Cav's Place

If you don’t count a few e-mails from various sites and a text message from a shop offering me a 1% discount, which used to be higher in previous years, only two people mentioned it today, so that’s some improvement. Doesn’t make the day any better and my standard reply to the standard birthday wish here, which would literally translate to “many years to come”, is still “if they’re like the ones that passed, I don’t want them”, but it could have been worse.
Still, the day didn’t start well at all, since some neighbor decided to start drilling at around 10:20 AM and, even though the noise didn’t last that long, it was probably around noon by the time I could get back to sleep. Then, after some fainter noise briefly woke me up again at some point, I finally crawled out of bed at 3 PM and couldn’t do much of anything by the time dad got home, about an hour later. Because of that, I’m still wondering when I’ll manage to clean my room, since I’ve been meaning to do it since the start of the week but I’m yet to get around to it.
Also meant to go for a walk one of these days, or perhaps on more than one of them, since the weather seems to be so nice, but that health card was apparently delivered on Monday and I had to go to the post office and pick it up yesterday, obviously without managing to tell anyone, not even an innocent postal worker, exactly what I think about these cards and where to shove them. And since I did that without shaving and it counts as having gone out this week, I didn’t feel like going anywhere else now.
In addition, something else broke in the bathroom, so couldn’t use that sink for the past several days, and have to be careful with the one in the kitchen as well, as that has been having problems for years and now it feels like it may not survive someone not being careful enough when turning on the water. Replacements have been bought yesterday, though the one for the bathroom is a cheap piece of shit that’s also too small and will make it rather nasty to use that sink from now on anyway, but so far dad doesn’t seem to have too much success in installing anything. He tried with the bathroom today, the result being that at the moment everything’s in pieces around there and I can’t shower either.

I guess that’s about it for now. If anyone expected any balance sheet or plans for the future now that I reached such a milestone age, there won’t be any. The parts of the past that made it seem that life may actually be worth living in some ways keep getting more distant and the future is ever bleaker. Was actually telling someone a few days ago that when it comes to causes or world issues, I can at least still hold on to some illusion of hope that I may be able to do something to play a small part in creating some good change, but when it comes to my personal life, I don’t even have that anymore.

Since today’s race can be said to have been particularly uneventful, there were no opportunities to see whether any procedures were changed as a result of some hasty decision meant to further reduce risks that are already shockingly low. However, over this past week I did see various articles mentioning that both closed cockpits and taking decisions completely away from any humans, whether by automatically and immediately deploying the safety car or by enforcing a speed limit every single time an accident results in a car being left stranded on or off the side of the track, were being discussed. Obviously, none of these will apply by the end of this season, but at this point it seems surprisingly likely that one of these options, possibly the last one, will be adopted as of next year.
Of course, there were proposals that made much more sense as well, and I’m referring to those regarding the recovery vehicles. Changing the way in which those are deployed and used in order to minimize the risk of another car striking one and making changes to them in order to prevent such a car from ending up underneath if such an event does occur again would increase safety without affecting racing, and also while still allowing the drivers to decide the risks they’re willing to take.

The fact is that over 20 years passed since the last Formula 1 accident that had such serious consequences, and that’s an absolutely unbelievable safety record for motor sports. In fact, no fatalities for such a long time would be impressive for just about any sport that has any sort of risk involved, and motor sports inherently carry a degree of risk which can’t be completely eliminated. As such, it can’t be said that there’s something wrong with Formula 1’s safety regulations as a whole or with the way the previous race was handled in general, and Bianchi’s crash can, and most likely should, be seen as a particularly unfortunate accident that had to happen sooner or later.
That said, whether that recovery vehicle had any business being there at that time, considering the conditions and the position of Sutil’s car, is definitely still a matter for debate and I do maintain my opinion that it shouldn’t have been deployed under those circumstances. If the actions taken by the race officials were in line with the current regulations, said regulations, and possibly also the design of the recovery vehicles themselves, may require some adjustments, while if anything was done against the current regulations then whoever made that decision may share a part of the blame for what happened. However, discussing any other additional safety measures at this moment seems pointless at best, and likely detrimental to the sport if any will actually end up being implemented.
Motor sports inherently carry a degree of risk and all those who participate accept this fact. Actually, even the spectators have to accept it, as it was pointed out that such a notification is printed on the back of every ticket. Now of course this risk should be reduced as much as possible, but not in ways which will have a significant negative impact on the racing or take away any amount of freedom the drivers still have to decide how far they’re willing to push the limits.

Moving on, let me say a few words about the specific measures proposed that do not deal with the recovery vehicles, starting with the closed cockpits. This does seem least likely to happen, and for good reason, because I doubt there are many scenarios in which the drivers would be protected by such a solution significantly better than they are by the current design and their helmets. In fact, I can think of cases where a closed cockpit would make matters worse, such as when a malfunction would prevent a driver from quickly escaping a burning vehicle or when help would reach an injured driver later than it would in an open cockpit. In addition, a closed cockpit may mean some shards in case of major impacts, which would actually increase the risk of injury for both driver and stewards or medical workers, and hot and sunny races would likely be even more uncomfortable than they are now even if everything functions as it should and there are no accidents to make matters worse.
Deploying the safety car for all accidents, on the other hand, may in a way make for more interesting racing, but there are problems with this as well. For one, there have also been accidents under the safety car and the fact that none have been so serious doesn’t mean anything when there haven’t been any this serious for over 20 years under any circumstances. After all, I doubt you’d be feeling that much better if you’d be slamming your head into the back of a truck at 120 km/h instead of 250 km/h. On top of that, if the safety car is on track too long, there may be too little time left to race, especially when you consider the fact that overtaking tends to be more difficult on the tracks that are more likely to see accidents. Last but not least, there is the matter of the lapped cars, which are currently allowed to overtake once the track is clear, with the safety car leaving the track once they return to the back of the pack. This already is a problem and will become an even greater one if races will be neutralized more often, but at the same time eliminating this rule would be completely unfair to those lapped drivers, as one may be only a few seconds behind another when the safety car is deployed and end up a full lap behind when they can get back to racing, simply because the race leader had already lapped one and not the other.
As for enforcing speed limits, either way that’s done it’d simply ask for trouble. If it’d be done automatically, such as by a command that makes the car activate the pit lane limiter in the area where yellow flags are being waved, the heavy braking and sudden acceleration may create more problems than the measure would prevent, plus that it’d simply take away the drivers’ right to decide how much they’re willing to push in an area where the risks are perhaps slightly higher than normal. If, on the other hand, it’d be done by requiring the driver to lose a certain amount of time compared to their normal pace, as is now the case for those who are still in clear air when the safety car’s on track, it’d likely be like opening a can of worms. I mean, will there be specific timers covering every possible area in order to apply this only to the part of the track affected by yellow flags or will this requirement apply to an entire sector or even lap? In the former scenario, how would the driver be certain they match the time, especially when it may be a matter of fractions of a second over one or two turns? In the latter, what’d stop drivers from actually gaining useful time in the affected area and slowing down in other portions, perhaps where they can defend better from those behind them?

The point is that Formula 1 is already extraordinarily safe, incredibly safe. For its first three decades, it averaged one or two driver fatalities per year, which is hardly surprising when you aim for the highest performance in motor sports, yet now more than 20 years passed not only since the last death, since Bianchi’s still alive after all, but since the last accident that resulted in injuries that left the driver at least permanently disabled, at least to the best of my knowledge. That becomes even more remarkable if you compare that record to all the injuries and deaths seen nearly every day on any country’s roads, where drivers don’t try to squeeze every last thousandth of a second out of their cars.
Of course, this doesn’t mean safety shouldn’t be improved even further even in Formula 1, but we shouldn’t simply get used to the fact that nothing happens and then react in utter shock and panic when something finally does, possibly implementing measures that’ll harm the sport in other ways as a result. It’s motor sport; accidents have happened, do happen and will happen again, no matter what measures are taken. If something can be done with the recovery vehicles, with the protocols to follow in such situations, possibly with the tracks themselves if this won’t make racing worse, it should probably be done. However, those cars are already so incredibly safe, their raw performance has been hampered in so many ways for the past decade and more, and the racing has, until very recently, suffered so badly for so long, that it’d likely be better to focus on other matters for the foreseeable future, and meanwhile strive to apply the safety lessons learned in racing on road cars, where further developments are definitely still needed.

I’ll be quick again, because I don’t feel like writing anything but I guess I have to put something here this week and there’s a protest to go to tomorrow, so definitely won’t be writing then. That leaves Sunday for the week’s second post and the idea would be to add some more opinions regarding Bianchi’s crash and the reactions that followed, especially since the next race is then and I’ll be able to get more information right before writing, but turning thoughts into words that others may also understand and then typing them in a form that’s at least passably suitable for a blog post and not just a random comment is, as always, the problem.

On top of the usual mood and the usual reasons for it, parents also decided to have the hallway and the ceilings of the kitchen and bathrooms repainted, so two guys were here last week, on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, starting in the morning and leaving in the afternoon. That meant barely getting a couple of hours of sleep before some loud noise woke me up with my heart racing, then needing to wait around and also hold it in until they left, and trying to catch up on some of the lost sleep at some point during the evening, when I actually managed to fall asleep again. Also meant a lot of dirt and dust, smell that made me nauseous whenever I left my room, a wardrobe and some suitcases in my room, a small tear in my floor as dad tried to push said wardrobe in, not showering for four days and struggling to eat something on a small folding table set among the mess in the kitchen Wednesday night and in my room Thursday night, after thoroughly washing everything used and still feeling like I was being poisoned.
Worse, cleaning took several more days and in fact there’s still white dust in plenty of places even now, which meant, among other things, that I didn’t brush my teeth for a week because, as illogical as it is, it felt dirtier to do that in the bathroom when it looked like it did than to ignore it completely. In addition, the work was obviously done quite poorly, but I knew that from the beginning, not that anybody’ll listen. Then again, even I didn’t expect to see that one small area will need to be painted again because the painters seem to have completely forgotten about it on Friday, when parents had them paint the hallway all over again because the color was very different from the one they wanted the first time around.

Otherwise, at least it seems that I could get myself to submit some more mobyranks on MobyGames, though not many and not every day. At the same time, got myself back to playing too, continuing the King of Dragon Pass game I had started quite some time ago but having things suddenly turn sour and eventually end the next day with my clan disbanding. Didn’t feel like starting over right away after that, so currently I seem to have returned to The Witcher, though that feeling of doing one thing and fucking up three is still there. How long will I stick to it or when will I try King of Dragon pass again, I can’t say, but I’d definitely like to finish both, or more exactly to finish The Witcher and win a long King of Dragon Pass game, by next spring, and if I drop them both again I doubt I’ll pick them back up in time to manage that.

As anyone who has any interest in racing, and probably plenty who don’t as well, undoubtedly already knows, Jules Bianchi crashed heavily into a recovery vehicle during today’s Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix, the race eventually being stopped on lap 46 of 53 a result. The recovery vehicle was there because Adrian Sutil had crashed into the barriers in that same spot the lap before, as rain started falling once again and conditions rapidly worsened. The safety car was only deployed after Bianchi’s crash, not after Sutil’s, but I’m going to disagree with those who accuse race control of what happened, because Sutil was all right, his car was in a spot from which it could have been quickly dragged away and the fact that rain was getting heavier made it likely that sending out the safety car at that point would have essentially meant the end of the race, which is not a decision to make so quickly if it’s not obviously necessary.
The problem was where and how it happened, and the way that vehicle recovery was handled was just about asking for injuries. Admittedly, the stewards seemed most at risk, just running on the side of the track in a spot where drivers were likely to lose control in those conditions, but the moment I saw the crane I wondered why make things even worse by bringing it there? If they really wanted to use it, they could have brought it behind the barriers, to hoist Sutil’s car over them without becoming itself a hazard, but there was an opening there and I think Sutil’s car could have simply been pulled away by stewards as well, with them staying behind and on the other side of it so they won’t be directly struck in case of another accident.

As a reminder, the last Formula 1 fatality was Ayrton Senna, on that black 1994 race weekend which also claimed the life of Roland Ratzenberger. And do correct me if I’m wrong, but the last serious injury that I recall was Massa’s freak accident in 2009, when a part from Barrichello’s car flew off and smashed into his head. The helmet saved his life, but he required surgery and was out for the rest of the season.
Admittedly, Maria de Villota was involved in a serious accident in 2012, on her first actual day as a Marussia test driver, and complications from that accident were considered to be the probable cause of the heart attack which caused her death last year. However, the accident took place during a straight-line test on an airfield, so nothing to do with a race weekend, a track or anything else which may be seen as an actual Formula 1 event, and she was a test driver, so this is an entirely different matter.

As far as reactions after the race go, Massa was particularly harsh in criticizing race control, both for allowing the race to start when it did and for not stopping it before Bianchi’s crash. However, he’s pretty much the only one complaining of being allowed to race too soon, as other drivers had been repeating that the conditions were good enough for several minutes by the time the safety car finally peeled off. About the end, things were getting rather tricky, but from what I saw, other drivers and team personnel seem to generally agree that neither the amount of water on track nor the approaching sunset justified a red flag at that time, with some saying the conditions were even better than expected. And, of course, there’s Niki Lauda’s statement, along the lines one’d expect from him: “Motor racing is dangerous. We get used to it if nothing happens and then suddenly we are all surprised. We always have to be aware that motor racing is very dangerous and this accident is a coming together of various difficult things.”

While writing this, it has finally been officially confirmed that Bianchi is undergoing surgery for severe head injuries, after which he will be moved to intensive care. The fact that doctors are planning the next steps after the surgery can be taken as some good news, seeing as his condition was reported as critical and pictures of the crash and eyewitness reports made some reporters doubt that survival was a possibility. But, of course, depending on the extent of the injuries, one should always ask which is truly the better option for the person involved.

A site from here recently asked people what are the top three changes they’d make in Bucharest. Exactly where the question was, I couldn’t say, since I just saw the article publishing a selection of answers last night, but that of course made me comment with my own answer as well and now I thought I might as well translate it, make a few additions and clarifications and put it here too. Some parts of the first item do refer to specific things taking place here recently, but the general idea applies everywhere, and the other two items clearly do in full.

1. Putting Nature first, so the city will be as “green” as possible. No more building or paving any area that’s currently any sort of green space, whether formally recognized as such or not. A significant amount of relatively wild areas need to be left or created in parks, the only interventions being those required to eliminate pests and disease carriers, create some footpaths and place lights and trash cans along them. Paths shouldn’t usually be too wide in the other areas either, tree branches should join above them and any buildings or other such elements must be few in number and designed to look as natural as possible.
Streets should be lined with large trees with thick crowns, so during the warmer parts of the year the sidewalks will be shaded and plenty of the narrower streets, and at least a few larger avenues as well, will be covered by their branches joining above. Trees shouldn’t be hacked apart under the excuse of “pruning” or killed by work done around their roots, as it keeps happening here in recent years, regardless of whether those that die as a result of this are replaced by others or not. Instead, existing ones need to be properly cared for in order to survive as long as possible, with old or particularly large ones receiving special attention.
In addition, gardens should be planted on top of some buildings, at least where solar panels won’t be a better option, and plants could cover some facades. Personal gardens definitely need to be strongly encouraged, penalizing people who pave large parts of their yards or turn them into mere lawns, which is the opposite of what happens in most places.

2. Making citizens be far more involved. When it comes to local matters, protests, petitions and other methods of making the officials aware of the issue and the proposed solutions need to be paired with a very “hands on” approach, direct action escalating to whatever level will prove necessary to solve the problem. For national and global matters, activism will take the form of information and awareness campaigns, protests, petitions, contacting officials and showing solidarity with those directly affected in various other ways. Actions should be carried out in a civilized manner whenever possible, but with determination and the willingness to continue for however long it will prove necessary. People must understand we’re all in this together.

3. Reorganizing the transport infrastructure so pedestrians will be the top priority. Second will be the metro, but developed as a way to quickly travel between areas and important points of interest, not with stops so close together that the train will barely get time to speed up before needing to stop again, as the plans for the new routes planned for here seem to involve. Third, bicycles and other similar alternative means of transportation. Fourth, surface public transportation, using vehicles that don’t cause pollution. All of these will be priorities, but in this order. What can’t be a priority are drivers and their cars, and I’m including taxis here as well, as the use of personal automobiles needs to be discouraged as much as possible and relegated to certain special situations, which will be as few and as rare as possible.