The Vaca Muerta is Dead

 Argentina had bright hopes that the Vaca Muerta shale field would save its sinking economy, but the main investor, the Anglo-Dutch Shell, has decided to abandon fracking in Argentina and focus on renewable energy instead. The price of oil is so low that the project is not profitable. 

Argentina's state oil company YPF must pay Transportadora de Gas del Norte (TGN) US$231mn, plus interest and legal costs, for breach of an export contract. "The company is analyzing the aforementioned first instance resolution and will file all the necessary legal remedies to defend its interests in accordance with the applicable legal procedure," YPF said in a statement. One of YPF's difficulties is that Argentina's reputation is so bad that no American legal firm is willing to represent the company. 

I am sad about the decline of Argentina. Nearly a third of the country’s workforce is unemployed or has given up on finding work.  According to Forbes, Argentina's poverty rate is hovering near 50% at end-2020.  My relatives and friends are struggling. Two of my teenage friends, Tomi and Viky, have died recently. 

Disorder in Israel

 The Government is unable to govern and the Knesset (Parliament) voted for its dissolution. Next elections in March. The vaccination campaign is collapsing, their website has failed because overdemand. Depressing. 

Last night I completed the Beyt Merkazim project, it was rather difficult to visualize a complicated tridimensional pipeline till I solved it. Then  it was obvious. I used to be very good in it. 

Tired

The government has fallen and new elections scheduled. 

Tried to register for the anti-corona vaccine: May be after April. Kupat Holim is struggling to function.

Much pressure in my projects.

Test for the auto. 

Wife hostile.

Dreamt I am in a Hamas camp in Gaza. 

When It came to The Worst

 

A year ago, on Greg Cochran's blog, we were speculating what were the chances of the corona virus mutating into a more virulent incarnation. Most viruses (virii) are stable and rarely improve their virulence. And for almost a year the corona stayed the same. But now in England a variety was detected that is five times more transmissible. It is incontrollable. We don't know if the new injection is effective for the mutated virus. I tried to get the injection but there is no place in the queue. That in spite my Mathusalemic age. There are 500 very sick corona patients in Israel. 

The Economist warns about the danger of imminent inflation. 20% of all circulating  dollars were printed this year. My conclusion is that the current dollar inflation is very modest vis-a-vis the flooding the markets with paper, meaning that the world economy is in deep recession. Massive multi-year stimulus is unable to cause an erection and make it potent once more. I am quite depressed.

For Israel, All the World is "Red"

A new Israeli directive paints the whole world in red, as dangerous because the corona virus. Incoming travelers are quarantined two weeks. While preparing mass vaccination, it is imposing severe isolation measures. The vaccination campaign in the USA is not proceeding smoothly, there are pockets of resistance and the nattering nabobs of negativism are spreading skepticism. Sweden's "light" quarantine has failed. Having survived a year of the epidemics, I am still confused. 

Fighting corona through Enthymemes

   Driving home, I heard on the radio that a fast way to check if on got the corona virus is to smell the coffee. One immediate and sure symptom of the disease is the loss of the sense of smell, so if you don't notice the aroma of a steaming cup of coffee, you are done for good, go and write your last will. Applying syllogism - the indisputable deductive reasoning first described by Aristotle in Prior Analytics - it becomes obvious that smelling strong coffee all day will protect you from the virus. I have always a large cup of coffee on the table, it runs away all the airborne corona. 

The stuff of which our universe is made

 UFOs appear all the time and are photographed and measured. They maneuver in the sky, they organize battles, they never contact humans nor leave any physical prove of their existence. They are here to make us nervous. 

The latest about the stuff of which the universe is made maintains that mass is positive, gravity plus dark matter is negative, and the total is approximately zero. As Diogenes y el Linyera used to say No somo' nada. We are nothing.