Shocking Data from Beijing

 

There are already signs that China’s birth rate and population are falling, with some experts warning of grave consequences. According to data released this month from Beijing Municipal Health Commission Information Center, the nation’s capital, Beijing, which has a population of around 21 million, suffered a 24.3 percent decline in its birth rate in 2020 compared with a year earlier. The total number of births in Beijing in 2020 was 100,368 – a decline of 32,266 compared with 2019’s 132,634, and the lowest figure in a decade. 

One birth per 200 i.e. 0.5%. I told them a generation ago that their one child diktat was a big mistake. They answered that they were too many of them. 

EPA offers 6.5 Billion for Water Infrastructure (in the US)

 President Biden is pumping money into the American economy. 

• Supporting economically stressed communities.
• Protecting water infrastructure against the impacts of climate change.
• Reducing exposure to lead and addressing emerging contaminants.
• Updating aging infrastructure.
• Implementing new or innovative approaches including cybersecurity and green infrastructure.

Cyber and green is our specialty, is it? We could also save the California Delta smelt. 

But I am so old.

On the other hand, the environmental regulation is so heavy that I doubt that they can spend half of the money on significant projects.

A cutting-edge drinking water treatment facility planned for one of the country’s most water-scarce states now appears in danger of being blocked by regulatory requirements.

“Recommended terms for a permit to build Poseidon Water’s controversial desalination plant in Huntington Beach would make it impossible to get financing for the $1.4 billion project, according to the developer,” The Orange County Register reported. For years, leaders of the project have been attempting to get a permit from the local water quality control board. Subsequently, the project would also need permission from a regional board and from the state’s Coastal Commission to go through with actual construction and implementation.

P.S.: The Economist asks: "What impact then would an infrastructure bonanza have, if it makes it through Congress?"  I can answer - for the EPA portion of the spending: None. Tearing up perfectly good lead water distribution pipes and laying instead plastic lines adds nothing to the GDP. It is a hysterical - and wrong - reaction to the Flint racial panic (caused by the lack of buffer in the supply). 

Credit Suisse Caught Stealing Client's Money

 

The Swiss Gnomes cannot give up their habits. Credit Suisse Group AG must face allegations that it engineered a complex fraud to sink an investment vehicle and profit on investors’ losses after an appeals court revived the claims.
"The lawsuit, filed in 2018, claimed investors lost $1.8 billion in the Feb. 5, 2018, collapse of the market for VelocityShares Daily Inverse VIX Short Term Exchange Traded Notes, known as “XIV Notes,” a derivative investment that increased in value when the stock market was calm and decreased when it was volatile."
A group of investors led by Set Capital LLC alleged that they and others lost the money while Credit Suisse made $475 million. The suit also names as defendants two top executives at the bank.
Ten years ago, observing the incompetence of Swiss and English banks,  I thought that Israeli financial organizations could easily take over a share of the world markets. The Swiss and the English kept deteriorating but the Israelis are not in sight. 

Israel, Developed

 

Forbes magazine ranked Israel number 20 among the wealthiest/developed countries by Gross Product per Capita. It is an artifact of the overvaluation of the sheqel and the worldwide depression caused by the epidemic. Anyway, it is an impressive expression of the success of Israel and the Zionist movement that built it. To emphasize how impressive this is, just remember that when I arrived in 1976 I received ration cards from my employer Tahal, had to buy eggs in the black market, and in general, people were poor. I had a hard time deciding if to buy an apartment here, as was unsure that Israel would last. 

Granddaughter

 

What to do when a ballistic missile is in free-fall on us

Yesterday a ballistic missile was fired on the nuclear reactor in Dimona. It missed by twenty kilometers.  If that was not enough to prove that they want us fried and dead, our Hamas enemies in Gaza are shooting at us non-stop with homemade rockets. The pic shows children in a kindergarten during an attack.  That blond kid in the upper corner did not get the idea of how to protect himself, not that it would make any difference. 
 

Fear

  I made two very large commitments to my beloved daughters. Shortly, I'll have to fulfill these obligations. I need TASE to be higher by then. Inflation would help. I do not understand why there is no inflation in the USA  and understand less why the Israeli Sheqel is permanently overvalued. Guru Suze Orman expects world bourses to crash.  

Die Zauberflöte

The Magic Flute, by Mozart. Unequaled. In the Royal Opera. It is expensive but must be seen at least once in life. 

I always knew I had a natural facility for music but ignored that I was an opera fan like my Father. European art is humanity's peak achievement. Nothing compares.

The Celiac Mystery

One of my grandkids has celiac disease and has to follow a lifelong gluten-free diet. The disease tends to cluster in families. Parents and siblings and first-degree relatives with celiac disease have between a 4 and 15 percent chance of developing the disorder. However, the inheritance pattern is unknown. I have no one among my relatives with the condition, but practically I have no blood relatives. This is a strange disease because Jewish diets contain cereals and it has been so for the last four thousand years - since the settling of Eretz Israel. Any mutation preventing the consumption of bread should have been eliminated long ago.  Celiac is genetic and related to the CCR gene family, inherited from the Neanderthalers. We also inherited from them the red hair gene. It is a mystery. 

God exists (and is Jewish)

 

Otherwise, the universe cannot be explained. At least I cannot, and no one else can. Not that it makes any difference in day-to-day living. 

Pic: the Boss structure (somewhere far away in the universe). 

Israel cannot form a government

 The political system of Israel, based on coalition forming, has broken down and no party is able to form a stable, sustainable governing coalition. It is paralysis, chaos, anarchy, we are on the road leaderless, Wes of Mad Max (pic) on the wheel.  Netanyahu says it is necessary to change the system and adopt an American-style majority government.

Know Your Enemy

 

Fate has decreed we are at war with Iran. They have said they will destroy us, and are building weapons to do so. Who are these people - the Iranians? The map shows the ethnic groups making up Iran. Dominant Persians and marginal Kurds share the same genotype. Among us, "Ana Kurdi" means "rather slow"; on the other hand, Zoroastrian Parsis are a talented group. The people of South Iran are Persian Gulf islanders (mixed Africans) and Baluchis (Pakistanis). The North East is Azeri and Turkish. The Persian group is unmixed Neolithic, meaning they were able to defend themselves and avoid being mass raped by invaders. The average IQ of ethnic Persians is about 90 (my estimate) which compares to Balkan peoples. 

Climate Change causes Extinction

  · Apr 16

Why aren't Millennials having kids? Mostly it's lack of mate, careerism, & perceived cost. But 13% say climate change is a 'major reason' for not having kids. (?!?)

A cada cerdo le llega su San Martin (*)

 The deputy commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps' Quds Force, Brigadier General Mohammed Hejazi, died Sunday, the IRGC announced.

Hejazi died of a "heart condition" the Iranian military said, without providing additional details.

Hejazi was appointed deputy commander of the Quds Force in January 2020, following the assassination of Quds Force chief Qassem Soleimani.

Hejazi, then an adviser to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, planned the 1994 bombing of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association in Buenos Aires.

(*) Spanish saying: The day of Saint Martin arrives for every pig.  Traditionally, the day of Saint Martin  (Sanctus Martinus Turonensis, a Hungarian Christian saint) is celebrated with the sacrifice of a fattened pig. The day of Hejazi arrived 27 years later. Never too late. 

The New Yorker promotes Aliyah

 The New Yorker magazine writes about antisemitism in the US. 

"I was held personally accountable for the occupation of Palestine, despite having spoken out against Israel’s racist right-wing government. Was I aware, I was asked, that my ancestors owned all the slave boats? At one point, I was told, quite blandly, as if we were discussing that day’s lunch special, that “everyone knows a Jew could never win Memorial,” a historically white, conservative part of the district."

What else American Jews need to understand?

Pic.: The grandparents of the article's writer, before WWII, in Amsterdam. 

Suga and Biden in the Rose Garden

 

As said, Biden received Suga at home.

Biden Keeping the Shabbat

The Prime Minister of Japan visits the USA and is received by the Vice President. Japan is a most important ally and should be received by the Head of the State. Yet Biden is absent. Why? Probably because he is keeping the Shabbat and could not travel to the airport. The reception looks improvised, with the cameramen reflected in the mirror and strong background noise.  

Retroactive Employer-Employee Relationship in Sex

 

The Supreme Court of Spain has decreed that the prostitute Evelin Rochel (pic) that worked ten years on the premises of Flower's hotel (pic background) had been in fact legally employed and not a freelancer. Flower's allows whores to freely practice their trade on its premises. The Court decreed that her relationship with the hotel (and clients) meant that she had been an employee, entitled to worker protections such as paid vacations, health insurance, etc. The standard test (Durden criteria) includes factors like performing the tasks demanded by the employer, on the employer's premises, having the work hours controlled. Sex is risky, and now - in Spain - more than ever. Without knowing it, one could find himself an employer of a sex worker, responsible for her welfare, paid holidays, and pension. 

Virtual particles are real

The magnetic moment of a particle is proportional to its spin and to its g-factor, which is exactly 2 for a point particle with half-integer spin. However, the muon is constantly interacting with virtual particles, which wink in and out of existence with quantum-mechanical probabilities calculable to an incredible precision. This fluctuating cloud of particles modifies the $g$-factor. 

I knew that transient particles pop out from nothing and then really exist in our universe. Now they are being measured in the muon experiment. Intriguing. 

Super-Ethical Journalism

"I have a problem with milk. Well, multiple problems. Let me elaborate. (Are you excited?) Cow’s milk is, of course, bad news for the planet: three times worse in greenhouse emission terms than any plant milk. I have known for ages, but pretended not to, because tea is horrible with oat milk."

 Source: The Guardian, a staff journalist. Should I continue reading this paper? 

Un scène paroxystique

Un scène paroxystique du spectacle de l'Opéra National de Paris, à l'Opéra Bastille. The French have gone mad and destroyed their beautiful Rameau. Ah! Comme c’est triste! There goes civilization!

Natanz Enrichment Facilities

"An informed official in the Ministry of Intelligence told Nournews: "The identity of the person who caused the power outage to one of the halls of Martyr Ahmadi-Roshan Complex in Natanz Enrichment facilities, by disrupting the electrical system has been identified." 

The said Facilities will not enrich anybody nor anything in the near future. Zahal's generals met and raised a glass of red wine to the occasion. They are more numerous than I imagined. Netaniyahu made a short but deeply felt toast. 

Why am I still working like a horse?

 

Today went to fish shop/factory. I returned home late and tired like a working Argentine horse after an all night rodeo. In this year of quarantine, I lost muscle and stamina. Why do force my carcass to walk up and down these slippery/dangerous places?  For the kids, what else?

Muon Anomaly

  Beautiful! The muon appears spontaneously from nowhere and soon disappears to nothingness. 

 

The Glitch in the Simulation: Found

One theory of the universe is that it is a simulation. How can we discover if it is so? Finding an error in the simulation would prove it. Up to now everything complied with the Standard Model. Now a small anomaly was discovered in the muon magnetic properties, and if it is true, the model is wrong or the simulation is not perfect. The discoverer - Fermi Lab - says the model is wrong and a new physics has to be created. Pity I am at the end and shall miss all the excitement. 

Lou Reed from Velvet Underground was Jewish

Hey, white boy, what you doin' uptown?
Hey, white boy, you chasin' our women around?
Oh pardon me sir, it's the furthest from my mind
I'm just lookin' for a dear, dear friend of mine
I'm waiting for my man

He deserved a Nobel Prize not less than Dylan.   

The Swiss Gnomes take a hit

Credit Suisse bank lost 4.7 billion US$ in the Archegos Capital bankruptcy.  It is a lot of money. It lost some more in Britain's Greensill meltdown.

I started to dislike Swiss banks since the dormant Jewish account scandal, when it was accidentally discovered that those honest Swiss banks did not recognize nor return the monies deposited by Jews before the Holocaust and worse, they were destroying all paper evidence. Much of those secret deposits were from German and Hungarian Jews, like my wealthy grandparents. I am still angry. 

When they appointed Tidiane Thiam, an athletic Senegalese, I predicted that Swiss gnomes had lost their minds and were on the way to their doom. In 2020 they sacked the (well-hung) African giant on account of the disorder and losses he caused, and appointed Thomas Gottstein in his stead. Gottstein looked like a typical anti-Semite, solid Swiss banker, best known for his excellency in golf. He had finished 6th at the 1991 Amateur Championship. He will be remembered as the grave digger of Credit Suisse. 

The pic shows Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani from Qatar, the largest stockholder of Credit Suisse. He doesn't look happy. 

P.S.: With a 4.4 billion franc ($4.7 billion) writedown tied to its losses from Archegos, the fallout from the collapse of Greensill Capital, and a dividend cut and suspension in share buybacks, frustrations among stakeholders are boiling over. Speculation is rife over the future of the investment bank, the asset-management unit, and the fate of top executives.  From Bloomberd 9-4-2021

Autentic Israeli Whisky

 Its commercial says:

Discover Hava Whisky,  By Nissim Black (pic left), an “American Bourbon Style” Whisky, made entirely from ingredients all sourced from the Holy Land. 
Each barrel is heavily charred in-house at the Golani distillery in the upper Galilee. You’ll notice sweet oaky caramel notes, which come from the “blackened” barrels. 
Hava Whisky brings together all facets of the Land of Israel, from the barley to the water and yeast, each ingredient is unique and sourced straight from God’s Land to your bottle. 
Because of Israel’s unique hot climate, during the 40-month aging process, we lost 22% to the angels (evaporation) resulting in a unique single barrel whisky like none other, smooth and amazing perfect for all occasions. (J: I dont drink whisky). 

A Limitless World

  Thinking about the velocity of light: The prospect of faster-than-light (FTL) communications revolves around quantum entanglement, a phenomenon Einstein described as “spooky action at a distance”. The idea is that entanglement implies instant communication. However, even though entangled quantum particles seem to interact with each other instantaneously -regardless of the distance, breaking the speed of light – with our current understanding of quantum mechanics, it is impossible to send data using quantum entanglement. That’s the key: the inability to send data or information. In order to “communicate,” you need to be able to send data. Bottom line: Quantum communication is not instantaneous.  

It is all a simulation. The Maker enjoys our travails

 The Scientific American has a long article proving that we are a simulation and not real. The fixed time the light takes to propagate in space is the key to understanding the working of the machine that is the platform of our simulation. It is the clocking velocity of the computer that nothing in the simulation can change. I add the strange fact that there is limit in the subatomic world as well in the universe that we cannot see nor trespass, that also proves that our reality is fabricated as an enclosed system and not "real". So, there is a Maker of the Universe who enjoys our conscience and feeds on our doings. It is similar to the original God of Moses, who creates universes and destroys them if they result less saintly than he intended. 

If so, we better follow his commandments and be his chosen holy people. 

The next objective of humanity is to get in touch with our Maker. Like in Woody Allen's film The Purple Rose of Cairo, where the actors projected on the screen start talking to the audience and they walk down into the hall. 

Flint is still poisoning America's water

Biden Administration Proposes 100% Replacement Of Lead Drinking Water Infrastructure at a cost of 45 billion dollars. The water distribution infrastructure is old but the problem is not the lead pipes but the mains that break frequently for lack of maintenance. It is a municipal problem, as the cities have no competent personnel and no budgets (because "water is a human right" ergo humans need not pay the bills. Only dumb animals still pay). The rationale for this grandiose program is the "lead poisoning emergency" in Flint. As you may remember, the Flint Water Treatment Plant workers did not add buffer to the drinking water, causing leaching of lead. Lead in water is toxic and lowers IQ, however no one knows if Flint's low IQ existed before the lead or after.  Obama's emergency in Flint frightened the population that they were being poisoned by the Governor of the State, or the EPA, and they voted for the Democrats. Biden builds on Obama's success. Pic.: Different kinds of iron corrosion and rust were found in Flint drinking water pipes. Photo credit: Min Tang and Kelsey Pieper, Flintwaterstudy.org. Note Iron corrosion, not lead. 

Early detection of cancer

 Decades of evidence reveal a complicated relationship between mammograms and mortality. Mammograms may detect deadly cancers early, but they may also lead to the diagnosis and potentially fatal treatment of cancers that would never progress to cause symptoms.

The same must be true for prostate cancer - people generally dies from other causes before it develops. 

China adopts a new strategy

 China, having hollowed out America's industrial sector, is aware of the hostile reaction to its actions. The new strategy is to avoid competition with the surviving industries, and focus in the new, hi tech sector. America will not allow that, I think, and will find ways to inhibit China's supremacy. Some kind of co-existence, like in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia (countries with large rich Chinese minorities where political power is left to the natives) will have to be worked out. 

El sí de las niñas

 

    El sí de las niñas

Pesach

 

Grand daughter Shack-a-doodle (or is it Shack-a-dude? or Shack-Doo-Doo?)  is always happy and ready to take part in any celebration. Her name in Israel is Shaked (Prunus dulcis, almond tree).  

"Lovely" by Suicidal Tendencies

 Michael Burry's incendiary tweets have piqued the interest of federal regulators, the investor revealed this week. "Tweeting and getting in the news lately apparently has caused the SEC to pay us a visit," the Scion Asset Management boss said in a now-deleted tweet. "Lovely," he continued, adding the hashtag "#nomoretweets." He also linked to the song "Lovely" by Suicidal Tendencies, a hardcore punk band, and changed the header image on his Twitter profile to a pile of bricks.

Burry shot to fame after his billion-dollar bet against the US housing bubble in the mid-2000s was spotlighted in the book and the movie "The Big Short." His Scion fund owned $225 million of US stocks at the end of 2020, including roughly $30 million of bullish call options on both Pfizer and Citigroup, and $20 million in Kraft Heinz calls. 

The investor has used Twitter to warn of speculative bubbles in markets and predict a devastating crash. He's also tweeted criticism of Tesla - which he's short - as well as bitcoin, Dogecoin, Robinhood, and the GameStop buying frenzy this year. On the other hand, he recently praised Volkswagen and said he owned a stake in the automaker's largest shareholder, Porsche SE. Burry signaled he was taking a break from Twitter earlier this month, telling his followers he had made his views clear. His latest tweet suggests he's not planning a return anytime soon.

Our sages said that one should learn on the other's failure, and not on our own. I should stop this public diary, I know. 

Fake Jews

 

The "Second Gentleman" of America celebrated a public Passover without mentioning God - a real miracle. Once more I wonder: What kind of Jews are those people in America? In my opinion they are fake, trying to sell a made up version of them selves. It does not work, even Luther saw through the fake Jews of his time and hated them. 

Bellum Judaicum: Rome Lost

 For 2020 as a whole, Italy’s national statistical agency Istat said there were about 400,000 births, down from 420,000 the year before, while the country recorded 647,000 deaths. Israel registered 180,000 births, meaning that in a generation or so Israel will have half of Italy's population.  Rome erected a pretentious Arch of Triumph, but the Jewish Wars were left inconclusive 2100 years ago, and Hello!  

 We are coming back!

Is the Economy About to Boil?

 

Arnold Kling blogs:

1. During the pandemic, Americans accumulated a lot of paper wealth, as the government printed paper wealth in the form of bonds and the stock market returned to a state of irrational exuberance. This wealth now hangs over an economy with some supply bottlenecks and an Administration that will exacerbate those bottlenecks. (Ed.:Already there is full employment in the USA - salaries will rise).

2. If spending and inflation do pick up, we are going to find that the Fed’s brake pedal does not work. The Fed can try to raise interest rates by, for example, raising the interest rate that it pays on Fedcoin (digital bank reserves). But higher rates will be politically unpalatable, because the interest bill for the government will be too much to bear.

3. As to the question of “overheating,” I think of inflation in terms of phase changes. Just as water changes properties when it boils, an economy changes properties when it goes from low and steady inflation to high and variable inflation. By the time it has changed phases, it is too late to deal with it using mild measures.

... historians will go back and see that in hindsight signs of overheating were evident by early 2021. The digital currency mania will be seen as emblematic of the distortions caused by excessive creation of paper wealth.

Russia sends Message

Massive materiel movements in Krasnodar. American forces in Europe announced potential imminent war - and are in alert. It may develop into the largest conventional confrontation of our times. In the last seven years, Russia and Ukraine have been disputing the Donbass area. Putin tries to rebuild the pre-Gorbachev Union.