How to interpret this graph? It does not show that 50% of women never marry. It says that from the female population 18-44, half are still unmarried. Unsurprisingly, 90% of 18-year-olds are single, and it could well be that at age 44, all are married. If so, the graph is misleading and worthless.
Friday, November 28, 2025
Most girls are single and many never marry
Wednesday, November 26, 2025
Zionist Robot
Mentibus - the first Israeli robot. Non-military. 170 cm 70 kg eyes 360 degrees. "Any customer can have a Mentibus painted any color that he wants so long as it is black." - misquoted from Henry Ford.
V'ger progresses through the space-time fabric
Tuesday, November 25, 2025
Why debasement and what to do
Sunday, November 23, 2025
The gods loved barbecues
The Ancients believed the gods loved the aroma of burnt sacrifice. When animals were sacrificed and burned on altars, the rising smoke was thought to carry the essence of the offering up to the gods. This created a mutually beneficial relationship between humans who ate the meat, while the gods received honor and the aromatic essence. The fragrant smoke demonstrated piety and maintained the relationship between mortals and immortals.
The Orthodox Jews maintain about one thousand shohatim - many of them in Argentina and Uruguay -, who sacrifice the cattle and ensure that the meat is kosher. Two thousand years have passed since the Temple's cohanim and levi'im were disbanded, but the Jewish priestly caste succeeded in maintaining its social position and extracting its divinely ordained share. Amazing!
Saturday, November 22, 2025
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.
