The Kishinev Pogrom, 1903

The New York Times described the first Kishinev pogrom:

The mob was led by priests, and the general cry, "Kill the Jews," was taken- up all over the city. The Jews were taken wholly unaware and were slaughtered like sheep. The dead number 120 and the injured about 500. The scenes of horror attending this massacre are beyond description. Babes were literally torn to pieces by the frenzied and bloodthirsty mob. The local police made no attempt to check the reign of terror. At sunset the streets were piled with corpses and wounded. Those who could make their escape fled in terror, and the city is now practically deserted of Jews.

The razzia was preceded by rumors that a Christian girl that died in the Jewish hospital had been sacrificed for ritual purposes. The pogrom was spontaneous (it was not organized by the Czarist police, as reported) and was followed by hundreds of smaller act of violence against Jews. The Kishinev pogrom started the flight of the Jewish masses to the West, mainly to the United States.

From a historical point of view, Jewish life in Ukraine (Bessarabia) was unsustainable,  and those who escaped saved their lives and posterity. About the same time, there had been blood libels also in Hungary (Tiszaeszlar) but the Hungarian Jewish community hired lawyers and politicians and succeeded in suffocating the pogroms and punishing the criminals. 110 years after one can wonder if was that good for the Hungarian Jewry? 

Nigerian Disappointment

Like millions, I too received wonderful emails from Nigerian princes and African Treasure Ministers begging me to help them to liberate large sums unreachable by normal means. Interpol estimates that about 100 million dollars per year are sent to Nigeria by people believing in the scam. "At last, I said to myself, the demonstration that Africans have high IQ at least when it comes to cheating."

But I am sadly disappointed. The "Brain" behind the scam is a 67-year old White (pink, in fact) American, Michael Neu (Slidell,LA), who is being prosecuted for 269 counts of Wire Fraud and Money Laundering.

On the other hand, and with me always there is another hand, sometimes even three or four, it is encouraging for this decrepit engineer to see an old man inventing and managing such an ingenious internet-based system.

Prehistoric Weapons found in East Kever Benjamin

Six meters under the surface, a large archeological finding at East Kever Benjamin, where I live. It has been dated 500,000 years old before our age. There are flint stone axes, scrappers and other instruments. I had seen the large excavations when driving on road 6 but I assumed it was another new neighborhood or a gas turbine electricity generator site.

Wishful Hoping in NASDAQ

Celebrating my seventy something birthday, I made my testament leaving all to my wife of forty years. Financial wisdom says that as one ages, his investments should be less risky, because there is no time left to repair mistakes. That is illogical: with less time left, money loses its worth and at last, one can and should take risks.

So I sold General Electric bonds and bought NVidia shares, cloud computing index, robotics index, all in NASDAQ. A steady rally last year raised these thingies 40 to 100%, and are very expensive and risky, but to buy into high quality technology one has to be ready to pay. Humanity has left behind the agricultural and industrial economies, we live or die on the quality of our technology. Let see to where all these leads.

P.S.: See that high tech Edison paper a hundred years ago. Is that a male or female nude on it? I know it symbolizes the God Mercury, the patron of thieves, but why did they mix porn with high tech?

The Blood Covenant

 I was born in Jaszbereny, a Jasz ethnic settlement in central Hungary. Its main claim to fame is the Lehel Vezer Kurt (Leader Lehel's Horn), a national relic made from a large elephant tusk. According to Hungary's foundation myth, seven Central Asian tribes led by the Magyar tribe signed a blood covenant of unity before entering the country; each of the seven legendary leaders bled into a drinking horn (pic) that was shared among them.

The horn's age agrees with the timing of occupation of Hungary (around 900 AD), yet its nature is disputed. Some experts maintain that it is a Byzantine circus horn, used by circus managers to announce the start of the action. More probably, it is not a musical but a sacred drinking horn of Central Asian origin, and the carvings represent mythical animals and symbols. Specifically, it is a Scythian cult object created under Persian influence.

The Hungarian tribes's ancestral homeland is now Kazakhstan and Tajikistan, where still live remnants of the Magyars who did not join the migration. These Magyars are mixed with Mongols, while current Hungarians are Europeans with no Asiatic genes. Apparently, the first settlers of the extensive Central Asian grasslands extending to Western China (*) were Europeans. They were "recently" replaced by Mongols and Turks. By "recently" I mean after the Hungarian tribes left the area seeking a new country. Why did they decide to undertake a 3000 kilometer trek with their families can be understood by the genocidal tendencies of the Mongol newcomers.

This replacement took place mostly in several waves (Attila, Djengis, Seljuk, etc.). The arrow-shooting from galloping horseback battle tactic, originally developed by nomadic Persian pastoralists, proved irresistible (even for Roman legions). Only when Western Europeans developed the mobile light cannon and personal fire weapons the Asian tribes were defeated (by the Russians) and reduced to their current miserable state.


(*) In fact, European cattle-herding people occupied all the area till the Yellow River. They were evicted by the first Chinese Emperor. Their descendants can be found mixed in the Uyghurs (pic). If history predicts the future, the Uyghurs's fate has been already sealed. 

No Resistance in Iran

The street protests continue in Iran's cities. I feel it is not getting enough momentum, it does not go viral. Of course,  what I know?

P.S.: It appears that the failure of about 7000 private saving funds, many backed by religious charity organizations and the Revolutionary Guard, that led to the loss of the life savings of millions, is the cause of the protests. The drunken "journalists" reporting from Tehran hotel bars missed it. No CIA/Mossad agents were involved in the mismanagement of those monies. 

Shi'a War Fatigue - Beginner's Guide 32

The clerical regime in Iran is involved in a number of foreign adventures, the nearest to us in Syria and Lebanon. This imperialist program has impoverished the hundred million strong Iranian population, and they are starting to protest. It is a natural reaction (see below how fatigue works). According the last night's news, the faceless rebels have tried to take over police stations and there is some armed resistance. I do not know if the rebellion can achieve traction and momentum. It will surely cause stress within the Iranian leadership and bring on personal changes.

Trump verbally encourages the rebels but that is all. I would not put my faith in American assurances. Europe is totally silent, it is a continent frozen in fear of a new wave of political refugees. Israel has nothing to do with Iran's or any other country's internal affairs. We learned in Lebanon that interventions turn against us, they create enemies where there were none before.