My dad died Wednesday at 91. It’s never long enough. In his final hours, we took him from the hospital back to memory care so they could be together. Two months shy of 67 years of marriage.
When Hajime Miura clinched his 8th 3A World Yo-Yo Championship title at the World Yo-Yo Contest 2025 in Prague, cementing his legacy as one of the most dominant players ever.
"A Vasectomy Causes Chronic Health Conditions...The Research Your Doctor Keeps Hidden In This $22 Billion Dollar Industry."
Dr Nicole Rivera
20% Increased Risk Of Prostate Cancer.
40% Increase In Alzheimer's Disease & Dementia.
70% Develop Autoimmune & 33% Have Chronic Pain.
Urologists are unwilling to be upfront about the long term health risks of getting a vasectomy - it’s a $22 billion dollar profit driven industry.
Urologists in the US were surveyed & 90% reported that they would not stop performing vasectomies, despite the evidence that undergoing a vasectomy is linked to prostate cancer & many other medical conditions.
Research shows as high as 33% of men suffer from long term daily chronic testicular & groin pain because the natural duct for sperm is severed & closed off.
Certain organs, including the testes, exist in what is 'a gated community' of sorts, in the body. Tiny tubes within the testes are protected by Sertoli Cells, that provide a physical barrier.
The tight connections between these cells prevent blood-borne infections & poisonous molecules from entering the semen.
Vasectomy & Autoimmune Disease:
After a vasectomy, that protective barrier is broken & semen mixes into the bloodstream. The immune system recognizes the sperm as invading foreign agents & produces anti-sperm antibodies in 70% of men, leading to an eventual development of an Autoimmune Disease.
According to a Finland study, the “presence of sperm antibodies correlates with nearly every pathological condition of the male reproductive tract.”
A man’s body has a strong layer of tissue known as the Blood-Testis Barrier (BTB). Vasectomy eliminates this barrier. A man’s immune system sees the sperm as an infection that needs to be addressed, resulting in a never ending immune response, making antisperm antibodies to attack his own cells.
FTD Frontotemporal Dementia & PPA Primary Progressive Aphasia Post Vasectomy:
PPA & FTD are dementia syndromes that studies have shown to be 40% higher in men who have had a vasectomy. Mechanisms mediating risk include vasectomy-induced immune responses to sperm, which shares antigenic epitopes with the brain.
In A 38 Year Nationwide Prostate Cancer Study:
Vasectomy has a statistically significant increased long-term risk of prostate cancer occurring at a rate of 20%.
Vasectomy Adverse Health Conditions Long Term:
Prostate Cancer
Testicular Cancer
Antibody Autoimmune Disease
Cardiovascular Disease
Sexual Dysfunction
Chronic Pain
Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA)
Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD)
👇Vasectomy Causes Primary Progressive Aphasia👇
https://t.co/g0DLkKwYvF
👇Vasectomy Increases Prostate Cancer👇
https://t.co/iN3V6slfMT
👇Immunological Consequences Of Vasectomy👇
https://t.co/g2I4DOHJbC
Speaker: Dr Nicole Rivera
patterns in the lives of great people
if you study enough biographies, documentaries, interviews; you start to see repeating structures.
different lives, same architecture.
here’s the blueprint almost all great people share:
1. a period of intense isolation
they disappear for years.
you think they fell off; but that’s when they’re cooking.
deep work. obsession. long lonely nights.
they resurface with something that changes the game.
2. an early spark
some childhood moment that burns into their brain.
a teacher, a machine, a failure, a movie, a sound.
something that makes them go, “I want to understand this for the rest of my life.”
3. obsessive iteration
they don’t do something once.
they do it a thousand times.
till it’s muscle memory.
every great person has a graveyard of early failed attempts that nobody saw.
4. disrespect for convention
they question the “normal” way of doing things; not for rebellion, but for truth.
they can’t stand inefficiency or intellectual laziness.
they break systems, then rebuild them better.
5. suffering → transformation
some crisis humbles them; failure, rejection, loss, poverty.
instead of collapsing, they alchemize it.
turn pain into clarity, frustration into fuel.
6. relentless curiosity
they’re polymaths in disguise.
engineers who read philosophy. artists who study math.
they connect unrelated fields until a new pattern emerges.
7. uncompromising taste
they have a vision for how things should be.
and they refuse to release anything less than that.
this is what makes their work timeless.
8. strategic social connection
they find other rare minds.
not many; just enough to form an echo chamber of excellence.
together they compound genius.
9. asymmetrical focus
they focus on one thing so hard that it looks like madness.
but that singular focus opens doors others can’t even see.
10. legacy thinking
they eventually zoom out from their craft to humanity.
they start asking; “what does this mean for the world?”
that’s when they shift from “great at something” to “great, period.”
greatness isn’t random.
it’s a pattern; repeated through different people, in different centuries, under different names.
once you see it, you can’t unsee it.
and the question becomes:
which part of this pattern are you in right now?
Rest in peace, Patricia Routledge 🙏🏻
In memory of her, I encourage everyone to read these words of hers from February last year.
Whether young or old, you're bound to get something out of it.
*****
"I’ll be turning 95 this coming Monday. In my younger years, I was often filled with worry — worry that I wasn’t quite good enough, that no one would cast me again, that I wouldn’t live up to my mother’s hopes. But these days begin in peace, and end in gratitude.
My life didn’t quite take shape until my forties. I had worked steadily — on provincial stages, in radio plays, in West End productions — but I often felt adrift, as though I was searching for a home within myself that I hadn’t quite found.
At 50, I accepted a television role that many would later associate me with — Hyacinth Bucket, of Keeping Up Appearances. I thought it would be a small part in a little series. I never imagined that it would take me into people’s living rooms and hearts around the world. And truthfully, that role taught me to accept my own quirks. It healed something in me.
At 60, I began learning Italian — not for work, but so I could sing opera in its native language. I also learned how to live alone without feeling lonely. I read poetry aloud each evening, not to perfect my diction, but to quiet my soul.
At 70, I returned to the Shakespearean stage — something I once believed I had aged out of. But this time, I had nothing to prove. I stood on those boards with stillness, and audiences felt that. I was no longer performing. I was simply being.
At 80, I took up watercolour painting. I painted flowers from my garden, old hats from my youth, and faces I remembered from the London Underground. Each painting was a quiet memory made visible.
Now, at 95, I write letters by hand. I’m learning to bake rye bread. I still breathe deeply every morning. I still adore laughter — though I no longer try to make anyone laugh. I love the quiet more than ever.
I’m writing this to tell you something simple:
Growing older is not the closing act. It can be the most exquisite chapter — if you let yourself bloom again.
Let these years ahead be your TREASURE YEARS.
You don’t need to be famous. You don’t need to be flawless.
You only need to show up — fully — for the life that is still yours.
With love and gentleness,
Patricia Routledge
*****
Once more, rest in peace. 🤍
Long before she played stadiums. Before the TV appearances. Before she owned a pile of Grammys, there was this. The video that kickstarted it all. Anyone paying attention saw this and knew to move, bc Sierra Ferrell was coming through like a fucking FREIGHT TRAIN🚂 🔥🔥🔥