A day wasted

 Nervous breakdown is too strong a word for what happened yesterday: I simply went to bed and slept all afternoon. Why? I had worked hours on changes on the Felafel Beribua factory, which had been built months ago. I am having difficulties with the PDF files, my old version disappeared and I downloaded the free Microsoft version, which is almost useless. Why I had to update (with no additional payment) a project long ago built up and paid for? I felt my slaving was pointless and mailed an incomplete file (which I never do) and went to sleep. It is raining all day. 

About my farm in Argentina

 

I looked up the prices of farms in Pancho Cue (Argentina) and there are several farms like mine on sale. The prices are low, like 2200 US$/hectare that is  35200.  I had planted Pino caribe  for forestry and they told me that it had grown beautifully. A middle sized estancia in the same area, of 300 hectares is being offered at 790,000 dollars. Good that I did not feel tied down to the land and left everything. 

Thinking of Rome

 Reading Livy (but not in the original Latin, as former generations) I arrived to the mystery of the malaria in the gradual weakening of Rome and the Eastern populations in general. The disease appeared around 800 BC in Greece, and advanced westwards along the coastal swamps and wetlands. Possibly the climate was warming up too. 

Malaria is fatal for babies, and they found large cemeteries of babies in Italy, all dead in the same summer epidemy. The parasite evolved, the mosquito evolved and with them human populations, specifically thalassemia and sickle cell (the African variety but mutated independently in Greece too). 

Rome was founded in a swamp of the Tiber river, near the point where it could be traversed, hundred years before the arrival of the disease. When it arrived circa 100 BC, the number of children fell dramatically  (which now is attributed to infertility caused by lead in their wine and cooking in copper pots, although contemporaries attributed it to sheer unwillingness to marry and rear up children, not infertility.) and almost all senatorial families (clans) had disappeared by 100 BC. The lack of Romans  caused the collapse of the Republic when healthy "new immigrants" from the North understood the weakness of the ruling class. This narrative makes more sense than the battles lost and the strategic errors of war leaders. 

Put your head on my shoulder...

Put your head on my shoulder
Hold me in your arms, baby
Squeeze me oh-so-tight

Show me that you love me too…

This Paul Anka song was my first dance at 14 or 15 in Buenos Aires. Now I am 76 live off sweet memories in this Kfar Saba night.  

It has been two years since my working life was scheduled to end. Yet I am still here working in front the monitor trying to imagine fluid dynamics solutions. There is a great uncertainty about how many years I still have and how to spend them. 

Only you can make all this world seem right

Only you can make the darkness bright
Only you and you alone can thrill me like you do
And fill my heart with love for only you

Only youuuuuuuu...! 

Well, that'll be the day, oh-oh
That'll be the day, oh-oh
That'll be the day, oh-oh
That'll be the day

That will be the daaaaayyy...!

Orthostatic

I had an hourlong meeting at a Cheese factory and when quickly standing up, I felt weak. It passed in a minute. This is the second time in a month. 

The most common symptom of orthostatic hypotension is lightheadedness or dizziness when standing after sitting or lying down. Symptoms usually last less than a few minutes.

Orthostatic hypotension signs and symptoms include:

• Lightheadedness or dizziness upon standing
• Blurry vision
• Weakness
• Fainting (syncope)
• Confusion  
• The numerous possible causes for orthostatic hypotension include certain medications (e.g. alpha blockers - I take them), autonomic neuropathy, decreased blood volume, multiple system atrophy, and age-related blood-vessel stiffness.

• Apart from addressing the underlying cause, orthostatic hypotension may be treated with a recommendation to increase salt and water intake (to increase the blood volume), wearing compression stockings, and sometimes medication (fludrocortisone, midodrine, or others). I am on a no salt diet! 

I am betting on ICL

Yahoo Finance (my favorite source) writes today: 

"Investors in ICL Group Ltd ICL need to pay close attention to the stock based on moves in the options market lately. That is because the Mar 17, 2023 $2.50 Call had some of the highest implied volatility of all equity options today.

Implied volatility shows how much movement the market is expecting in the future. Options with high levels of implied volatility suggest that investors in the underlying stocks are expecting a big move in one direction or the other. It could also mean there is an event coming up soon that may cause a big rally or a huge sell-off."

Leadership

Sundar Pichai, the boss of Google, the latest of Big Tech's titans to slash employees in droves. To date, tech's biggest names have slashed almost 50,000 jobs. 

The wave of hi-tech sackings follows Twitter's action of reducing in one dramatic move, half of its personnel. The remaining half is has understood and is starting to take work seriously. Everybody now sees that most of the employees were adding nothing to the profits. Musk is a tremendous business leader, he dared to do the unconceivable and a whole industry is following him. 

I am reading Ender's Game that deals with leadership. I am not enjoying that book.  

To everyone according to its needs"

 
In America, "new" water pricing models are being proposed. 

“While other common goods like roads and libraries are funded collectively through fees, tax revenue, and combination of the two, water services are funded by individual customer payments,” according to the report. “Water and wastewater utilities rely almost exclusively on revenue from residential, commercial, and industrial customers within their service areas.”

With some $4.92 billion in annual revenue loss due to unpaid bills for the water sector, many utilities have turned to customer assistance programs like flexible payment options to avoid shutoffs for lower-income consumers. But many within the industry argue that this is not a fundamental solution to the problem.

Instead, the US Water Alliance proposes the use of “innovative pricing models” that would see water bills decrease for most low-income households and increase for higher-income households through property-based charges that account for things like parcel areas, building footprints, property values, and more.

“By developing rates that are affordable for everyone, utilities can collect more revenue from customers who can afford to pay without burdening those who cannot,” according to the report. “Changes to rate and pricing structures automatically reach everyone: there is no need to apply or enroll, or to track customer data and manage programs.”

CAPREX

In the University of La Plata, we had to wait in the corridor in front of the exam room, where three professors formed an exam panel of the students at the end of the semester, we all suffered from CAPREX - cagazo pre-examen, the dread before the exam. Our exams were in person and oral, standing in front of a panel of three very serious old professors.  While waiting to be called in, many felt they were not ready and went home. Others took benzedrine pills or gave one more fast re-reading to their notes. My way of diminishing the fear was to talk to other examinees. From yesterday I have to call the BODEK Lior, the examiner of a project submitted to the Ramat Gan Water Corporation, and I was postponing it till today 11 AM out of sheer fear. When called him, he excused himself because he is in and asked to discuss the issue next Sunday. Suddenly, I feel so light and happy!

 

Abulia

 
Abulia, apathy, athymia, lack of will, drive, or initiative for work, is related to dysfunctions with the brain's dopamine circuitry. Having defined my mood, I think it is the winter, the Arctic dark outside, and difficulties with the regulatory bureaucracy. After the breakfast coffee, I slept until midmorning. 

Exchange Skoda Fabia for this thing

 I want one of these.

Hibernating

 
Cold and rainy outside. I am sleeping all morning. Lack of interest. Probably this is what they call depression. I don't know. Impossible to work. 

Eternal optimist

 Yes, I think there will be no recession but a big jump in share values. Today I invested in Kenon. This company is building an electricity generation plant in Kfar Saba, a few meters from "the separation wall" from Kalkilia. Based on Israeli gas. I see it when I travel North on route 444. It is an investment in something "real", not a bitcoin that will evaporate as soon as somebody builds a powerful computer. 

What is all about?

 

New American Writing

 
Bloomberg writes: 

A pattern has persisted in stocks the past year. A downdraft steepens, sellers get the selling out of their systems, and the market is left poised for an often-powerful jump.

What is an often-powerful jump? Maybe the opposite of a seldom-powerful jump?  Are sellers getting the selling out of their systems? That is, formerly the sellers had the selling in their systems?  Is this a pattern?  Sellers getting selling into and out of their systems? Bloomberg is supposed to be the best financial paper in the world. I don't like this new language.

Uncertain Start of 2023

The Economist says that 2023 will certainly be a bloodbath (in the bourse). Yet it mentions that Goldman Sachs’s researchers think share prices will fall in the near term, but recover by the end of the year. Deutsche Bank’s bullish lot reckons the s&p 500 index of large American firms will end the year 17% higher than it now stands. Another factor is the opening up of China, after three years of closure. They will buy up most of the raw materials and flood the world with cheap manufactures. So what is to be done?

I will ponder the question (the answer) the next week. 

Gaetz's Bon Mot

Matt Gaetz (Florida): "If you want to drain the swamp, you cannot put the biggest alligator in charge of the exercise."

Stopping McCarthy is really the biggest political victory that any Republican has gotten since the 2016 election of Donald Trump, and if you exclude elections, it’s the biggest political victory for a Republican in I don’t even know how long.