The GPT3 wrote this for me

As the clock winds down to the final seconds of the year, the mood for work might seem

a million miles away. On New Year’s Eve, the urge to go out and celebrate is strong,

but if you have a project to complete, it can be hard to find the motivation to stay focused

and make progress. If you’re looking for ways to find your mood for work on New Year’s Eve...

I am unimpressed, dear GPT. Illustration: 

"Moebius illustration of a simulacrum living in an AI-generated story discovering it is in a simulation" by DALL-E 2. 

Onion Soup in the Kibbutz

 Yesterday we celebrated 30th birthday of my daughter's common-law husband in the kibbutz. Every family was supposed to contribute a soup. The one in front of me was an onion soup of unknown origin,  not bad but definitely not like the traditional French onion soup in the picture. I am not saying that the Israeli kitchen is undigestible (which it is), but has much to learn from the French (and the Italian). 

Israel is Not Poor Anymore

 
The per capita GNP of Israel positions it among the wealthiest countries in the world, richer than Austria, Germany, and other European countries. It is very surprising for this old Jew. We are definitely not like you. Ill.: Restaurant BUY THE WAY, my village. Explanation: The more you eat 30-dollar alfalfa sandwiches, the wealthier you must be. 

ZIM dividend expected in 2023

The price of the stock was cruelly cut this month. Still it is the number one favorite of Jim Cramer.

  Due to the strong operational performance, the company further strengthened its balance sheet by redeeming its Series 1 and Series 2 unsecured notes due in 2023. With the early redemption of the unsecured notes, ZIM was no longer subject to certain dividend restrictions, and it declared a special dividend of $2 per share, which will be payable on Sept 15th (goes ex on August 24th).

Reason to be a Proud Israeli

After several years of temporary governments in Israel, it appears that a stable coalition has been formed and assumed power under Bibi Netanyahu.  The signing of the coalition agreement took more than a month, because of the demands of the religious parties. The demands were related to more generous financing of religious education, a specifically Jewish thing. In Argentina or the USA, education has zero priority and it is never debated in elections or at the party level. We are not the same as you are and I am rather proud of it.  Pic: Yitzhak Goldkopf, the leader of the Haredi fraction. A life dedicated to creating more religious kindergarten.  

Malaria Memories

When I was working in Nigeria, I caught diseases. First was recurrent fever, which a missionary doctor in the jungle, diagnosed and cured with antimalarial pills. Saved my life, probably.  The second was some VD, caught in a small hotel in Iboland, which was cured with penicillin. I was young and strong, so it felt like nothing at the time. Only fifty years later I realize how dangerous it was. 

Malaria is a bad parasite. Its control is threatened by emerging resistance among Anopheles mosquitoes and the changing behavior of mosquitoes, which now bite before people during daylight. In those times, VD was cured by easily available antibiotics, which are increasingly losing their strength.  Too bad. 

About Rome

 

I am reading Livy's history of Rome. The Israelites had wo tables of law, Rome had twelve. Livy describes the development of the Roman religion, how they consulted the will of Heaven, by watching the birds.

Illustration: Emperor Nero through the coins. He grew very fat as he aged. 

Rome was built on a worthless swampy piece of land. The marketplace, the Forum, was a wetland that had to be drained to be habitable. When the malaria mosquito appeared in Italy, Rome was doomed. 

It was climate change allowed the northward advance of the mosquito, sickening and successively emptying Palestine's coastlands, Greece, and then Italy. The center of gravity moved to France and Germany.