Criminalizing Sex

From July it will be punishable (2000 shekel) to have paid sex in Israel. 

Twenty years ago, Sweden became the first country to make it illegal to pay for sex, but not to be a prostitute (the client commits a crime, but not the prostitute). Similar laws were passed in Norway and in Iceland. In  2014, the European Parliament voted in favor of the 'Swedish Model'.

It is crazy. Everyone knows that prostitutes protect the social order and married women from violence. Vargas Llosa, the Peruvian writer described in "Pantaleon y las visitadoras"  the story of an officer tasked with organizing regular sexual services to the forces stationed in the Amazonas, to reduce the violation rate. Prostitution generates 11 percent of Thailand's GNP. It is a vital source of revenue. 

Paradoxically, the most vocal of the opponents of the law in Israel is the trans guild, as it would take away their rice bowl, to use a Chinese metaphor, and criminalize their work. The Swedes have probably worked out a solution to that problem. 

The Amazing Wealth Transfer

Have you noticed the peculiar fact that despite the lockdown, the economic crisis, tens of millions unemployed and multiple corporations filing for bankruptcy, Wall Street is having a ball? CNBC‘s Jim Cramer examined this anomaly earlier a few days ago, his verdict: “we’re looking at a V-shaped recovery in the stock market, and that has almost nothing to do with a V-shaped recovery in the economy. What is going on is one of the greatest wealth transfers in history.” Jim Cramer is the only one telling it as it is.

Fortunately, I am on the side where the wealth is being transferred to. So I believe, but it may be an illusion. No one really wins when the global economy sinks. 

The Zionist Dream is Materializing

The most improbable, impossible dream of the Zionist Movement was American Jews making Aliyah. In the Goldene Medine dollars grew on the trees, Jews were free and every opportunity was open for them. And they enjoyed the highest living standard. No one believed that they will leave that paradise for this stony desert in permanent conflict. Yet this month some 1000 families filled the forms to make aliyah. It appears that America is no more what it used to be, and the Jews are starting to leave. Coming home. In the pic: A family of seven, just arrived. 

Grease Separator Calculation

The Water Authorities have been demanding calculation of FOG separators and rejecting all calculations. I discovered the European method of NS and copied it and inserted my figures but without really understanding it. Now I took a minute to learn what it is about, and learnt that NS is the throughput in liters per second. This method is valid for surface runoff, and a 2100 Romold fuel separator's NS is 6 lt/sec.

But kitchen flows are much lower in the order of 0.1 lt/sec. So the NR calculation is not valid for food industry - or is it? - , but they have been accepting my calculations. Apparently no one in the Water Authority+Ministry of Environment +Ministry of Health knows how the calculation is done. My dilemma, now, consists in how to keep them satisfied in a situation where the regulators have not the vaguest idea of the method. I'll continue with the successful pretending of how to calculate separator volume according to the desired system. I certainly shall not try to explain or teach them. That is one of the disadvantages of being too clever. 

A good baby, Ella

The Jews Are Coming

Left: portraits of four Israeli startups that are vacuuming NASDAQ and taking home billions. I find nothing special in their looks, but they are miracle workers. There is a tremendous demand for Israeli technological startups in the world. 

Wall Street reaction to Black Riots

Wall Street says: Me, worry? Blacks are doing what they always do. The market is flooded with liquidity. All the indices are rising. Mister Hoover says this is the time to buy.

Zoominfo, the Israeli company my daughter is working for, raised one billion dollars on the NASDAQ.