Welcome to our coverage of this year’s longest day celebration. The time according to the internet is 11:50 p.m. just before midnight. It seems a strange time to celebrate the Sun but that’s exactly what we are going to do. This being said, this is a fertility festival for without the Sun, we do not…
From Chabad.org: Behaalotecha in a Nutshell Numbers 8:1–12:16: The name of the Parshah, “Behaalotecha,” means “When you raise”. Aaron is commanded to raise light in the lamps of the menorah and the tribe of Levi is initiated into the service in the Sanctuary. A “Second Passover” is instituted in response to the petition “Why should…
From the San Francisco Chronicle Willie Mays, the spirited center fielder whose brilliance at the plate, in the field and on the basepaths for the Giants led many to call him the greatest all-around player in baseball history, died on Tuesday in Palo Alto, Calif. He was 93. Larry Baer, the president and chief executive…
I have been a dedicated bicyclist for a very long time. They didn’t have blogs around when I quit my car or maybe I would have done a whole series about it. It was a pretty easy decision. If I made a list of all of the things it did that were good and all…
Mostly good these days. The sickness is dissipating slightly although it still exists. Nobody did anything about it but maybe we have let the infection eat everything it wants to eat and it’s just dying out naturally. Not my particular choice on how to deal with illness. Well, it is de facto my choice but…
From Chabad.org: Naso in a Nutshell (Numbers 4:21–7:89) The name of the Parshah, “Naso,” means “Count” and it is found in Numbers 4:22. Completing the headcount of the Children of Israel taken in the Sinai Desert, a total of 8,580 Levite men between the ages of 30 and 50 are counted in a tally of…
It’s hard to say. Pretty much everything in the world is a little good and a little bad. Nothing is truly wonderful and nothing is genuinely so horrible. Well, there are some pretty horrible things with very little good in them and unfortunately, very few truly beautiful things that are not sullied in some way….
Grom Chabad.org: Bamidbar in a Nutshell Numbers 1:1–4:20The name of the Parshah, “Bamidbar,” means “In the desert” and it is found in Numbers 1:1. In the Sinai Desert, G‑d says to conduct a census of the twelve tribes of Israel. Moses counts 603,550 men of (independant adult) age (20 to 60 years); the tribe of…
I watched a video about the history of Christianity in Japan. I had never really thought about it before. I get offered quite a few Japanese things in my algorithm and it seemed worthy of 30 minutes. And indeed, it was a very interesting film that made me think quite a bit. Here is the…
Well this is something. I’m sitting in front of my house on a chair staring at either a possum or a porcupine who just walked right into the front area of my house and parked himself in the gap in the concrete where the cat sleeps and rolled into a ball. I have evicted him…
Just a moment from today’s baseball game. The Bay Stars are playing the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters, one of the more difficult baseball names or ownerships for me to handle. I have a hard enough time following the pollution laden wealth that runs Japan and baseball. It is a relationship that could become so sour in…
From Chabad.Org, Bechukotai in a Nutshell (Leviticus 26:3–27:34)The name of the Parshah, “Bechukotai,” means “in My statutes”. G‑d promises that if the people of Israel will keep (Their) commandments, (The good people) will enjoy xxxxxxxx prosperity and dwell securely in their homeland. But (G-d) also delivers a harsh “rebuke,” warning of the exile, persecution and…
I’m putting together a volume called baseball and there is a passage that concerns Mr Trevor Bauer who is currently pitching lights out down in Mexico. You can check out the post here. A short visit with Trevor Bauer While you’re there, we have a couple of new and interesting movies available at the Utopian…
I think I’m reaching new levels of hopelessness. The ironic thing here is that the actual hopelessness comes from my relationship to people who never stop looking at me instead of listening to what I say. It’s like dealing with My 50th generation alcoholic cat who won’t stop masturbating every time he sees me because…
The president of Ukraine is pretty good about making daily videos. He is a good social media man. He is a very social man and he likes having many many connections. This is a very good thing. There was a time in my life when I thought being good to everybody was the right thing…
Hey, Russki! Oh no. Oh no no no. I’m not doing this anymore. I thought we were all finished with this a long time ago. I don’t want to talk to you, I don’t want to listen to you. Keep your opinions to yourself and let us do our war in peace. No, I have…
From Chabad.org: Behar in a Nutshell. Leviticus 25:1–26:2 The name of the Parshah, “Behar,” means “on Mount [Sinai]” and it is found in Leviticus 25:1. On the mountain of Sinai, G‑d communicates to Moses the laws of the Sabbatical year: every seventh year, all work on the land should cease, and its produce becomes free…
Vlad Putin on Greta. It is not that he doesn’t respect young people or ideas of sustainability, it is just that the world is too complex to be understood by little girls. And of course, there is the cost of things. This is the essence of what bureaucratic double talk tends to be. I could…
If you’re interested in having a look at the 1956 film, it’s available on YouTube and therefore we have it here. This is not any of the more modern takes on the subject matter. If you’re interested in authenticity, the original text is in the public domain so I have a link there so you…
Let’s start with a simple question posed to Google. What impact does war have on global warming? This from svet.charita.cz How does the military sector contribute to climate change? Militaries consume enormous amounts of fossil fuels, which have a high carbon footprint. The global military carbon footprint is the fourth highest, ranking behind the US,…
Well here is the thing, they decided to make marijuana legal in Germany. Here is what Google will get you if you can’t figure out how to do it yourself. What does this mean? It means that the children of the original Nazis have decided to decriminalize something that is a very pleasant thing to…