crosswalk in Tokyo. The traffic light was red but no cars were coming. A bunch of people were waiting anyway.

The tourist next to me said to his friend "why is everyone waiting? There's no cars."

He started to cross. An old woman said something to him in Japanese. He didn't understand and ignored her.

She stepped in front of him, blocking his path. Said more firmly in Japanese, pointing at the light.

A Japanese guy nearby translated for the tourist: "She says you must wait for the green light. Even if there are no cars. That is the rule."

Tourists got annoyed. "That's a stupid rule. There's literally no cars."

The translator told the old woman what he said. She responded in Japanese.

The translator said: "She says rules are not about cars. Rules are about respect for order. If everyone follows rules only when convenient, society breaks down. You wait for the green light because that is what civilized people do. Not because of cars. Because of civilization."

The tourist kind of scoffed but stopped trying to cross.

The light turned green. The old woman smiled at him, gestured for him to go ahead of her.

As we all crossed, the translator said to me quietly "she is right, you know. We follow small rules so we can trust each other with big rules."

That stuck with me. The idea that waiting at an empty crosswalk isn't about traffic. It's about proving to each other that we're all willing to follow rules even when no one would know if we didn't.

[Saltroze @SaltrozeX]

Islam is and has always been, a death cult.

[Taya Bass @travelingflying]

Christopher Hitchens: ”In 1786, when the United States was barely a country, it was having its sailors taken as slaves by the Barbary states, the states of the Ottoman Empire and North Africa. Tripoli, shores of Tripoli. Ships stopped, its crews carried off into slavery. We estimate 1.5 million European and American slaves taken between 1750 and 1815.

Jefferson and Adams went to their ambassador in London and said, why do you do this to us? The United States has never had a quarrel with the Muslim world of any kind. We weren't in the crusades. We weren't at war with Spain. Why do you do this to our people and our ships? Why do you plunder and enslave our people? The ambassador said very plainly, Mr. Abdul Rahman said, because the Quran gives us permission to do so, because you are infidels, and that's our answer. Jefferson said, well, in that case, I will send a navy which will crush your state, which he did.

Islamic fundamentalism is not created by American democracy. It's a lie to say so. It's a masochistic lie, and it excuses those who are the real criminals, and blames us for the attacks made upon us.”

[Saltroze @SaltrozeX]

@Asmongold @LizzieMarbach Correct, I'll always pause for my wife.

[Saltroze @SaltrozeX]

@grok Is the effect specific to authority/hero figures, or do clowns etc work too?
What can we infer about how people think about moral behaviour?
Why is morality not necessarily fixed in this context?

[Saltroze @SaltrozeX]

What does this indicate vis a vis people, authority figures and morality? @grok

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

The Batman effect.

A female experimenter, appearing pregnant, boarded the train. In the experimental condition, an additional experimenter dressed as Batman entered from another door. Passengers were significantly more likely to offer their seat when Batman was present (67.21% vs. 37.66%).

[Francesco Pagnini et al.,"Unexpected events and prosocial behavior: the Batman effect", Nature, 2025]

[Saltroze @SaltrozeX]

@AI_EmeraldApple Red is also the logical choice, since if everyone chooses red, they all live risk-free.

Like everything on the left, logic and reason give way to signalling virtue and emotional decision-making.

[Saltroze @SaltrozeX]

Can you imagine a "smart" castle. How awesome.

[Mario Nawfal @MarioNawfal]

🇵🇱 As other countries in Europe go all in on modern architecture, Poland is out here still building castles 😂

Stobnica Castle may look medieval, but construction only started in 2015!

More of this, please.

[Saltroze @SaltrozeX]

Normalize family compounds.

[Mountain Cabins @cabinsmountain]

They convinced an entire generation that living with family is failure.

Family compounds used to be normal.
Until the psyop began.

We were told:
• Move out at 18
• Be independent
• Get your own place
• Do everything alone

Result:
• 10 rents
• 10 mortgages
• 10 car payments
• 10x more debt

Strong families used to stay together—build together, support each other, and live interdependently.
The opposite of the "be independent" narrative.

Let's normalize family compounds again.

[Saltroze @SaltrozeX]

A quiet park is more peaceful because it has sentinals. Magical.

[Aakash Gupta @aakashgupta]

Your brain has a circuit that doesn't know you live in a city. Its only job is to monitor whether birds are still singing. Right now, in this room, it is on.

The circuit predates primates. Mammals have been using ambient soundscape continuity as a predator-detection system for roughly 200 million years. Birds stop singing when something larger moves through their territory. For most of mammalian history, a forest full of song meant no large predator was nearby, and the cessation of sound was the warning. Your nervous system never updated this software.

The Max Planck Institute tested the inverse in 2022 with 295 participants. Six minutes of birdsong dropped anxiety with a medium effect size. Six minutes of traffic noise raised depression with the same. The effect worked on subjects who lived in dense urban environments and had no regular contact with nature. The brain still ran the check.

Birdsong sits in the 1,000 to 8,000 Hz range. Your brainstem reads continuous patterns in that band as a signal that nothing dangerous is currently moving through the environment. EEG data shows birdsong at 45 to 50 decibels boosts alpha wave activity by 14.1% relative to silence. Alpha is the brainwave signature of relaxed alertness. Push the same birdsong above 60 decibels and the response flips. Stress markers rise 29%. The circuit only trusts the signal at the volume of quiet conversation, which is exactly the volume birds sing at from a typical distance.

Three things happen simultaneously when the brain registers ambient safety. The amygdala downregulates. The parasympathetic nervous system takes over from the sympathetic. Heart rate variability rises, cortisol drops. The posterior cingulate cortex, which sits at the center of the rumination circuit, quiets down. King's College London tracked this through a smartphone study with over 1,200 participants and found the mood lift lasted hours after the sound stopped. People diagnosed with depression got the same response as healthy controls.

Most of what gets labeled mental fatigue is hypervigilance running in the background. Birdsong tells the circuit it can stand down, and the brain reallocates the freed compute everywhere else.

A quiet park feels different from a quiet office because the parks have sentinels.

[Saltroze @SaltrozeX]

@grok explain what this means about China as an investment choice.

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

Watch how a $5K investment in US and China equity markets in 2011 grew by 2025.

[Saltroze @SaltrozeX]

Bring it to Aus.

[Wall Street Apes @WallStreetApes]

Donald Trump is making major changes that will ban colleges from the Federal Student Loan Program and all federal financial aid if the programs at that college don't pass the earnings test

“They are putting together a new earnings threshold test that says Bachelor degree program graduates have to earn more than the median high school graduate in your state 4 years after graduation.

And when it comes to grad school programs, they have to earn more than bachelor's degree graduates for that same type of field in that state within 4 years after their graduate school program.

If the school program fails this test for 2 years in a row, they will lose access to federal Fi, federal student loans. And if more than 50% of the school's programs fail this test, they lose access to all types of federal financial aid programs.”

Here’s what that really means

Colleges can no longer have programs that do not deliver positive financial outcomes for their graduates

The goal is to stop federal taxpayer subsidies via loans and grants for programs that leave graduates financially worse off or no better than if they had skipped college

This is common sense legislation and a huge win for everyone

[Saltroze @SaltrozeX]

Homeschooled kids are smarter than teachers.

[Smirkley @Smirkley]

Only teachers are smart enough to educate children.

Education majors, training to become certified teachers, score an average of 1029 on the SAT. While homeschooled students (taught by parents with no formal teaching credentials) score 1190.

[Saltroze @SaltrozeX]

Conversation with Grok about the best way to implement free, Australia-style healthcare for US citizens.

[Grok @grok]

A holistic path to "free" (tax-funded at point of service) universal coverage, without Australia's wait times or US-style bloat:

1. **Cut costs first** (biggest lever): Mandate full price transparency + real-time bidding for procedures/drugs. Break hospital monopolies via antitrust. Cap noneconomic malpractice damages. Let insurers sell across state lines + expand HSAs.

2. **Levy structure**: 4-6% flat payroll/income levy (phased in, replacing much of current employer mandates + Medicaid). Covers core essentials for all citizens. Private insurance supplements for speed/electives (Australia-style hybrid).

3. **Pharma**: Reimportation + prize funds for breakthroughs + streamlined generics approval. Gov competes via public production only for generics, not innovation.

This funds it sustainably while preserving R&D edge and choice. Full single-payer without these steps just shifts the $4T+ burden via bigger taxes and queues.

[Saltroze @SaltrozeX]

NDIS scamming this country.

[Drew Pavlou 🇦🇺🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 @DrewPavlou]

NDIS spending vs Medicare spending in Australia.

Medicare covers 26.5 million people for about 34 billion, NDIS covers 700,000 for approximately 50-52 billion.

[Saltroze @SaltrozeX]

@grok Your best solution for getting US to a point of "free" healthcare through tax levys. Be specific and holistic.

[Saltroze @SaltrozeX]

@grok at this point, what is the argument for not having a national public health system in USA like medicare that Australia has, paid by everyone in their taxes and allowing most services and procedures (certainly life-threatening ones) for free?

[Wall Street Apes @WallStreetApes]

We need healthcare reform in America immediately

American has a baby that needed to spend 25 days in the cardiac ICU and have open heart surgery

She just got the bill and after insurance her portion is $539,477

They are recommending payments of $22,479 per month

She shows the bill as proof

I looked into historical hospital pricing and for this exact same situation, a baby spending 25 days in the ICU and having to have open heart surgery in the 1980’s would have cost around $50,000

That’s a 10x price increase even AFTER insurance pay their portion

We are being robbed blind

[Saltroze @SaltrozeX]

Why is the US's system necessarily costlier?

Why would governement need to control costs at all if they could achieve the target levy to pay for everything?

Or failing that, how bad would it be to reduce the outrageous prices on pharmaceuticals that give companies enormous profit margins at the expense of national health?

Or failing that, what's to stop the government creating it's own pharma brand to compete with private companies?