Wednesday, May 1, 2019

Work Habit Lost

I used to work like a horse from 5 AM till midnight. Now, after a three week vacation on City Island, I am having difficulties to return to my former self and work habits. I sleep badly (Jetlag?) and I am aware of the neighborhood and the apartment building's all-night background noise, a phenomenon that I never noticed in the past. I lost my motivation,  can't find my mojo.


The Kaliver, Dead





The Nagykallo (Hungary) Hassidic dynasty changes generations as the 96 y.o. old rebbe Menachem Mendel Taub dies and a younger relative takes up the leadership of the court. The rebbe was the seventh in the male line of the original miraclemaker, the founder of the Hungarian Hassidic movement Itzhak Taub (1751–1821). This hassidut was deported in toto to Auschwitz and exterminated by the Nazis, and the young rebbe was taken out of the gas chamber and submitted to chemical experiments by camp-doctor Mengele. As consequence, he never grew a beard (a biblical no-no for Jewish priests) and conserved his youngish feminine face. He was married but sterile. After the war he settled in Israel and rebuilt, with the few survivors here, the Kaliver Hassidut, which follows the Hungarian tradition. The Rebbe spoke no Hungarian but sings (with Yiddisch accent) the "Szol a kakas mar" written by the original miracle rebbe.

Tuesday, April 30, 2019

Springtime for Safiyah

I sat an hour in the Ariel campus observing groups of Palestinian male and female students. Arab boys are tall, noisy and stressed, forming murderous-looking male circles. They dress exactly like their Jewish Mizrahi counterparts. The hijabed girls are mostly slim, graceful and provocatively physical, they touch and push the boys without any reticence, making the hirsute savages embarrassed and frozen. Arab boys do not talk with Jewish girls, and if they do, they spy the surroundings worried if somebody from the village is around. Arab girls in the University of Ariel, against my dark prejudices, seem happy, liberated and in heat. 

Monday, April 29, 2019

Rip Currents in British Waters

In Britain, Jeremy Corbyn, the opposition leader, has said the state would take control of Britain’s water, electricity, gas and railway operators, as well as Royal Mail and Royal Bank of Scotland if Labour wins power. After WWII, everything was State-owned and managed, till they decided otherwise. Now they moving back. The Democrats (USA) will follow, they too are considering the same, not because something is wrong, but out of spite and hate of the rich. 

Sunday, April 28, 2019

Why Americans feel that the World is About to End?

Americans have a real, immediate feeling that the world is about to end, especially if they fail to do penitence.

They feel guilty about using too much water, using too much energy, eating non-organic foods. De Blasio wants to re-engineer NYC's marvelous steel and glass skyscrapers in order to save water (and electricity) and feel that they are good, in harmony with Nature, Earth, God. Like fakirs, against human nature, eat no meat. Why to  save water on an river island, why recycle the shit? Why no more sinful steel and glass?

Mayor De Blasio, that is my specialty, recycling water, I can do it. But I feel degraded spending my time in imbecile playthings of the very rich. But work is work and it pays the bills.

If they want to live without breathing to save CO2 and save the world, let them do it. I think the Jewish religion, where fasting and other self-punishing ritual acts are strictly regulated, is more rational. Orthodox Jews do not see tall glass buildings as a sin against nature, Earth or whatever. 

Retro-Commissioning in New York


One of the things that amazed me in New York is extreme "environmentalist" public policy in building regulations. Bronx and Brooklyn are today inhabited by third-world people, easily manipulated by anti-rich, nationalistic slogans, reminding me to Arturo Frondizi's book "El Petroleo Es Argentino" which caused the annulment of all contracts with international oil companies and the transformation of the country from oil exporter to dependent from foreign suppliers. Thus, Alexandria Ocasio et al. ran out Amazon HQ from their city and now Mayor De Blasio's declarations are freezing investments in real estate in Manhattan.

De Blasio is proposing to reduce buildings' emission by 80% in five years or so, meaning the total energy (electricity) consumption that is the CO2 emitted by the electricity generation plants. His program is to force tall buildings to replace water and sewage etc infrastructure with new energy saving pipes and stone cover instead existing steel and glass. The builders observed that the newest skyscrapers in New York have EEAL Platinum certificate, that is, comply with the maximum environmental criteria on top of existing city regulation. The new view is that the steel and glass tall buildings are ugly and hurt the Earth environment. New York Democrats new flag says Save the Earth, what ever that it means and costs.  


"In Sydney, Australia, planning regulations, according to a recent Reserve Bank study, now add 55 percent to the price of a home." I think that in New York it is more, and the pressure will only grow to ridiculous extremes. Israel cannot stay behind.  Conclusions:

1. My business line of engineering drawings and municipal permits has a beautiful future, it seems. 

2. Urban building and commercial places will become prohibitively expensive and well placed real estate prices will rise to incredible levels, like in San Francisco. 

What is coming to Israel? This:

There are 3 steps to comply with NYC Local Law 87:





  1. Energy Audit: A licensed engineering firm must conduct an ASHRAE Level II Energy Audit.  An Energy Audit is a detailed survey and analysis of a building to identify all opportunities to reduce energy and water use. The end result is a report that details all potential energy and cost-saving measures.
  2. Retro-Commissioning (RCx):  Based on the findings of the Energy Audit, Vert Energy Group will conduct retro-commissioning study to identify deficiencies in your building’s base systems.  RCx ensures that building systems are operating in accordance with facility requirements and design intent. 

Saturday, April 27, 2019

Strategic Error in the Illiad

When the dissension stroke the Greek expeditionary force in its tenth year of fighting against the Trojans, the balance of power suddenly changed and the Trojans started beating the Greeks. For the first time in this long war, they camped in the open, in the expanse between the walled city of Troy and the fortified Greek camp on the beach.  The next day attacked in force and they succeeded in reaching the sandy beach where the Greek ships were stationed. Then they made a fatal strategic error. They tried to burn the ships. 

Sun Tzu says that you always should leave an escape opening for the circled enemy camp. One should press and harass the enemy, but never let it without a potential escape route, because an enemy with its back to the wall or the sea will fight desperately to death. These kind of combats, even if successful, are terribly expensive in terms of fallen soldiers and must be avoided. Hitler, for example, totally encircled the British expeditionary force in the continent, but did not close the trap but let a few kilometers wide opening, allowing them to sail back with their equipment to Britain. That was the classical Chinese and Mongol strategy.

But the Trojans, instead of letting the Greeks embark and row back to where they came from, tried to destroy their only hope of getting away alive from this failed, endless, futile war. The perspective of defeat and slaughter united the Greek fractions, healing their bitter divisions, and hardened their fighting spirit. They beat back the triumphant Trojan forces to behind the high walls and strong gates. The experience of almost-defeat forced them to realize that brute violence would never take Troy. You shall make war with tricks, unheroic but effective. It took ten bloody years for the Greeks to get the idea.