BRUTALLY SCARY. BUT ABSOLUTELY TRUE:
1. You are what you do, not what you promise you'll do.
2. No one will realize your value until your absence is felt.
3. Don't fight for someone to love you; fight for someone who already does.
4. Never think that a person of peace is not skilled at war.
5. Just a minute of anger, lust, or greed can destroy a lifetime of hard work.
6. Any lesson you refuse to learn will keep coming back until you face it.
7. The longer you stay on the wrong train, the more expensive it becomes to return home.
8. Fear will never stop death; it will only ruin what's left of your life.
9. You will never heal in the same environment that made you sick.
10. Nothing is worse than avoiding your full potential.
11. Real wealth is having no health problems.
I'm a cardiologist. A 42-year-old mother of two came to my office complaining of jaw pain and crushing fatigue. She ran half-marathons. Her EKG was normal. Another doctor had sent her home with anxiety medication.
When I got her into the cath lab, I found severe microvascular disease — plaque choking the tiniest vessels of her heart, the ones standard angiograms routinely miss.
Her heart had been starving in silence while everyone told her she was stressed.
She is alive today. Too many women like her are not.
Heart disease kills more women than every cancer combined. And medicine is still diagnosing it through a male lens.
84% of cardiologists report having patients in the past year whose heart disease was misdiagnosed by another physician. Women with a STEMI heart attack have a 59% greater chance of being misdiagnosed compared to men. Women with an NSTEMI — 41% greater chance.
The reason is structural. For decades, we screened, tested, and treated women using a template built for men.
Men's heart attacks announce themselves — the crushing chest pain, the clutched fist, the Hollywood collapse. Women's hearts whisper. Crushing fatigue that feels like wearing a lead vest. Jaw pain written off as TMJ. Nausea blamed on a stomach bug. An ache between the shoulder blades blamed on a long week. Shortness of breath blamed on being out of shape.
For years, medicine called these "atypical" symptoms. They are not atypical. They are female-typical. Half of humanity is not a variant.
And the biology runs deeper than symptoms.
Women have smaller hearts and narrower coronary arteries. Plaque doesn't only clog the big highway vessels — it hides in the microvasculature, the tiny branches feeding the heart muscle itself. A woman can have a heart attack with a completely "clean" standard angiogram.
SCAD — spontaneous coronary artery dissection — occurs 90% of the time in women. Often young, fit women with zero traditional risk factors. It's the leading cause of heart attack in women under 50, accounting for roughly one quarter of all cases in that age group. Most doctors have never diagnosed one.
And some of the most dangerous cardiac risk factors are hidden in women's medical histories where no one thinks to look:
Preeclampsia or gestational hypertension doubles to quadruples lifetime heart disease and stroke risk. Pregnancy is the body's first cardiac stress test — and these complications are early warning sirens, not closed chapters.
Autoimmune disease — lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis — far more common in women, turbocharges inflammation and plaque formation at any age.
Cardiovascular disease in women aged 20-44 is projected to surge nearly 50% by 2050.
The youngest patients in my practice keep getting younger.
What every woman should ask her doctor — and what every doctor should be asking:
"Given my pregnancy history, autoimmune status, and family history — what is my full cardiovascular risk?" If they don't ask about preeclampsia or gestational diabetes, volunteer it.
"Should I have an Lp(a) test and a coronary calcium score?" Standard cholesterol panels miss too much. Lp(a) is genetic, one-time, and most women have never been tested.
"My tests came back normal but my symptoms haven't stopped — what's next?" Normal stress tests and angiograms can miss microvascular disease, spasm, and SCAD. Persistent symptoms warrant coronary CT angiography or cardiac MRI.
And if something feels wrong — say these exact words to your doctor: "I am concerned this could be my heart."
That single sentence changes the workup. Do not soften it. Do not apologize for it.
80% of heart disease is preventable. But the playbook has to be built for female biology.
Two decades ago, I wrote one of the first books warning that heart disease was the number one killer of women and that medicine was diagnosing it through a male lens. It was recognized by First Lady Laura Bush at the White House during the early years of the national conversation about women's heart health.
I'm haunted by how much of that book I could republish today unchanged.
The science has advanced. The awareness has grown. But the gap between what we know and what happens in the exam room is still costing women their lives.
Share this with every woman you love — and every doctor who treats them. READ MORE: https://t.co/4LRugiY8q2
The New World Screwworm, a grave parasitic threat, has just been detected in US cattle for the first time since it was eradicated in 1966.
The parasite's revival comes after Trump and DOGE slashed funding for Screwworm monitoring programs.
Brad Pitt is 62.
He just spent two years training like an athlete to play an F1 driver.
But the reason he looks this good has almost nothing to do with that training.
Here are the 6 things he did:
There is a well-documented pattern to the first Trump administration. The people who worked in it stayed quiet while employed, then the moment they were fired, sat down and wrote a book. Bolton. Esper. Mattis. Tillerson. The consistent theme: the man wanted to bomb things. Iran. North Korea. Venezuela. Mexico, on at least one occasion that we know of. The adults in the room spent considerable energy preventing a nuclear confrontation because the President had seen something on Fox News.
That was Term One. Term Two is different.
The adults are gone. What replaced them is a collection of individuals who in any previous era of American governance would not have been trusted with the photocopier code.
Picture the scene. The President announces he has an idea. He is enthusiastic. He uses hand gestures. The people around the table look up from their shoes and think, in unison: sure, sounds great.
Nobody pushes back. Nobody has a map. Nobody asks what happens to global oil supply when you bomb the Persian Gulf, or what Mexico does when American special forces cross the border, or whether Greenland’s population has any opinion on being purchased against their will.
Nobody knows, because the hiring criteria for this White House had nothing to do with knowing things.
In Term One, the grownups bought time. They slow-walked the paperwork. They prevented catastrophe through sheer bureaucratic friction.
In Term Two, there is no friction. There is only nodding. And under the table, at least three senior officials are quietly Googling “where is Iran” on their phones. One of them has spelled it “I-ron” and is now reading a five-star review of a steam iron on Amazon. He finds it very informative.
He is the Secretary of Defense.
I'm abandoning a "good man" because of five words.
My name is Sarah, I am 39 years old, and in three days I will be signing the divorce papers.
My mother is crying on the phone. My friends are shocked.
"Are you sure? Marco doesn't drink, he's not cheating on you, he has a stable job, and he's even the coach of the children's soccer team..."
That's true. Marco is a good man.
But I'm not abandoning a bad man.
I'm firing an incompetent employee.
What's the problem?
One sentence.
Just one, repeated for twelve years, drop after drop, until my nervous system collapsed:
"Honey, just tell me what to do."
Marco "helps". But only if I tell him to help.
If I ask, she'll put the dishes in the dishwasher.
He picks up the children from school if I send him a reminder.
She does the laundry, but every time she asks, "Which program should I use?" and "Where's the detergent?"
I think so.
I'm the CEO of the family. He's the intern who, after ten years, still doesn't know where the rolls of toilet paper are.
The last straw was last Tuesday.
We were having dinner. He, looking at his cell phone, said to me:
"Hey, it's my mom's birthday on Sunday. What did we get her?"
What we achieved.
My fork touched the plate.
His mother, not mine. However, for him, it was up to me to remember the date, find the gift, buy it, wrap it, and sign the card.
He just needed to show up and eat cake.
I didn't scream.
I looked at him and asked:
"What shoe size does our daughter wear?"
Silence.
What is our son's teacher's name?
Nothing.
When does the insurance for the car you drive every day expire?
Silence.
"How old is your mother on Sunday?"
He hesitated. He needed to tell her.
Then he got offended.
"But you're exaggerating! You only had to tell me and I would have gone!"
And that's exactly the point:
"You had to tell me."
This is the invisible effort.
That's the mental load.
It's about living with the mindset of a couple.
It's like carrying the whole family's map on your shoulders, while the other person enjoys the view.
I am tired.
Tired of being the only one who notices when the milk is gone.
Only he knows when the dog needs vaccinations.
The only one who holds everything together. Him too.
I no longer want to be a mother with an endless to-do list.
I want to be a woman again.
I prefer to face difficulties alone, rather than feel alone next to someone who "helps," but who in reality weighs me down like a backpack full of stones.
Will I be a single mother? Yes.
But I will no longer be my husband's mother.
I don't need an assistant.
I need a partner.
And unfortunately, the only ones who truly understand this difference... are those who are too tired to explain it again
Stumbled across this mystery machine on Myrtle Beach today. No signs, no explanation….just vibes and questions.
My official guess: Ocean dash for my Taco Bell order 😂.
What’s YOUR unhinged theory? Wrong answers only
Republicans in North Carolina just proposed a bill that says if a woman is caught with an IUD or attempts to get an abortion then men are allowed to use DEADLY FORCE to try and stop her. They are proposing a bill that will allow men to kill women for using birth control. It’s House Bill 1232. Keith Kidwell is the Republican who proposed the bill. He claims it counts as self defense to use deadly force to stop abortion. This is a man who claims to be pro life. Feel free to give his office a call and let him know how you feel about his opinion.
And for anyone who says “obviously this will never get passed” that’s not the point. The point is it’s fucking insanity that a government official would even try to make a law like this. It’s insanity that there are men out there who are trying to make it legal to kill women for making decisions for their own bodies. This is real and it’s happening right now in front of our eyes.
With everything we are hearing right now about ticks this seems like good information to share.
“Here’s what I’ve learned after more ticks than I care to count.
First, whatever your uncle told you, forget it. No matches. No nail polish. No Vaseline. No soap on a cotton ball. All of those do the same terrible thing, they stress the tick out, and a stressed tick empties its gut back into the bite before letting go. Which, if you think about what that actually means for a second, is literally how Lyme and the rest get transmitted so you’re not speeding up its exit. You’re making it throw up into you.
Fine-tipped tweezers. Grip right where the mouthparts enter the skin, not the body, the head. Pull straight up, steady, no twisting, no jerking. It’ll feel like it’s resisting because it is, the mouthparts are barbed. Just keep the pressure on and it lets go in a few seconds. If a piece breaks off in the skin, leave it alone. Your body pushes splinters out. Digging around with a needle does more damage then the fragment ever would.
Clean it with alcohol or soap. Wash your hands.
Now here’s the part most people skip: don’t flush the tick.
Tape it to an index card. Clear packing tape right over the body, write the date and where on your body it was, and stick the card in a drawer. If you come down with anything weird in the next 30 days, rash, fever, joint pain, that flu-that-isn’t-flu feeling, that tick goes with you to the doctor. Some labs will test the tick itself, which is faster and often more reliable than waiting for antibodies to show up in your own blood. A dated tick taped to a card is one of the most useful things you can hand a doctor who’s trying to figure out what’s wrong with you.
The other thing worth saying out loud: if the tick was engorged when you pulled it, and you can’t swear it was off your body within 24 hours, call your doctor that same day. Don’t wait for a rash. Fewer than three out of four Lyme cases even produce the classic bullseye. A single preventive dose of doxycycline within 72 hours of a deer tick bite cuts the Lyme odds way down, and most docs in tick country will write that prescription without giving you a hard time, especially if you walk in with the tick taped to a card and a clear timeline.”
My dad left my mom after 32 years because he wanted to “finally be happy.”
The woman he left her for was 27.
My mother didn’t scream. Didn’t beg. Didn’t even argue.
She just quietly said, “Okay.”
For the next year she learned how to use online banking, started traveling with friends, renovated the kitchen he never let her touch, and took dance classes.
Meanwhile....
Over a million acres of pristine wilderness lakes in Minnesota.
The most visited canoe country in America.
Generations of families have paddled it, fished it, camped it.
The Senate just sold it out outright.
They called it "America First."
Then handed it to a Chilean billionaire — so his company can ship the copper to China.
The Senate voted 50-49 to gut 20 years of Boundary Waters mining protections.
Here's the deal they made.
A Chilean billionaire's company digs the mine.
America can't smelt the copper — we don't have the capacity.
So the ore ships to China.
China processes it.
Sells it on the world market.
Chile keeps the profits.
Minnesotans don't even get the jobs.
Minnesota keeps the pollution.
And Americans get to buy it back from China at full market price.
This same company has a documented history at their Chilean mines: pipeline spills, regulatory fines, and locals fighting back for years.
They paid a former Trump Interior Secretary $380K.
The protection died by one vote.
Here's exactly how it happened — and who made it happen.
Who do YOU think this mine actually serves?
#DemsUnited
Too on point not to share. This is great, but too bad the Orange Felon’s enablers won’t let him see it.
This Australian's reply to #Trump's rant about “NATO not being there for America” is perfect.
"Mate. You run a country with 600,000 homeless people sleeping on the street tonight. A country where 40% of adults can't cover a $400 emergency without borrowing money. A country where insulin costs more than a car payment and people are rationing it to survive. A country where medical debt is the number 1 cause of bankruptcy. A country where women are dying in hospital car parks because doctors are too scared of abortion laws to treat a miscarriage.
You lock up more of your own citizens than any nation on earth. More than China. More than Russia. More than North Korea. The land of the free has 2 million people in cages, and a quarter of them haven't even been convicted of anything. They're just too poor to make bail.
Your life expectancy is going backwards. You're the only developed nation where that's happening. Your infant mortality rate is worse than Cuba's. Your kids do active shooter drills between maths and English while you sell the gunmaker's stock to your mates.
Your minimum wage hasn't moved in 15 years. You've got teachers working 2 jobs and veterans sleeping under bridges and you just spent a trillion dollars flattening a country that didn't attack you.
And you’ve got a convicted felon, adjudicating raping, paedophile protecting, porn star shagging insurrectionist running the biggest dumpster fire war campaign since the Taliban thanked you very much for losing again.
And you're calling Greenland poorly run?
Greenland has universal healthcare. Free education. One of the lowest incarceration rates in the world. Nobody goes bankrupt there because they got sick. Nobody dies in a waiting room because their insurance said no.
'NATO wasn't there when we needed them." When exactly was that, champ? September 11? Because NATO invoked Article 5 for the first and only time in history FOR YOU. Soldiers from dozens of countries deployed, fought, bled, and died in Afghanistan FOR YOU. Australia wasn't even in NATO and we still showed up. For 20 years.
And you pulled out at 2am without telling anyone and left them to deal with the mess.
So maybe before you start calling other countries poorly run, have a look at your own backyard, you spray-tanned aluminium siding salesman. The only thing poorly run in this picture is your f----- mouth."
- Tony Locke
Fallstreak holes form in altostratus or cirrostratus clouds when ice crystals forming from supercooled droplets create holes through the cloud layer as they trigger a chain reaction of freezing.
📽: BlacktipH Fishing
My CPA charges $800/hour.
He recently asked me, “If you die tomorrow, can your family even log into your bank account?”
I couldn’t stop thinking about it.
Then he showed me these 4 things that rich people always have ready:
Watch the Navy Blue Angels choreographing their air show performance. It’s that precise! Absolutely zero wiggle room involved in performing these maneuvers. Crazy.