Sunday, May 24, 2026

Is Pentecost - שבועות?



"Pentecost marks when the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles of Jesus, Mary, and other followers of Christ, 50 days after Easter — hence the name, which comes from a Hellenistic Greek word meaning "50th." The followers of Christ had gathered in Jerusalem to observe the Feast of Weeks (Shavuot in Hebrew), the harvest festival held seven weeks and one day after the first day of Passover.

"The disciples were lost after the death of Jesus. They didn't know what to do next. Then the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they felt its vitality and strength. They went out to the streets and started preaching. They inspired 3,000 people to become baptized." From DW

I had to reach 80 to learn what they mean by the Holy Spirit. Now it makes sense. 

Saturday, May 23, 2026

Unexplained Infertility

 

“Follicular fluid from one female was better at attracting sperm from one male, while follicular fluid from another female was better at attracting sperm from a different male,” said Professor Fitzpatrick. This shows that interactions between human eggs and sperm depend on the specific identity of the women and men involved.”

The egg does not always agree with the woman’s choice of partner. The researchers found that eggs did not always attract more sperm from their partner than from another male.

Is this egg or sperm choice? Professor Fitzpatrick explained that sperm have only one job – to fertilise eggs – so it doesn’t make sense for them to be choosy. Eggs, on the other hand, can benefit by picking high-quality or genetically compatible sperm.

“The idea that eggs are choosing sperm is really novel in human fertility,” said Professor Daniel Brison, “Research on the way eggs and sperm interact will advance fertility treatments and may eventually help us understand some of the currently ‘unexplained’ causes of infertility in couples.

Thursday, May 21, 2026

Don Segundo Sombra

 

En los pagos de Areco. Segundo Ramírez, del libro de Ricardo Guiraldes. Mi libro favorito. 

Wednesday, May 20, 2026

Heritage Center of Cochin Jewry

 What am I working on today? It is a Heritage Center of the Indian (Cochin) Jewry in a Moshav near my home city. They are brown-skinned, nice people, proud of their ethnic traditions as all the other 120 "edot" (tribes?) of Israel. They have a 2000-year history on the Malabar Coast. Thomas, one of the disciples of Jesus, settled among them and converted many, forming the  Saint Thomas Christian population of India. 

Monday, May 18, 2026

4 Billion US$ Startup

In less than one year, these two boys, Din Leitersdorf and Moshe Shalev (pic), founded a business called Decart, which attracted investments from Nvidia and Amazon, now worth 4 billion US dollars. It was a year of war, bombardment, and fear. 

Magic!

Monday, May 11, 2026

Internet swamp


 A post on X claims there are 100,000 articles on Hantavirus, suggesting it is a Moderna campaign to frighten the world. The reason given is that Moderna has many vaccines in store that need to be sold.

The internet has turned into a psychological battleground; it is difficult to make sense of it. Anyway, for me, the whole thing is irrelevant.