Comments for The Blog by Javier

Comment on The Champions Promenade by Monaco GP Walking Tour | The Blog by Javier

Monaco GP Walking Tour | The Blog by Javier — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 07:11:14 +0000

[...] Blog by Javier Skip to content HomeAbout me ← The Champions Promenade February 23, 2012 · 8:00 am ↓ Jump to [...]

Comment on Start-up Nation by Javier Mediavilla Ezquibela

Javier Mediavilla Ezquibela — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 23:57:43 +0000

And, while some aspects of the Israeli military may actually improve the country’s economy (say democratisation, recognition of merit, favouring social contacts among citizens of different backgrounds), such a military system requires huge resources to be maintained. I can’t figure how serving nearly one month a year can be economically efficient. Of course it strengthens bonds among comrades, but at enormous costs both in terms of their time and of public investing.

Comment on Start-up Nation by Javier Mediavilla Ezquibela

Javier Mediavilla Ezquibela — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 23:19:27 +0000

I think that the organisation of the military in Israel is clearly one of the aspects which would hardly be transferable to other countries.

Providing weapons and delegating the responsibility of how to use them, mainly to young people, is risky anywhere. In Israel, a huge proportion of the population may assume the cost, because they’re under strong external threats, and the worst part goes to the Arab population, who suffer the abuse of the troops. In countries like Spain, who have no such clear external threats (but episodies like the Green March or the Perejil Island crisis), people are more reluctant to empower the army. The story of coups, pronunciamientos, civil wars and dictatorships of the last two centuries shows that the biggest military threat to the Spanish people has been… the Spanish army itself.

Comment on Boeing commercial aircraft discounts (update for 2011) by Vero Venia

Vero Venia — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 00:15:03 +0000

Hi Javier,
I do not know much about pricing and discounting, but I guess it would be more interesting to understand what Boeing Commercial Airplanes operating margins are or will be.

Comment on How rain determines olive tree economics in Tunisia by dirk zoebl

dirk zoebl — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 11:35:40 +0000

the reason I struck on you was, surfing the net on olives in tunisia after reading in Kaplan’s Mediterranean Winter that in carthago a certain Mago wrote, even B.C., that trees should be planted there at 20x20mts, for Kaplan a sign of how fertile the soils there were (in Greece distances were 7×7 mt), now, you and me and maybe others know better than Kaplan on this, whom, nevertheless, I esteem very highly, even after this mistake. dirk

Comment on How rain determines olive tree economics in Tunisia by dirk zoebl

dirk zoebl — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 11:16:47 +0000

yes, javier, it was really a surprise to see you wondering and calculating on olives at different tree densities,it is now some 10 yrs ago that I struck on such figures frm Jaen and mid tunesia, and used them to show that with some clever manipulation in densities you can solve a lot, but never got any positive respons to it (specialists prefer to irrigate and invest as much as possible). but, be careful, apart of my one consideration above, there are many more in practice (percolation, varying evaporation and transpiration, etc), but as you remarked, one can start with a simple model, like also in economics at large (e.g. start with assuming that people are always rational beings), but then comparing results with statistics and adapt your model. so, once again, it was fun to meet a colleague in observations and thinking, greetings dirk

Comment on Boeing commercial aircraft discounts (update for 2010) by Boeing commercial aircraft discounts (update for 2011) | The Blog by Javier

Boeing commercial aircraft discounts (update for 2011) | The Blog by Javier — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 07:01:24 +0000

[...] years I wrote in some posts what was my estimate of Boeing discounts: the relation between what is announced by the press, [...]

Comment on How rain determines olive tree economics in Tunisia by Javier Irastorza

Javier Irastorza — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 23:22:35 +0000

Hi Dirk,
I’m glad that you liked the post. I appreciate your comments. I’ll have to go through your numbers in detail, as know I see your line of argument but would love to have the picture and order of magnitudes well ingrained

Comment on How rain determines olive tree economics in Tunisia by dirk zoebl

dirk zoebl — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 22:22:13 +0000

a little bit ,but not much,more realistic would come to 4 trees with 25kg olives per ha at 10 mm rain per year, or tree pattern of 50×50 mts.
closer even to reality: 50% water loss due to evaporation at 200 mm rain per yr, or tree pattern of 12×20 mts at harvests of 25 kg/tree.

Comment on How rain determines olive tree economics in Tunisia by dirk zoebl

dirk zoebl — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 12:42:59 +0000

once more on olives and rain; imagine for a shortmoment that all fallen rain is used for olive growth and ripening, that means at rains of 10 mm a total of 100.000 liter/ha, olives use rougly 1000 lt to produce 1 kg fruits, this would mean one tree of 100 kg harvest per ha, or distance of 100×100 mt in an orchard, of course not realistic (see only above, e.g., roots cant reach all that fallen rain etc)) but a nice sum to do indeed.