The Gods vs Astronomy

 The Gods won. After decades of mounting tension between scientists and Native Hawaiians, Caltech has completed its removal of a telescope from the summit of Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano that is revered by the island’s Indigenous population.

The decommissioning of the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory in July follows the removal of a University of Hawaii observatory a month earlier and comes amid a cultural resurgence (superstition?) among Native Hawaiians.

War Premonition

 Our enemies in Iran Lebanon Yemen and Turkiye publicly warned of unpleasant retaliation in the coming days. Here we are preparing for harm. In Tel Aviv, the anti-atomic refuges have been opened. Just in case.

The macuahuitl

 The macuahuitl, an Aztec weapon, combined the force of a club with the precision of a sword. Made of sturdy wood and embedded with razor-sharp obsidian. It is much mentioned in the Spanish conquest of Mexico, but I had never seen one. It appear heavier than I imagined. Some of Cortes's soldiers replaced their swords with this native weapon, for being more effective.

On Local Regulatory Approval

We provide credible estimates of the effect of duration and uncertainty in local regulatory approval times on the rate of housing production. The analysis derives from a novel dataset of development timelines for all multifamily housing projects permitted in the City of Los Angeles between 2010 and 2022. As a lower bound, simply by pulling forward in time the completion of already started projects, we estimate that reductions of 25% in approval time duration and uncertainty would increase the rate of housing production by 11.9%. If we also account for the role of approval times in incentivizing new development, we estimate that the 25% reduction in approval time would increase the rate of housing production by a full 33.0%. Both the expected value and the uncertainty in approval times are salient to incentivizing new development. The results provide new evidence that local approval processes are a significant driver of housing supply and reinforce the notion that municipal regulatory reform is an important component of housing reform.

How true! Describes a situation similar to the Israeli approval regime. If California, the most advanced state in the world, cannot solve this problem, what can we do?  

אם בַּאֲרָזִים נָפְלָה שַׁלְהֶבֶת – מַה יַּעֲשׂוּ אֲזוֹבֵי קִיר?

Illustration:  Israel - a partial list of forms to be submitted for a municipal approval. 

Greek Gods Celebrate on the Olympus

 

The French hosted the Olympic games and presented an original tableau vivant of Greek Gods celebrating at their mountaintop abide. Dyonisius (the blue person) and the participants danced. The world was scandalized, which was what they wanted to provoke. Knowing Paris, I am unsurprised, but I always thought the Immortals were beautiful. These were not.

Back (or Forward?) into the Stone Age

 

In the 2010s, ANERA (an Islamic American Charity) worked in the Shoka area in the eastern part of the Rafah Governorate. Shoka residents were suffering from severe domestic water shortages. Anera constructed a 53,000-gallon (2,000m3) reservoir and pumping station and installed almost two miles (3,050 meters) of pipes that connected the tank to people’s homes. The 15,000 residents of Shoka now enjoy a steady water supply in their houses. (*)

(*) I saw a short video of our soldiers flowing up a Rafa reservoir and a 3-unit pumping station. HAMAS places weapons deposits and tunnels always near or in "sanctuary" points, like hospitals, schools... and water infrastructure, calculating that we will not dare to touch them. They are wrong. 

Yoram Ettinger's Numbers

 The number of annual Jewish births in Israel surged by 69% from 1995 (80,400) to 2023 (135,639), compared to a 17% increase of annual Arab births in Israel during the same period, as reported by the February 2024 Monthly Bulletin of Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics (ICBS).

The 2023 Jewish births (135,639) were 76% of total births (178,454), compared to 69% in 1995.

In 2024 (based on the 2022 data), the Jewish fertility rate (3.03 births per woman) is higher than the Arab fertility rate (2.75), as it has been since 2016. It is higher than the fertility rates in all Muslim countries other than Iraq and the sub-Sahara Muslim countries.

In 1969, Israel’s and Judea and Samaria’s ('West Bank’) Arab fertility rate was 6 births higher than the Jewish fertility rate. In 2015, both fertility rates were at 3.13 births per woman.

This reflects the dramatic Westernization of Arab demography in Judea and Samaria and pre-1967 Israel, triggered by Arab modernity, urbanization, the enhanced social status of Arab women, older wedding age (24), expanded participation of Arab women in higher-education and the job market, a shorter reproductive time (25-45 rather than 16-55) and the increased use of contraceptives.

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