Ancient Plastic Surgery on Siberian Idols

Source He has a massive nose with flared nostrils, wide open mouth, a bushy moustache and a beard. And yet all is not quite as it seems, for this sculpture, the most northerly of this genre in Asia, underwent an historic version of plastic surgery perhaps 1,500 years ago to give him a less Caucasian and more Asian appearance, according to experts.

So the original European look of the idol was changed to a more Asian countenance. Why would this happen?

'Judging by archeological finds found inside the grottos, this anthropomorphic idol was made during the Scythian time,' Yuri Grevtsov said. 'The first change came when the more European looking face was transformed to make it appear more Mongoloid was likely to have happened in the early Middle Ages with a shift of the population in the Angara River area,' he said.

 The redheaded round eye people was replaced by black haired slit eye ones. The look of the idols was changed accordingly. Some Greek philosopher said that the gods of the horses, if the horses had gods, would look like horses.

j's replacement already here

China: More than Aging

Timothy Taylor:  Here's a figure to emphasize the point. Europe and North America are aging. What's happening in Asia in the next few decades will be such a powerful demographic that it seems to require a stronger word than "aging."                                                                                     Stronger than aging? Does he mean dying?

He also points out that the Chinese Communist Party justifies its dictatorship on the basis of prosperity. What will happen when the economy stagnates as Japan's?

Israel's Desalination Disaster

When we in the Water Authority were preparing the international bidding papers for five seawater desalination plants, the state-owned water corporation Mekorot had a fit fearing that its 70 years old monopoly was about to end. Israel was moving towards a desalinated water system and Mekorot was being left out of the future. Applying its considerable political power, it  demanded to be assigned at least one desalination project.

The Otzar, the Treasury, said: All right, although you are a subsidized State-owned fossil sorry corporation, you are allowed to submit competitive bids. If you are selected, you are in. I remember the meetings at the Water Authority where the elders laughed, and said that Mekorot cannot compete and if assigned one project (following the usual cost-plus system), it will be unable to build it. Mekorot answered that its minimum price was 10% above the private sector competitors. My bosses at the Water Authority gave the Ashdod plant project to Mekorot without bidding.

Now I realize that I should have protested forcefully against a decision that would cost tens of million dollars for the Israeli taxpayer just because Mekorot had to be involved in the desalination business. I had a strong case. But I am super submissive to authority and knew that my bosses were all tightly linked (sentimentally, socially, economically) with Mekorot. They all did occasional well-paid consulting work for Mekorot, as I did.

The project is an absolute disaster. It never worked and it requires an additional 50 to 100 million dollars of repair work to start producing drinking water. The Otzar and Bank HaPoalim (that financed part of it) are trying to sell the white elephant.

There was talk about organizing an investigative commission to learn the causes of disaster, but apparently there was so much corruption, many millions of dollars misspent or unaccounted for, by people that sits in the current coalition government, that it was silenced. If I was a different kind of person, I could have protested (and be fired, as I was anyway). But I am me. 

China's Failed Population Policy

"In recent years, the patriarchal Chinese state has launched campaigns warning unmarried urban females over the age of 27 of the perils of becoming “leftover women”. But in reality – due to sex-selective abortions, a traditional preference for sons and the country’s one-child policy – there’s a far larger cohort of “leftover men”.

Official state media put the male-to-female ratio at 136:100 among unmarried people born since the 1980s. Professor Jin Tiankui, an influential sociologist in China’s policy-making circle, predicts that by 2020 there will be 30 million more men than women in the 24–40 age bracket." From The Guardian

The desire to get married is a powerful economic motivation that underlies China's prodigious advancement. The Chinese will be wealthy and unhappy. 

Readying for the Fall of North Korea

Reading among the line, it seems to me that already talks are in progress for the post-Kim North Korea arrangements. The issues to be addressed are:

* Who will deal with the remains of North Korean nuclear facilities?
* Millions will be running for refuge in a short time. They have to be processed, housed, fed and resettled.
* The fall of the regime will cause a vacuum and war between army factions. The transition to a stable government that promises elections must be short.
* The long term political order in the peninsula must be worked out, with participation of the Big Powers and South Korea.

I think a well prepared transition can be fast and will not cause WWIII.

The Tanach on Bitcoin

The Economist writes that the answer to the bitcoin is in the writings of Kindleberger. I have read it. And no.

The answer is in the Tanach. Bitcoin has no intrinsic value in silver or other precious metal. In the Gemara, a coin like that is called ASIMON, a token. Only gold and silver coins are considered money, the asimon is merchandise.

Those Jews were not stupid. The bitcoin is not money, it is merchandise. It has no intrinsic value, it is worth exactly what the buyer is ready to pay for it. In money.

If merchandise, it must be taxed. Each transaction will pay VAT (17% in Israel) and its export/import will be regulated. Since each bitcoin contains a ledger of transactions,  its taxing presents no difficulties. It cannot be hidden. 

Courageous Policeman

Meng Jianzhu, head of the Communist Party’s central commission for China's security and intelligence systems, pledged to use AI through machine learning, data mining and computer modelling to help stamp out risks to stability. He must be a very courageous individual, as shown by his reddish monster hairpiece. Comment, if you dare, at your risk.

Ah! Forgot to mention Donald Trump's hair style.

Sex? No, thanks. We are Americans.

WaPo reports:

"…teenagers are increasingly delaying activities that had long been seen as rites of passage into adulthood. The study, published Tuesday in the journal Child Development, found that the percentage of adolescents in the U.S. who have a driver’s license, who have tried alcohol, who date, and who work for pay has plummeted since 1976, with the most precipitous decreases in the past decade.
The declines appeared across race, geographic, and socioeconomic lines, and in rural, urban, and suburban areas.
…Between 1976 and 1979, 86 percent of high school seniors had gone on a date; between 2010 and 2015 only 63 percent had, the study found. During the same period, the portion who had ever earned money from working plunged from 76 to 55 percent. And the portion who had tried alcohol plummeted from 93 percent between 1976 and 1979 to 67 percent between 2010 and 2016.
Teens have also reported a steady decline in sexual activity in recent decades, as the portion of high school students who have had sex fell from 54 percent in 1991 to 41 percent in 2015, according to Centers for Disease Control statistics."

The reason, I think, is antidepressants. The population is being sedated and manageable. Molecule: Oxytocin.

Brother, can you spare a (bit)coin?

“The efficacy of any bitcoin ban is dubious,” said Van Valkenburgh. “It’s bullish because if a powerful government like China feels the need to ban trading, then it’s a good indicator that the technology works and that it does what it’s supposed to. If it overcomes those controls, then it’s further proof that it’s independent from government controls, which is pretty radical.”(from Bloomberg)

The Bank of Israel is also very suspicious of bitcoin, and even small traders are accused of escaping tax and or be involved in drugs or whatever. Bitcoin seems to have escaped the nation state.

How is donor insemination affecting the genotype?

A million Americans have been conceived through donor insemination and the procedure is ever more popular. I presume that silently, it has started to affect American genotype. New generations of deracinated people grow up without pride and attachment to their family roots and history. They will be open to the concept of "new family" based on unknown sperm donors and bizarre sentimental and living arrangements. Culture and society will change. 

How will Western peoples evolve?

What will decide is what women really want when it comes to a sperm donor. Looks are number one in selecting a father. Six feet tall, blue or green eyes, either blond or brown hair, and with a medium complexion. You can even get down to details like dimples, which are desirable according sperm banks. Earning power is actually pretty low on the list. Future moms aren’t concerned about material things, but they do want impregnators to possess certain personality traits like kindness, charm, compassion, likability and a desire to make a difference in the world. Women want to give their future children a great personality. They want them to have internal values, whatever they imagine that be. They want to imagine their "husbands" as idealists, like feeding kitties, fighting cruelty to animals, volunteering to bring water to photogenic African babies.

They definitely do not want outliers, no red haired dwarf geniuses nor slit-eyed bookworms. Universities are appreciated, but not in esoteric geeky sciences. Doctors are loved.

Allowing the fantasies of young women to select the next generation seems to me crazy. Of course, women always made some selection, but societies were organized to severely limit their choices and actually few got impregnated by the football team captain or the firefighter.

The Chinese will do it better.

The Fracturing of European National States

Catalunya (a third of Spain's economy) has declared its independence. Madrid has closed down its financial system and many of its web sites, and this is just the beginning of the repression. Galicia, the Basques, Asturias and other aspirants to independence are watching how this develops. The union of the peninsula achieved by the marriage of Fernando and Isabel 500 years ago is now unraveling.

Investment Areas

History did not stop when I stopped blogging. The chip industry is expanding thanks new markets, such as blockchain mining (AMG, Nvidia) and Deep Learning, which need "computing power" and cheap electricity. The bio-pharma industry is getting FDA approvals for new technologies, such as Protalix from Carmiel (proteins from carrot cells). The China supply shock is being felt even on Kever Benjamin streets as shops are closing. 

Token Economy

The bitcoin and other crypto currencies are falling some 50% because of the Chinese government anti-speculation restrictions. The whole phenomenon will end badly, said Damon, like the Dutch tulip craziness. Israeli banks actively discourage their clients when try to buy bitcoins, because they do not want to be exposed to this kind of business. That is, they fear that it is for illegal transactions or cheating on tax, or that the client may sue them for his   losses. I have no bitcoins yet my banker is calling me twice a week to warn me of my non-diversified high-risk portfolio.

I think that these tokens (there are hundreds of them) will never become a real currency, because their worth is unsupported by an organization and varies according to the whims of the public. You cannot make a contract on a currency that changes its worth from day to day by 50%. When the government lost its control of the Argentine peso, people used the American dollar and the economy was dollarized. Only the strongest and stablest currencies can survive, like the Swiss franc and the American dollar. And in our days of miracles, the Israeli shekel.

Knesset Member Guetta Sacked for Attending his Nephew's Marriage

Many American political analysts viewed Oriental Jews as less fanatical and more open to Arabs than Israeli Ashkenazim.I always maintained that the Mizrahi Jews, coming from a Muslim environment and very familiar with Arab culture, are the real hard core of the Jewish people. Judaism for them is not an intellectual construct, but God's Law.

The Nephew of this eminent and powerful politician of the Shas (Sepharadim) party, was sacked and expelled from the Knesset for attending the marriage of his nephew. His nephew married a man.

Israel large on the Cryptogeography

China just now has prohibited crypto blockchain currencies and America is moving to the same position. Damon just said that the bitcoin is a fraud.

Israel is different. Bancor raised $150m through an initial coin (“ICO”) offering in June. Bank Hapoalim, Israel’s largest bank is moving to secure documents digitally. The Bank works with Microsoft Azure, a market leader in blockchain development.



I am feeling too old to join the wave, I'll let it pass by me.

Alanbrooke and Churchill

I am reading Alanbrooke's war diary and it changed my view of Churchill. The Brits under his leadership avoided like hell fighting the Germans, he resisted American and Soviet pressure to launch an invasion to the continent and sent British forces to defend the colonies, Egypt, India, Ceylon. All the while protesting that he was preparing to fight the Germans.

I understand that the British were afraid of fighting a land war because Verdun had exterminated a whole generation of British youth. But Churchill, in addition, was a former Minister for the Colonies, and his strategy was to maintain intact the Empire - he was the quintessential British colonialist. In the nineteen forties, colonialism and imperialism were already obsolete, and Churchill's obsession of maintaining the Empire prolonged WWII two or three years and bankrupted England.

Alanbrooke describes how Stalin begged Churchill to open a second front in Europe to divert some German forces from the Eastern front, with zero results. Churchill did not care about the tens of millions dying in the East, he was protecting the Suez Canal, England's lifeline to India.  

As soon as the war was over, The Empire cracked and England gave it up because realized that times had changed and colonialism was dead, that peoples were rebelling and the English themselves lost their will to rule and exploit colored folks. In summary, Churchill and his sidekick Alanbrooke caused untold unnecessary suffering to humanity.

First Americans as seen by the Japanese

One of the warships of Perry looking for whaling space and coaling stations as recorded by a Japanese artist. They were not perceived as friendly, I gather.

Gadi Taub on Cleansing Consciences

You might think that the human rights argument would long ago have settled the debate about the occupation. The occupation is a human rights violation, a human rights violation is a grave injustice, and therefore Israel must leave the territories immediately, with or without an agreement, to put an end to this injustice. What could be simpler?

...[but] ending the occupation cannot be expected to lead to any improvement in the area of human rights. Just the opposite. The probable alternative – Hamas, or even the Palestinian Authority – would evidently be even worse for the Palestinians than Israeli military rule. So whoever wishes to make the case solely on the basis of human rights could easily end up substantiating the idea of perpetuating the occupation rather than ending it. 

...I’m familiar with the next step in the debate. But, they say to me, what the Palestinians do to the Palestinians is their business. If others end up committing even greater injustices, that doesn’t sanction the injustices we’re committing. We are responsible for our own actions, not for the actions of others, they say.

That’s all well and good. But if that’s their real motive, those who profess to care so much about human rights ought to stop selling us the lie that they care about the Palestinians, and cease propagating descriptions of suffering dripping with piety. They ought to just tell the truth straight out: They could care less how much the Palestinians suffer, and they have no qualms about letting Arabs be brutalized...The cleanliness of our hands and our consciences is all that matters, not what happens to the Palestinians...the concerns of these people are limited to themselves and their consciences. For them, politics is basically a form of therapy. It’s all about the self and not others, about the self-portrait reflected in the mirror, not about responsibility toward other human beings, not about reality. It’s a decorative ornament bestowed by a “clear” conscience...

...People who seek to cleanse their consciences at the expense of others’ suffering do not inspire respect. Especially when they adopt a pose of feeling sorry for those whom they’re quite prepared to sacrifice.

The Disaster of the French Revolution

Chou Enlai was asked about his opinion of the French Revolution. He answered that it was too early to judge.

What an INSIGHT ! It is becoming evermore clear that the Revolution was a disaster for civilization. "Liberating" us Jews from the ghetto destroyed the religious/organizational framework that sustained Judaism and launched the Jewish assault on European elites. Freedom, equality, brotherhood has been decimating us for two hundred years. Judging from its fruits, it brought about the elimination of Jews in Europe and the dissolution of American Jewry. Bad, bad.

As for what it did to the French nation, just take walk in Paris and try to find where they are now.