Worse than first estimated

I did not want to blog about the new non-flu Wuhan disease, but it is becoming too important and urgent, so I have to follow its development. A recent Los Alamos Lab paper estimates that it is unstoppable..." the number of infected individuals during early epidemic double every 2.4 days, and the R0 value is likely to be between 4.7 and 6.6."

This bad flu kills mostly over 50 males already with some disease, like me. Young people is safe. Should I be afraid? I have completed my life cycle and am surviving only to help the next generation. Of course the new flu worries me. Half of Japan's budget goes to pay pensions and health care for the elderly. After the epidemy they will have a balanced budget. It is a godsent disease to heal the economy. 

The 1914 worldwide epidemy killed mostly babies and children. When I visited the Jaszbereny Jewish cemetery, saw many monuments with syrupy inscriptions for dead children. It must have been horrible. 

STETL - Budapest Jewish Rock

Hungarian Jews are not what you imagined.

The Weeky Portion: Yitro

This week we Jews are reading the chapter where the African  priest Yitro visits Moses and Zipporah and the grandchildren. The Jews are torturing Moshe with their moral questions, so the old man advises: Write down the Law and appoint judges. So Moshe went up the mountain and after fasting and consulting with God, produced two tablets with ten simple rules. From then on there could be no more doubts what was to be considered politically correct.

Commenting on the chapter, Rabbi Tarfon asked himself why is that only the Israelites received God's commandments? Why not the "Children of Esau" tribe? Obvious, answered Rabbi Tarfon, those Esau people are warlike, "You shall not murder" is not for them. What about the sons of Ishmael, the Arabs? "You shall not steal" was not for them since they live robbing caravans in the desert. Presumably, the Greeks would never accept a bodiless god having beautiful naked marble statues of their nubile goddesses and muscular athletes? Having run out of worthy candidates, God noticed Moshe starving on the hilltop and offloaded his stone tablets on him. On us. Left: Hebrew tablet found in the ruins of Gezer. 

China Today

I feel I have to post this picture of China today. A family trying to escape wrapped up in poliethilene bags, from shoes to head. It reminds me of Saddam Hussein's missile attack on Israel, when we expected poison gas  and protected ourselves and our homes with plastic sheets and tape. It seems effective. Hope we shall be spared of similar views in Israel. But we may be not.  

Argentina Defaults Again

The Peronist government decided to post-pone the payment of bonds till September. Only widows and orphans will be spared: holders of less than 20,000 dollars worth of bonds that can prove they are "humans" will receive the interests. The others will receive "YOCK" (Hebrew slang for nothing and now get lost).

It was not unexpected.

The United Arab List

About 20% of the population are Arabs with voting rights. They have formed a block, the United Arab List (see pic) that is kingmaker and decide who will be our next Prime Minister. They are exercising their power to annul land expropriations. Land expropriated for public water works has been returned to Arab farmers. Land is the vital resource in this densely populated country and already there is tremendous problem for public infrastructure planners. There is no place on the seashore to site desalination plants (water sector) nor yacht ports (tourism). The Arabs think that it is not their problem and do not co-operate with the State. 

Weapons and Counterweapons

Elbit won a large order for Directional Infrared Counter Measures (DIRCM), a system to protect aircraft from infrared homing ("heat seeking") man-portable missiles. It is a lightweight, compact system designed to provide mission-vulnerable aircraft with increased protection. Thanks Arafat, we had to develop twenty years ago many thingies that we can sell now. 

In the South of Israel, we are suffering from helium filled balloons carrying explosives. The wind blows from Gaza towards the mainland, carrying these weapons deep into the country. A startup developed laser guided countermeasures, it is working but the border is 70 km long, so it can protect only a limited sector. The enemy keeps us alert and vigilant, thanks God.