Seers

Herodotus shows this constantly throughout the Histories:  Both Greeks and Persians were deeply reliant on seers (manteis) and omens before major decisions, especially military ones.

Xerxes regularly consults Magi (the Persian priestly caste who served as seers) and pays attention to dreams and portents. Before crossing the Hellespont, there are elaborate rituals and divination. The Greeks are even more conspicuous about it - Spartan kings like Leonidas and later Pausanias, accompanied by seers, and they won't move armies without favorable sacrifices.

A striking example: at Plataea, the Spartans under Pausanias endure Persian arrow volleys while waiting for favorable omens from sacrifice. Men are dying around them, but they won't advance until the seer Tisamenus declares the signs are good. Only then do they attack.

The Athenians, too, consult Delphi about the Persian invasion, and the oracle's ambiguous prophecies about "wooden walls" become crucial to their strategy. The Seven against Thebes were led by the seer Amphiaraus (pic), who foresaw the death of all of them. 

What's interesting is that Herodotus presents this as universal behavior - not peculiarly Greek or Persian. Croesus consults oracles, the Egyptians have their own forms of divination, and the Scythians use willow rods. For Herodotus' world, the divine constantly intervenes in human affairs, and ignoring signs or seers leads to disaster. Those who disregard prophecies (like Croesus's misunderstanding of Delphi) pay dearly.

The Hebrews had the urim and tumim, but I am unsure what they were. I'll ask Claude.

Hunting those tasty Neandertals

Numerous Neanderthal bones recovered from archaeological sites bear unmistakable marks of butchery—cut marks from defleshing and fracture patterns consistent with marrow extraction. The larger bones, particularly the femurs and tibias, exhibit characteristic notching and pitting, indicating that someone systematically cracked them open to access the nutrient-rich marrow. Some bones even display signs of "retouching"—secondary modifications indicating they were later repurposed as tools for sharpening stone implements. In other words, whoever consumed these individuals subsequently used their remains as whetstones.

The chronology is particularly striking: these butchered bones date to the period when Homo sapiens first arrived in Europe. The evidence suggests newcomers hunted young Neanderthals and processed them with stone tools using techniques identical to those used for game animals. Neanderthals disappeared rapidly after contact with our species. While various theories attempt to explain this—climate change, genetic bottlenecks, competitive exclusion—the archaeological record points toward a simpler explanation: they were hunted as food.

This interpretation finds support in ethnographic accounts. Societies that practised cannibalism consistently describe human flesh as resembling pork in taste and texture. New Guinea communities famously termed humans "long pig" and consumed them at communal feasts. The notion that such practices served purely ceremonial functions or represented symbolic absorption of an enemy's strength strikes me as a wishful reinterpretation. The more straightforward answer is that people hunted and ate Neandertals because they found the meat tasty and nutritious. Meeting Homo sapiens was very bad news for every one of God's creatures. 

Ali Express

 

The Chinese web-traders know how to sell.

They are improving week after week.

Fear floats over the Street

The NASDAQ has reached such heights that people are feeling vertigo and fear of falling off.  Tomorrow, Nvidia will publish its quarterly results, which promise to be excellent. How is the street reacting? With fear. They are selling Nvidia and other high-tech papers. It is losing 3%! Fund managers are losing their nerves and selling... 

I am an optimist. Tomorrow, my portfolio will rise.

Britain's path to renewal: Cultural Revolution

 
It is becoming obvious that the key decision in China's path to renewal was the unsentimental destruction of all things past.  Mao sent youths to humiliate and exile respected teachers and to destroy the invaluable works of art from the imperial period. But Mao was right. New China emerged without the shackles imposed by Confucius. Zionism erased the Yiddish culture, changed personal and family names, and even invented a new language. England must destroy its venerable traditions and level historical cities, and build a new, modern society. The glories of the past have led to its miserable state today. I like the King, the Lords, the castles, the museums, and the Globe, but they must be given up.  But I doubt that the British renewal could happen. Already, Carl Marx predicted that the Communist Revolution would happen in all of Europe except Britain, because the British proletariat doesn't hate but negotiates with the capitalists.  

Officially a Teenager

Yesterday we celebrated her yom-muledet. She looks angry as always.  

Renewing Kfar Saba

This town was founded a hundred years ago, but is already being rebuilt. This is not Europe, where every old building is considered a piece of history and must be preserved.  My daughter and her then-husband bought an apartment on the fourth floor of an old building. No lift, no parking, poorly maintained. When she divorced and divided their common property, I paid off the boy's part, for her tranquility's sake. Years have passed, and now the rebuilding permit has arrived, and the building is being destroyed (pic). She will receive a brand new and larger apartment. Patience pays.

BTW, the first settlers in this town received large plots to build their homes. A friend of mine inherited such a plot and built two multi-story buildings; his children received each an apartment, and he is now wealthy. So are all those who believed in the Zionist enterprise in its beginning.