Like Japan, Italy is becoming depopulated because of its low nativity rate. If only there were a way to get people of fertile age to come to Italy from some other part of the world!!!

Le Monde – En Italie, une crise démographique sans remède
https://www.lemonde.fr/economie/article/2025/06/29/en-italie-une-crise-demographique-sans-remede_6616341_3234.html

#immigration

Importantly, place names that referred to pagan cult were not apparently seen as problematic after Christian conversion around AD 1000. For instance, there is a parish in Småland named "Shrine of Odinn" to this very day!

https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odensvi_kyrka,_Sm%C3%A5land

#paganism #vikings

This can be done thanks to the great age of Swedish place names. The oldest stratum of hamlet and farmstead names is 2000 years old or more, that is, way older than Norse Paganism in its Viking Period form.

Cool way to study regional variation in Old Norse #paganism across Sweden, where the written sources are weak: we have lots of place names that mean "Shrine / Altar / Field / Hill / Grove of [god]". And the various deities named are not evenly spread across the country.

For instance, Ullr was super important around Lake Mälaren, although in the West Scandy written sources this god is barely mentioned.

#religion #vikings

@MThaastrup I approve this message!

Man kan bli av med chokladströssel genom att koka varm choklad på det.

@paninid Also "Think of me as the pole" is a great line to approach women with.