Manteros

 I studied in the city of La Plata, a French planned city built specifically to become the capital of the Province of Buenos Aires. Its public buildings, the University, the Cathedral, all were copies of Paris, irradiating wealth and good taste. The city with diagonals was a success. The local paper El Dia informs that "in 2023, la Municipalidad relevó a más de 1.100 personas ejerciendo la venta en el espacio público, concentradas en lugares emblemáticos como Plaza San Martín, Plaza Italia y Plaza Rocha."  (In 2023, there were 1100 individuals in the informal trade sector, selling second-hand clothing on the streets. They are called manteros.) It is difficult for me to imagine such poverty in that administrative-university city. In this era of universal, fantastic progress, Argentina has sunk to Third-World level. What a pity. 

The pic shows the manteros of Moreno, a suburb.

London is a financial backwater

 

I remember when London was the center of the financial world. It financed the train network in Argentina, developed the frozen meat exports, the mines in South Africa, and coffee plantations in Brazil. In Bauchi, they developed the peanut cultivation, created the Bauchi Meat Plant, etc. 

 The British Navy was a force for morality; it eliminated the slave trade worldwide, against the material interests of the Empire. 

All that, gone. 

President Trump mentioned the disaster that London has turned into. I am a lifelong Anglophile. I don't want the disappearance of the English nation. What a pity.

PS: Overall equity offerings on TASE raised a total of NIS 5.6 billion in H1-2025 (1.7 billion USD). H1 means the first six months of 2025, so we should rank in the 7th - 9th. place, but Bloomberg ignores us. Money is flowing into Israel.  

Weak Hands are being Shaken Out

 NVDA smashes through resistance levels, breaking above the consolidation that has been in place since mid-July. Weak hands have been shaken out, so we could be seeing a short-term vacuum kick in...

In trading lingo, "weak hands" refer to jittery investors who sell quickly during dips or periods of uncertainty. "Shaken out" means they've been scared off and sold their shares, like during NVDA's recent consolidation. Now, with fewer sellers, the stock might rise more easily as "strong hands" (committed holders) remain.

I am learning new things every day.

The reasoning seems correct. In the coming days, we shall see if it really is.

Pachacamac

 Thirty years ago, I visited the temple of Pachacamac (the belly button of the world, in Quechua) and the totemic idol in the central room in the upper terrace of the sanctuary. I wanted to look it up on the internet and found this pic. This is not the original idol; what I saw then was a twisted piece of old wood, with sacrificial remnants around in the room. It was unprotected and looked its 400 years old. I also explored the nearby House of the Virgins, where girls from all over the Inca empire were educated and prepared to marry the Inca. When I visited the deserted sanctuary, it was still well preserved because it never rains in Lurin. I could imagine the Spanish soldiers arriving and raping the girls. The recent pics show parts of the ruins occupied by houses and streets, and parts badly rebuilt for tourist consumption. 

Composite bow

 

The composite bow was a great invention. I thought it was a Hunnish-Mongol weapon. But no, it was a Mesopotamian development.

Polynices in Gaza

A dog feeding on a fallen terrorist, Tel El-Hawah, Gaza. As in Sophocles's Antigone.

Spartan warfare

 
Victor Davis Hanson writes that massive, big battles are a thing of the past, and we are now back to local insurrections and guerrilla warfare. That is the kind of war Zahal is waging these black days, using mostly unmanned missiles and D9 bulldozers (pic). No more street fights, but massive leveling of urban structures, leaving the enemy without streets to fight in. 

Israel ordered many 62-ton armoured D9s, but the Biden government forbade their delivery. The D9R Dozer is powered by Cat 3408C engine coupled to a Cat planetary power shift transmission (three forward and three reverse). The engine delivers a net power of 405hp and a drawbar pull of about 725kN.

Zahal's war in Gaza City is similar to the Spartans' ravaging Attica's agriculture, in bloodless summer campaigns, which, according to VDHanson, were ineffective, as Athens depended on imported grain rather than local produce. The Gaza population is not suffering, as they are fed by foreign food deliveries. This "dry" war can go on for months, depending on our sensitivity to hostile, antisemitic media, which is unnerving us.