Blog/September 2017/Sep 15th

September 15th

We were busy. So what else is new? For one, Sarah visited us one day this week and stayed the night. A pleasant time was had by all, and we hope for more!

I’ve finally made some significant progress in my endeavors; next week I have a conference-call with a major player in the arena I want 8th to play in. So I really have to plan carefully how I want to present my case to them — it took a lot of effort to get to this point, I need to make it count!

Insanity and inanity:

• Did you know that “digital blackface” is a thing?
• An AI can now detect the sexual orientation of a person from a picture of their face, somewhat reliably. The Left is up in-arms, but I don’t understand why: after all, haven’t they been telling us for decades now that “being gay” is something you’re born with? Like your face???
• Ben Shapiro at Berkeley, and the school goes crazy. They made him pay $15,000 for security measures. Because you see, he’s basically a White Taco Supreme. Or something. Update: it apparently went well.
• Equifax — the US company which knows everything about your financial status — exposed the private data of more than a hundred million Americans. Not to worry! They took three months to disclose the breach, and are willing to give you a free year of their “credit check” service. I have a feeling they’re going to get hit with a major legal bill.
• Mainstream-media’s attempts at thought-control.

We’ve been told incessantly in recent years about Islam’s great contributions to science and technology. “They invented the use of zero in mathematics”. Sorry, that’s just not true. A recent carbon-dating showed that an Indian mathematics document used a modern(ish) “zero” several hundred years before Mo was born. OK, fine; they invented algebra! Well actually, they did give us the word “algebra”, but algebraic concepts of some sophistication have been around for almost 4000 years. Oops, try again! OK, what about suicide bombing? Surely they invented that! Well, apparently the Russians did. Who knew? Even Islam itself is based on a plagiarism with modification of Jewish and Christian texts, a syncretistic amalgamation of those with pagan Arab tribal beliefs. So what has Islam’s outstanding original contribution to the world been? Can’t think of one, but surely you can.

What I can tell you a lot about is what Judaism’s brought to the world. But given that the holiday of “Rosh HaShanah” (the “head of the year”; or, inaccurately, “Jewish New Year”) is coming up next Wednesday night and I’ll not have the opportunity to send out the blog on Friday next, I’ll tell you something about this holiday.

Even though it’s considered to be a “major Jewish holiday”, it doesn’t commemorate anything specifically Jewish, nothing in Jewish history. Instead, it commemorates the creation of the world. So in fact, Rosh HaShanah is really a “universal” holiday. According to Jewish tradition, it is the “day of Judgement”, when all of Creation is judged by the True Judge, and commences the period of introspection and repentance called the “ten days of repentance”.

So: wishing everyone a calm and productive R”H holiday, Jewish or not!

The weather this week was very hot and unpleasant, but it’s turned “cool” (by the lax standards of the Holy Land) and Sarah informs me it just started raining in Tel Aviv, and it is cloudy and overcast here! We hope the cool weather will prevail through the upcoming three-day holiday weekend!

Esther and I will quietly consume these comestibles:
homemade ḥalla, spicy African sweet-potato and peanut soup, meatloaf, baked potatoes, another kind of eggplant, various salatim, date-pecan cake, and fruit.

Until next time,
shabbat shalom!

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