Marcus Licinius Crassus

It is still October and instead of working, I am following Librivox's reading of Plutarch's biography of Crassus. This admirable Roman was born into a family of unlaughing misers, but very talented and energetic. He made his fortune buying up the real estate expropriated by Sulla, the dictator, and by organizing a 500 man strong building company that bought and repaired burned down or collapsed buildings.

He was also a talented and cruel general (he erected crosses with crucified slaves all along the road from Reggio Calabria to Rome), and lost his life fighting against the Persians. Roma was a welfare state, its citizens received a daily portion of grain so they did not need to work, and they were entertained 200 days a year with exciting circus shows. This easy urban life conduced to negative vegetative growth and the fatal weakening of the Roman State. 

October: No income

The last bill I sent out to collect was a month and half ago, and my income was nil. I worked little, drank red wine, slept a lot. I am feeling well and healthy but I have to work. It is not only that I have no income: the worldwide "correction" in the financial markets erased about 10% of my savings. I have to take myself in my hands because next March I am scheduled to travel to New York and walk a lot. My leg is still not 100%.

Today we have municipal elections in Kever Benjamin City. The candidates are not attractive. The serious problem in this city is that we have little tax-paying industry, so 80% of the municipal budget is based on the arnona - residential taxes, which are among the highest in Israel. All the candidates talk about greenery, trees, parks, special education for the imbeciles, street art and culture. No one is interested in attracting industry and I do not mean "satanic mills" but high-tech chimney-less enterprises. Pic.: A business  building in the new industrial zone of Raanana, a wealthy neighboring town. I designed a large bakery in it. Our own new industrial area, bordering the separation wall, is being filled with garages and nut-toasting mini-businesses.

P.S. Yesterday's elections gave my city a new major - a retired police chief. It may be a reaction to the former major, jailed for corruption. 

About the Squirrel Hill Saturday Morning Massacre

Unease, not yet fear, seized American Jewish community when the news of the mass murder in the  Tree of Life synagogue was published. The murderer thought he was defending the White Race against the Jews that were murdering them. And HIAS that was promoting the Honduran would-be immigrant/murderers column. Nonsense, but reflects the sentiment in the racist circles. He was a lone wolf, no organization behind him. This phenomenon of a lonely individual working up himself and taking up automatic weapons and gunning down anyone in a school, a synagogue, a marathon, a homosexual club, a Socialist youth camp in an island, etc. is not typically American. It has happened in France and Denmark and even in the Grand Mosque of Mecca.

Regarding antisemitism, I don't think this attack means much. What is surprising is that there is no one under 55 among the killed, they are all old people. The absence of active adults and youth says a lot about the calamitous state of Reform/Conservative Jewry. In five or ten years, there will be no minian on Saturday morning in Squirrel Hill. Sad.

The attack will strengthen temporarily Jewish identity in America, but not increase Aliyah to Israel.

NVIDIA strange collapse

We’re halfway through Nvidia’s fiscal year. Analysts’ average estimate calls for 34% sales growth and 52% earnings growth during the current fiscal year. Those estimates slow to 14% revenue growth and 10% earnings growth next year, which is admittedly a notable decline. The stock's price collapsed 35% this week. Notable and painful!

Klimt's Golden Water Snakes

Gustav Klimt,  Serpents Aquatiques II (Les Amies) (1904-07). [Photo/Courtesy of AKG-Images/Erich Lessing]

Students marrying

The marriage ceremony was Israeli standard. I gave a 700 sheqel cheque and did not dance because of my leg. Food was regular, salmon and a small piece of beef. The wine was undrinkable, with a strong aroma of synthetic ethanol. The chuppah was standing in the garden and the rose petals had been spread (pic) and even the chazan (the liturgical singer) was waiting to start when a sudden downpour made us all run for protection.

The boy's parent are family friends and he had been my student the last semester. By coincidence, an old woman in a motorized wheelchair was sitting at my side: She had been his special teacher from childhood. The boy had cognitive issues and the parents had hired her for home teaching. She told me the effort she had invested and also, the effort invested by the boy himself all those years. In the end, he graduated successfully and is a Civil Engineer. The Happy End: married a tall blonde Ashkenazi girl from a nearby kibbutz. 

A Lazy Week

The last week did very little engineering work. On Sunday I bought three bottles of Spanish Rioja red wine, very aromatic and tasty, I drunk one and then on Monday slept and heard on Librivox the African adventures of Mungo Park, Tuesday and Wednesday was spent in Ariel, preparing lectures and teaching. Today did little and nothing and now we are going to a marriage celebration in Kibbutz Eynat. My income was zero, and the Social Security revised my old accounts and found that I owe 1700 shequels "not final". My granddaughter weights 12 kg - her fanatic fasting mother has terror of lipids and carbohydrates and under-feeds them a totalitarian vegetarian/naturalist diet.  Noya (pic.: 3rd birthday) should weight 14.2 kg and be about 94 cm tall.