Hunger in Argentina?

Argentina, once top exporter of meat and corn (maize) us not producing enough to supply its own population. Now, the export of corn has been forbidden. Sad. 

My replacement is already on the job

 

This morning: terrible pains while trying to get up from the bed and walk. Lower back pain. Four acamol tablets (an over-the-counter painkiller and anti-inflammatory.) My granddaughters Emma and Shaked are learning to walk, they will run while I complete my time. 

Raging Epidemic

 

Republican Luke Letlow, 41, had been elected to Louisiana’s 5th district and was due to be sworn in on Sunday. Died of the coronavirus. 

I have lower back pains. It may be a vaccine after effect. It is already 3 PM and am starting my daily work. 

My City, Kfar Saba, the Best of Israel

 

Kfar Saba was above average in 30 out of 42 life quality measurements, leading the country in terms of life expectancy (84.8 years), job positions that match employees' fields of study (74.5%), housing density (0.68%), satisfaction with the area of residence (95.3%), satisfaction with the housing (91.8%), satisfaction with the cleanliness of the area, satisfaction with economic situation (73.2%), Internet usage (93.8%) and the lowest rate of part-time workers who don't want to be part-time workers (0.4%).

I had an apartment in Petach Tikva, a city with large population of Hungarian Jews. My wife hates that city and made me move here. Sometimes women improve the lives of their men. She certainly does. 

Angels protect Me

 I missed the registration for the anti-corona vaccination because the government estimated that in Kfar Saba most would not want it. Resulted that all the city ran to reserve a place in the queue and in no time all the places were taken up till end of March! People learned that I, this worthless and bitter old fart, was left unprotected, and suddenly they were phoning and mailing and offering their places and help me to get one. I did know I had so many friends and protectors. They care for me more than I do for myself.  

P/S: It's done. I received the first dose. 

The Vaca Muerta is Dead

 Argentina had bright hopes that the Vaca Muerta shale field would save its sinking economy, but the main investor, the Anglo-Dutch Shell, has decided to abandon fracking in Argentina and focus on renewable energy instead. The price of oil is so low that the project is not profitable. 

Argentina's state oil company YPF must pay Transportadora de Gas del Norte (TGN) US$231mn, plus interest and legal costs, for breach of an export contract. "The company is analyzing the aforementioned first instance resolution and will file all the necessary legal remedies to defend its interests in accordance with the applicable legal procedure," YPF said in a statement. One of YPF's difficulties is that Argentina's reputation is so bad that no American legal firm is willing to represent the company. 

I am sad about the decline of Argentina. Nearly a third of the country’s workforce is unemployed or has given up on finding work.  According to Forbes, Argentina's poverty rate is hovering near 50% at end-2020.  My relatives and friends are struggling. Two of my teenage friends, Tomi and Viky, have died recently. 

Disorder in Israel

 The Government is unable to govern and the Knesset (Parliament) voted for its dissolution. Next elections in March. The vaccination campaign is collapsing, their website has failed because overdemand. Depressing. 

Last night I completed the Beyt Merkazim project, it was rather difficult to visualize a complicated tridimensional pipeline till I solved it. Then  it was obvious. I used to be very good in it. 

Tired

The government has fallen and new elections scheduled. 

Tried to register for the anti-corona vaccine: May be after April. Kupat Holim is struggling to function.

Much pressure in my projects.

Test for the auto. 

Wife hostile.

Dreamt I am in a Hamas camp in Gaza. 

When It came to The Worst

 

A year ago, on Greg Cochran's blog, we were speculating what were the chances of the corona virus mutating into a more virulent incarnation. Most viruses (virii) are stable and rarely improve their virulence. And for almost a year the corona stayed the same. But now in England a variety was detected that is five times more transmissible. It is incontrollable. We don't know if the new injection is effective for the mutated virus. I tried to get the injection but there is no place in the queue. That in spite my Mathusalemic age. There are 500 very sick corona patients in Israel. 

The Economist warns about the danger of imminent inflation. 20% of all circulating  dollars were printed this year. My conclusion is that the current dollar inflation is very modest vis-a-vis the flooding the markets with paper, meaning that the world economy is in deep recession. Massive multi-year stimulus is unable to cause an erection and make it potent once more. I am quite depressed.

For Israel, All the World is "Red"

A new Israeli directive paints the whole world in red, as dangerous because the corona virus. Incoming travelers are quarantined two weeks. While preparing mass vaccination, it is imposing severe isolation measures. The vaccination campaign in the USA is not proceeding smoothly, there are pockets of resistance and the nattering nabobs of negativism are spreading skepticism. Sweden's "light" quarantine has failed. Having survived a year of the epidemics, I am still confused. 

Fighting corona through Enthymemes

   Driving home, I heard on the radio that a fast way to check if on got the corona virus is to smell the coffee. One immediate and sure symptom of the disease is the loss of the sense of smell, so if you don't notice the aroma of a steaming cup of coffee, you are done for good, go and write your last will. Applying syllogism - the indisputable deductive reasoning first described by Aristotle in Prior Analytics - it becomes obvious that smelling strong coffee all day will protect you from the virus. I have always a large cup of coffee on the table, it runs away all the airborne corona. 

The stuff of which our universe is made

 UFOs appear all the time and are photographed and measured. They maneuver in the sky, they organize battles, they never contact humans nor leave any physical prove of their existence. They are here to make us nervous. 

The latest about the stuff of which the universe is made maintains that mass is positive, gravity plus dark matter is negative, and the total is approximately zero. As Diogenes y el Linyera used to say No somo' nada. We are nothing. 

Gravitational tsunamis

The fabric of the universe is an elastic membrane, but how elastic? Surprisingly, it follows well know physical laws and can be calculated. It is very resistant, you have to strike one big black hole against another one to originate perceivable waves at a large distance. In the immediacies it must feel like an earthquake. Every body deforms the spacetime - see ill. The most astonishing aspect (for this old engineer) is that it all follows easily understandable physical - mathematical laws. One asks oneself: "Is this all that there is?" and then "What for is it?" 

The White Man's Curious Beliefs

The Aztecs suffered from night panics and solved this infantile mental issue by enacting a nightly ritual of killing a man. It always worked, the sun - fortified by the fresh blood - managed to rise early morning. Unending obscurity is terrifying, specially if you have neither candles nor electricity. Lunatic, but there may be something in it. White folk, on the other hand, consider eating animals a sin. Even wearing dead animal skin is so contra-natura that in due curse it will be punished. If not by the Great Animal Spirit above, other White people will volunteer and correct the offender. The fearless Chinese will eat everything. 

Boring Space Aliens Meetings

 The revelation that the USA is maintaining regular meetings with space aliens debating the fabric of the universe, caused a very small sensation in the media. Left is WSJ's artist illustration of one of those interminable, boring meetings on Mars. People ask: "Is spacetime really a fabric?" Answer: "Today it is an elastic fabric but not long ago it was a space filled with ether. Slowly, the ether evaporated and the vacuum filled up with marmalade, like a sufganiya ". That sweet, sticky gel slowly solidified and became an elastic rubber-like fabric. That is a well known process called vulcanization. Newton studied the movements of the planets and discovered that transparent rubber bands hold the planets circling around the sun."  

Palestinian Hebraists

 Palestinians are intensely interested in the Hebrew language, some because they wish to explore their family history, others because it may provide them with some advantage. Interest in Hebrew has soared in the West Bank and Gaza in the past few years. Dozens of journalists are studying Hebrew in Ramallah while a 600-student school in al-Bireh has Hebrew classes. Even more surprisingly, Hamas began teaching Hebrew in its own schools in 2012 and thousands of Gazan children are now learning the language. “They are keen to learn. The classes are already oversubscribed.” It started in Hebron, whose inhabitants are musta'arabim - Jewish descendants (and the Whitest Palestinians).  Already in the nineteen twenties Arab families from Hebron petitioned to enroll their children in Jewish schools. Ill.: The Hebrew workbook of Ruhi al-Khalidi, who later represented the District of Jerusalem in the Ottoman Parliament in 1908.

The Fourteen Infallibles

 The Shia'a religion is a minority within the Islam, and has a secret esoteric nucleus, the Twelvers. The concept does not end there, they maintain an even more secret belief in the Infallibles. Basically it is an apocalyptical - end of the universe - belief, similar to many others, like the one that distributed poisoned Cool-Aid in Guyana. As far it is known, Jews are not present in their imagination. The Ayatollahs of Iran may believe they are of those select individuals, yet their actions are of regular clerical dictatorships, like territorial and spiritual conquest. Since I started thinking on these things, I am always surprised how the West (Iran is the West too) never takes into account the Chinese, as if they were not the largest and most advanced portion of the human race. They are far away, but not anymore.   

The fabric of the universe

 

A respectable Israeli space scientist said that the USA is in contact with extra-terrestrials and that is the reason that President Trump has established a Space Force. That here is a Galactic Federation and its objective is to investigate the fabric of the universe. 

A month ago the Americans revealed that the UFO phenomenon is real and they posted several filmed encounters. Three years ago appeared Oumuamua the first known interstellar object detected passing through the Solar System. Astronomer Loeb entertained the possibility that it is a spacecraft. Later it was established that it was not.   

Expropriating Argentine Multi-Millionaires

   The Argentine Congress passed a law taxing multi-millionaires and, in the same law, extreme environmental measures against rural fires. Basically, a field devastated by fire cannot be cultivated again and becomes something like an environmental reserve. Regarding the wealth tax, the upper ten thousand will have to pay about 5% of its worth, and the double if the money is stationed in foreign banks. The cutting point is a declared capital (liquid and real estate) of 2.3 million US$. I am shocked that the middle class 2.3 million dollars puts one in the multi millionaire category, since any penthouse in Israel is worth that, and most shocking is that only ten thousand persons qualify. Credit Suisse and HSBS would not even talk to those paupers. There are at most only three or four billionaires among 45 million Argentines, according to the wiki. Argentina is not a country that produces rich people anymore.

Uranium Enrichment Facility Sabotaged by Israel?

The pic is from a two weeks old media about an Iranian Uranium Enrichment Facility, apparently bombed by the Israelis. Is it so? A windowless concrete block, in the Brutal architecture style, with no security fence at all, one of the cement posts broken and used as car entrance. The tall lighting posts - probably equipped with cameras - may indicate a guarded facility, yet highly visible at night. I have never seen an enrichment facility, so I cannot judge if this is real or fake. 

The Collapse of Iran

 

Iran is one of the oldest historic civilizations, once it comprised half humanity, was larger than China and Europe. How did it arrived to its current pitiful state? Iran collapsed definitely in the 13th Century, erased by Genghis Khan exterminating 90% plus of the population. The same catastrophe fell on Iraq, the whole population of Baghdad was killed. (Europa was half-saved because its forests were unsuitable for Mongol cavalry). Iran and Iraq were repopulated by Bedouin tribes and immigrants from the Caucasus and Central Asia. Iran of the Ayatollahs has little connection with the Persia of Cyrus, Darius and Xerxes. Nothing ever stays the same. 

The State of Michigan pays 600 million dollar tribute

 I continue following the Flint water contamination scandal and see that the State of Michigan will have to pay 600 million dollars to Flint water consumers.  The astonishing fact is that it was a crisis in which no one died of lead poisoning, nor any physical or mental damage was ever demonstrated. The children of Flint are no more mentally retarded than comparable AfroAmerican children of say, Detroit.  A similar fright of lead poisoning in Hong Kong was dismissed by the judge - in China one has to demonstrate the damage. The Flint case is a monstrous case of misjustice, where a fanatic, violent, ignorant but voting minority extorts from the majority compensation for fraudulent damage. Of course, Governor Snyder did NOT poison anyone as the pic says, but America is a democracy, so anyone can accuse and convict anyone. In former times. Snyder would have had to drink hemlock like Socrates. 

MI, the state agreed to pay $600 million to compensate consumers. Now, it appears that cost is rising as a court case progresses, and Michigan will have to be creative in how it comes up with the funds to settle it.

“A landmark settlement in the Flint water crisis came a step closer to reality … when attorneys in the class-action lawsuit presented the agreement to a federal court with an additional $41.2 million,” according to a recent report from The Detroit News. “The $641.25 million settlement, if approved by the court, would largely go to victims of the water crisis that emerged after Flint residents learned their drinking water had been contaminated with lead after a source switch to river water in 2014.”

Flint residents would be eligible for some of the compensation if they received a water bill or had to pay a bill from the local utility in a given timeframe, ingested or came into contact with local drinking water for at least 21 out of 30 days of an “Exposure Period,” or were exposed to water from the treatment plant and subsequently diagnosed with Legionnaires’ disease in a given timeframe.

The Flint Crisis provides material for meditation. 

(1) The imaginary lead poisoning has been definitely linked to the Legionella contamination, which was real. The local hospital's water system was poorly maintained and colonized by the pathogen. Ten or so elderly patients died. Nothing to do with lead poisoning, but now it has been totally confused and Legionella victims are counted with the nonexistent lead victims. An evil lawyer succeeded in mixing up the two issues.

(2)  Michigan tax payers, hard working Northern European folks, will pay the "compensation" to Flint Africans. In other words, the politically powerful Black community has imposed a 600 million dollar tribute on the State of Michigan. I dare to say it is a war tribute, imposed by violence and fear of violence (which is the same thing).

(3)  What is the background of the Black's war against the Whites? Say I am a Black American teenager. Whites are inferior to us Blacks in everything: We are taller, more muscular, more masculine, more sexy, live longer. We can run, jump, sing, dance and tell jokes better than they do. Why, then, they get all the goodies and the nice girls? It is obvious, they got magic. And they have thrown bad magic on me and my folk. Magic sounds primitive, so call it "systemic racism". What is systemic? It is something that you cannot see,  like magic. It is because that magic that they pass exams, although they are weak and soft, they get the good jobs, surf through life with such unbearable ease. Think a second about the injustice of it all and you feel the impulse to burn down the town. 

Ella

 

Israel, the Expensive

 The local currency, the Shekel, has hardened in the last weeks, strengthening the buying power of Israelis. The catch is that Israelis cannot leave the country, and if they do, they will be sent to isolation for two weeks. A nice holiday in Scotland would be very cheap for me, but I cannot make it.  Why the shekel is so strong? One, the ongoing devaluation of the dollar (to pay for the epidemic) and two, Israeli export successes.  Pic: Governoress (?) of Bank of Israel Karnit Flug.

Was the killing of Martyr Fakhrizadeh a Remote operated or Autonomous Robot Killing ?

According to Ali Shamkhani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), no hit man was involved in the assassination, adding that the distinguished figure was killed in a complicated operation that involved electronic equipment without any assassin at the scene.

This assassination in enemy country shows a tremendous technological advance, with the probable use of a self-driving car and a remote operated machine gun. And intelligence when the target can be hit on that road, and identification of the prospective martyr among the dozen body guards around. This operation demonstrates how much Israel has advanced since killing that Hamas chieftain in Gaza two years ago. In Gaza a tender full of toys was used to penetrate enemy territory with armed personnel on board. The ruse was discovered and the Israelis had to be evacuated with another vehicle - under fire. The Fakhrizadeh operation was better planned and executed. Probably it cost less than 200,000 US$. It means that no enemy is safe anywhere. The robot pictured is real and works for the Dallas Police, and already has killed human evildoers.

Protein folding

 A British computer company has solved the problem of protein folding. I met this area in Tel Aviv University, chatting with a young researcher. He explained to me what he was doing but I not see the relevance of the issue, he looked just another sitting in front a computer. That was forty years ago. 

This advance in artificial intelligence means that in one or two generations, all what will be left for humanity to do is Facebook: cooking and baking, sports and computer games, entertainment. Maybe not: competition and war will require us to advance evermore. I can see no end nor purpose. I would like to believe in God that has arranged all this and it means good. Depressing.

High Quality Cannabis

 

Already I have planned two cannabis farms, but newer things are appearing in the horizon. In Tzipporit, the Galilee, an indoor vertical farm is being erected with an investment of ten million dollars. The IPO has been announced and the demand is strong. Traditional open air agriculture is passe. Cannabis needs new lines with high content of desired molecules. Dr Chaim Tzaban's dream of developing a suitcase export agriculture (meaning export oriented very high value plant products) is slowly becoming reality. 

The place is in the middle of densely populated Arab area. The villages have spread and from the satellite one can see house upon house in a disordered pattern, with no open air cultivated land left. The Galilee is becoming an urban Arab slum. 

(Personal: My childhood friend Victor Haar is dying in a hospital in Buenos Aires. Corona virus. An irreplaceable loss, at my age cannot make new friends.) 

Our Ally the Saudi King

There is an Arab saying that "Christians secretly fear Jewish power because the Jews crucified their Prophet, while Muslims have no fear because the Prophet Muhammed defeated the Jews in the battle of Khaybar".  Thus, normal, peaceful relations with the Muslims are possible and are only a question of time and opportunity. And the time has come, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu secretly met Saudi Arabia’s crown prince in the kingdom on Sunday. I foresee the time when the Americans get tired of protecting the oil fields, as did the British seventy years ago, the role may well fall on Zahal.

Israel reconnects with the global oil market

 In a modest way, I am working on the water and sewage infrastructure renovation of the Ashkelon oil terminal, preparing to convey Gulf oil to Europe and China maybe. Seventy years after the abandonment of the TAP Line, after many failed projects (like the society with the Shah) and after not less than seventy years of persistent efforts, we are back in the oil market.  

Is high IQ a disease? Are high IQ people criminals?

Make short exploration on the internet about IQ and you will be surprised that the items you are directed to suggest that high IQ is something horrible, detestable, sick, that people who has contracted it is barely able to carry on with their lives. I say contracted because there is no indication that it may be inherited, moreover, if to believe the internet, it probably does not exist. In this situation, may be it would be advantageous to stop blogging to  avoid trouble. For no gain to me. Once I stopped and deleted my blog, I may do it again. 

Another one hits the dust

 

Ahmed Fakhrizadeh (left) was the leader of Iran's nuclear weapon project. He was approached by anonymous assailants who shot him in the head. He is now dead yet Iran's atomic energy organization spokesman says there's no incident involving nuclear scientists. Well, if they say so it must be so. As for me, the CIA never misses from short distance. 

There will be no floods

The Bible assures that there will be no more floods and that the rainbow is a re- affirmation that the pact is still valid.

Pic. this morning in Israel.  
 

Life expectancy

 Surprisingly, people lives longest in Hong Kong. For males, we at 81.1 are in the top rank with Japan and the best European countries. Israel differs from the rest in that its population is growing. It is because the Jewish religion that is definitively pro-life. We have a good, long life here. 

Countries and regions by life expectancy at birth in 2018 (2019 report)^[7][8][9]

Rank	Countries and regions	Life expectancy at birth (in years)
		Overall	Female	Male
1	Hong Kong	84.7	87.6	81.8
2	Japan	84.5	87.5	81.1
3	Singapore	83.8	85.8	81.5
4	Italy	83.6	85.5	81.7
5	Spain	83.4	86.1	80.7
	Switzerland	83.4	85.3	81.1
7	Australia	83.3	85.3	81.3
8	Iceland	82.9	84.4	81.3
9	Israel	82.8	84.4	81.1
	South Korea	82.8	85.8	79.7
11	Sweden	82.7	84.4	80.9

The Unfinished Caucasus War

 The impossible geopolitical situation after the retirement of Armenian forces from Nagorno-Karabakh will certainly result in another war in the next ten years. Azerbaijan has no territorial continuity, and parts of it are still occupied by Armenia. The big powers like Russia and Turkey should let the war continue till a feasible geography was achieved, or a clear winner that can dictate its terms. Now we have an unresolved conflict, both parties will rearm and wait for the next opportunity to get even. 

This war resulted also in a triumph of Turkish and Israeli weapons. Turkey has grown into a serious industrial power. Under Biden, it is the regional hegemon. In a modest way, our products will be in demand. 

I feel Kelvin Helmholtz Waves

Sudden change in wind speed and direction produces turbulent eddies i.e. Kelvin Helmholtz Waves. For two months I hoarded cash, not knowing what to do with it. Today I felt a sudden change in the stock exchange, and the re-birth of hope and activity. I started to buy stock, including fossil oil and gas, BAZAN (the local refinery), Cherry, a Chinese car maker owned by an Israeli concern. The shekel is stronger than ever, 3.3 shekel per USdollar, making Tel Aviv one of the most expensive cities of the world. The cheapest apartment in Kfar Saba sells for 2 - 3 million shekels. My youngest daughter wants to leave the kibbutz, to live near her sisters. Her boyfriend is unemployed and depressed, as are those in the music/entertainment industry.

Did the Voting Machines "vote" for Biden?

 Basically, I know nothing about the last American elections and my opinion is worthless. The Republicans are promising to prove in court that Biden's election was through a massive, organized fraud. They think that the judges will throw out their cases because they were hired in Obama's time, and they are decided to go on appealing up to the High Court. This will take a year, at least. A "balagan" (a disorderly house, a Hebrew expression inherited from the Ottomans) of Biblical proportions.  

Civilization!

Lully, Versailles 400 years ago. 

Azeri troops enter Aghdam

Azeri Troops moved into the district of Aghdam, one of three due to be handed back. Armenia will also hand over the Kalbajar district wedged between Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia on November 25 and the Lachin district by December 1.  

It follows that Turkey's prestige is growing in the region. In a certain way, Turkey works as a counterweight to Iran.  

Where value is

 

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is making large bets on Big Pharma companies.  It has sold Apple and big banks and bought 21 million shares of Abbvie, 22 million of Merck, 3.7 million shares of Pfizer and nearly 30 million shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb. 

Apparently Buffett is abandoning physical "moat" enterprises and even "high tech" and is going for health research. 

China will organize this planet

 

The chaos unleashed on the world by America abandoning its responsibilities (for example, NATO and the Middle East) is being filled by China. Today the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership was signed under the aegis of Communist China. This agreement spans 15 countries and 2.2 billion people, or nearly 30% of the world's population, their combined GDP totals roughly $26 trillion and account for 28% of global trade.  As Biden has noticed (see former entrée)  America lost its leadership and each small tribe is making treaties with its neighbors - treaties or wars like Armenia/Azerbaijan. The trend is to Russia taking care of the Soviet area, China responsible for East Asia, Germany leading Europe. America and Britain - quo vadis?

Biden's Program is good for us

In January, Biden published his program in Foreign Affairs. I copy the section that seems more relevant to Israel.

The Biden foreign policy agenda will place the United States back at the head of the table, in a position to work with its allies and partners to mobilize collective action on global threats. The world does not organize itself. For 70 years, the United States, under Democratic and Republican presidents, played a leading role in writing the rules, forging the agreements, and animating the institutions that guide relations among nations and advance collective security and prosperity—until Trump. If we continue his abdication of that responsibility, then one of two things will happen: either someone else will take the United States’ place, but not in a way that advances our interests and values, or no one will, and chaos will ensue. Either way, that’s not good for America.

Basically, he want to recover America's role as universal hegemon, organizing the world so it can function with minimum conflicts and maximum security for all. In the past, that world was good for us. Let's hope for the best.  But I would not let him to touch nor kiss my granddaughters. 

 

Hamas attacks Tel Aviv

Last night HAMAS fired two rockets to Tel Aviv. Wiki says that a rocket consists of a steel cylinder, containing a rectangular block of the propellant. A steel plate which forms and supports the nozzles is then spot-welded to the base of the cylinder. The warhead consists of a simple metal shell surrounding the explosives, and is triggered by a fuse constructed using a simple firearm cartridge, a spring and a nail. The rockets were intercepted in air, some fragments fell in Rishon LeZion, the boom was heard in my town too. The Hamas, in Gaza, announced that they are on the way to victory over Israel.