Cav's Place

According to a group called The Advocacy for Anti-Procreation, today is the International Anti-Procreation Day. Of course, it’s also the World Day to Combat Desertification, and this has been observed since 1995 and is recognized by the UN, so it’d normally take precedence over an event that somebody who created a Facebook page came up with last year. However, I can’t currently think of any other attempts to create international events meant to even celebrate the childfree, much less openly and directly combat natalism, so I will mark the day by at least writing another post on the topic of overpopulation.

Interestingly, it was recently announced that birth rates here in Romania have fallen to the lowest values seen after World War II, which can count as good news, especially since we’re talking about a country with one of the lowest, if not the lowest, fertility in Europe already. Of course, the numbers are still appallingly high compared to what would be needed and things look even worse when you pay attention to the details, such as the fact that a good three quarters of the roughly 15% population drop seen over the past 25 years is due to immigration, that many of those who immigrate end up having children in their new home countries and therefore still contribute to the global overpopulation problem, or that the remaining quarter is due in part to the wrong reasons, such as lower life expectancy and higher mortality than in more developed countries. However, although this is currently happening too slowly to be relevant, I have to take note of the fact that things are at least getting slightly better instead of worse.
Of course, the vast majority, including the authorities, don’t see it that way, and I just read a call to restart the national in vitro fertilization program, because “thanks” to it “350 children were brought into this world at a cost of only one million Euros”… Which is, of course, like saying that air pollution levels have dropped and therefore a program to expand coal power plants should be restarted because it can relatively cheaply generate more electricity, regardless of the fact that pollution is still way too high and we’re already producing more electricity than we need, the problem being to find export contracts for the surplus. But the fact that all but a tiny minority of people think with their gonads is nothing new, so the question is how can those of us who are actually capable and willing to put reason above the most basic instincts win this war, because that’s what it is, and give ourselves and all other species we share this planet with a real chance.

Returning to the global issue, I can only state once again that bringing the human population back down to a sustainable level is absolutely necessary if we are to have a chance to solve almost any of the environmental problems that plague this planet or the social problems that plague mankind. Of course, that alone is far from sufficient and many other measures need to be taken, but most of those measures can only be truly efficient after the world will no longer be overpopulated, as under the current circumstances they merely delay the inevitable at the cost of efforts and resources that could be better used either for real development or for fixing the damage already caused. In other words, until we’ll solve this problem we’ll just keep buying time at an ever increasing cost, and the worst part is that, while humans may perhaps continue to afford doing so for centuries to come, most of the species we share this planet with don’t have that luxury.
And while I’m restating the obvious, it should be clear to everyone that reducing population by killing people or by allowing them to unnecessarily die when they do not specifically wish for this to happen is to be avoided, while the option of moving most humans to other planets won’t exist in the foreseeable future, so the only solution we’re left with is greatly reducing the number of births by any means necessary, perhaps to the minimum needed to avoid a genetic bottleneck, until the population will drop to a sustainable level once again. Then, while we’re doing that, we should also bring evolution back into the game by selecting those few who’d still be allowed to have children according to resistance to disease and extraordinary talents and abilities that are truly worthy of being passed on, and of course also according to a slew of other criteria meant to preserve diversity as much as possible, because unless we do both of these things at once we’ll almost certainly dig ourselves into a deep hole.

As for that sustainable level I keep mentioning, it’s not seven billion, and it most definitely isn’t nine or ten or the even higher numbers studies currently say will be reached. What it actually is depends on lifestyle choices, consumption patterns, the amount of freedom allowed, the existing environmental damage and the number of people dedicating their lives to fixing it, so it’s impossible to give a clear value. I saw numbers as high as 18 billion, but only assuming a low standard of living and exploiting nearly every nook and cranny with no care for the other species, or as low as 100 million, assuming maintaining a reasonable environmental footprint while allowing for a particularly high standard of living and an equally high amount of freedom to choose one’s lifestyle and consumption patterns, with no new developments aimed to mitigate the negative consequences of such choices.
Still, several more serious studies that I remember seeing, which attempted to take multiple factors into account, arrived at values often ranging between one and one and a half billion, so at the moment we may assume that to be a reasonable range, with perhaps two billion as an upper limit made possible by future technological breakthroughs, if we aim for a decent standard of living for all humans while also giving the other species a fighting chance. As such, and also considering the current numbers and the methods I advocate, my personal target would be to reach three billion by the end of the century, with the rest of the reduction taking place in the 2100s.

But this was only meant to be a brief post and, either way, I’m not saying anything new, so I’ll now leave you to celebrate the International Anti-Procreation Day by doing things that won’t result in another human being brought into this world, most preferably including doing your best to ensure that others won’t worsen the overpopulation problem either. Sex is obviously allowed, and I’ll say even encouraged, but unless you or your partner, or both, are sterilized or definitely sterile, do make sure you’ll take all the necessary precautions!

I must say there were moments while reading this book when I had to take short breaks because I was too excited or too busy mentally praising this or that scene or line to still be able to focus properly. The action is decent, but the calmer moments are even better, offering the great characters a chance to shine even more, portraying the world in perhaps unnecessary but definitely most welcome detail, and touching upon major issues or sharing words of wisdom for those who care for deeper meanings.
On the other hand, while the chapters are particularly long, the book itself is far shorter than I think a fantasy book should be, or at least far shorter than I prefer one to be, regardless of the fact that there are several of them in the series. Perhaps for that reason, some moments seem treated too shallowly, in contrast with the overall atmosphere and attention to detail. And I definitely disliked the untranslated Elder speech, especially when there was a significant amount of it.

Rating: 4/5

As I have done in 2008, actually also on June 15, as well as in 2010, I will once again wonder why aren’t teams allowed to challenge the decisions of the referees by asking them to look at the replays. It won’t be some technology making decisions, in fact that’d be impossible at the moment, but the referee will simply be able to properly see what happened and decide whether the original call stands or it was a mistake which should be rectified. It’d be simple, won’t require implementing anything that isn’t already being done for matches, if done properly it won’t even add all that much time, and it should be enough to get rid of huge mistakes such as the ones that once again plagued most matches so far.
In the past we had that fifth official whose duty was to watch the replays on a television screen and determine whether a goal was scored or not in case it’ll be uncertain whether the whole ball crossed the line, ignoring any and all other mistakes he may notice. Now they took that to the next level and poured who knows how much into technology that will determine whether a goal was scored on its own. And all of this unnecessary effort was done for a single issue that may appear once or twice during the entire competition, if at all. However, something that is absolutely necessary, will cost very little and require no new developments whatsoever, still isn’t being done and the only plausible explanation is that it’d prevent referees from being used to fix matches and they won’t allow that. Absolutely no other attempt to explain why this isn’t done can stand up to any sort of scrutiny for as much as a single moment.

Yes, what I was first saying, back in 2008, about the referees themselves being able to ask to watch the replay before making a final decision, was a bad idea, because many may have been tempted to do it for most decisions and it’d have been a complete mess, but the idea of teams being allowed to do this in order to challenge a decision definitely stands. Obviously limit this right, two or three wrong challenges per half during the regular time and two more during extra-time, whether one per half or both granted from the start, but of course a challenge shouldn’t count as having been used unless the referee will stand by his original decision even after watching the replay.
This way, teams will know not to waste them, not too much time should be added unless the referee is particularly bad, but at the same time any other complaints or discussions with the referee would vanish because if a player or official will complain but the team, through the coach or team captain, won’t actually ask for a challenge, it’ll mean those who complain know they’re wrong and are only trying to create some pressure or waste some time and should therefore receive yellow cards from the first words or gestures. In addition, the clock could and should be stopped from the moment a team challenges a decision and until the referee restarts the match after viewing the replays, so the time currently wasted with these discussions that are now pointless but nevertheless tend to take place after particularly questionable or simply infuriating decisions will be recovered.

I guess I’ll stop here, because I just meant to quickly mention this again between two matches. If I felt up to writing more about the World Cup at the moment, I’d be picking on very different issues, largely related to the fact that Brazil shouldn’t be hosting it any more than South Africa should have hosted the previous one… Or any more than Russia should host the next or Quatar the one after that.

Finally managed to get myself to start reading Time of Contempt this week and have to say there were moments when I was enjoying it too much to continue, if that makes any sense. Too busy grinning and thinking that this or that scene or line were so great to focus properly anymore, so had to keep taking short breaks for probably the best reason possible when it comes to books. Admittedly, the very long chapters are rather troublesome, especially for someone as rusty as I am when it comes to reading, but there are exactly seven of them, so that makes it easy to say I’ll read it in exactly one week.
In addition, after finally managing to finish The Lost Vikings at the start of last week and spending a couple of days poking through King of Dragon Pass a little more, I got back to Return to Krondor, quickly finished chapter two… And then I got stuck in chapter three, ending up in exactly the sort of situation that makes me abandon games. My brain somehow decided to pretty much take a break, so I made an extremely poor use of a great situation and now I won’t be going anywhere until I’ll get the same things, or of course better ones, which seems extremely unlikely, considering the multiple random checks involved.

As for bad news, my body definitely seems to have had enough of all the stress and lack of sleep, because it’s acting up in several ways at once. In fact, that’s probably the better scenario, the worse one being that something more serious is wrong and is causing the other issues I’m noticing. I’ll have to see what I can do about it, but at the moment this is definitely causing even more stress and lack of sleep, so it’s quite a vicious circle even if that’s the only cause.

Last but definitely not least, yesterday morning, as I was walking to a store where you’d better go early if you want to still find something good that’s on sale, I took note of a cat sitting in the middle of this street nearby and a guy with a backpack leaning down to pet it. Since it’s a one-way street with speed bumps, generally little traffic and largely unusable sidewalks mostly taken up by parked cars, neither the person nor the cat were in any way unusual, since everyone walks directly on the road and only moves aside when a car passes, but I definitely remembered the moment when, less than an hour later, I was walking back and saw that same cat lying dead, in the same spot, in a pool of blood.
Unlike the one I saw killed on that same street back in 2009, this one definitely was not flattened, so I have to assume that it was struck hard enough, but then I find it difficult to believe that a car would drive fast enough for that so my mind keeps going back to that guy, especially since the cat was in the same spot. It also keeps going back to the rumors that another cat from this area was killed by having its head bashed in with a rock, and to the lost cat posters I’ve been seeing on and around that street for the past several months.
In other words, I’m wondering whether it was simply a coincidence or that guy killed the cat, and possibly not only that one. I obviously don’t want to accuse, not even just in my own mind, a person who likes animals and simply stopped for a moment to pet a cute cat that walked in his path, but I can’t not ask myself this question… And once I do that, I also can’t not ask myself whether I could have saved the cat by leaning down to pet it as well while he was there, or perhaps even by simply stopping to look for a longer moment instead of just smiling and walking quickly past that spot.

This will be another quick post, just to avoid another Sunday update. I’m completely exhausted, so only trying to somehow write this now and post it just before midnight, because I’m not even sure I got three hours of sleep yesterday, adding together the morning and the afternoon, and then some sort of problems, which I hope only consist of some momentary inflammation and not a urinary infection or something even worse than that, ensured that I didn’t get more than another few hours, split in a few different parts, today either. Let’s hope these issues will sort themselves out and I’ll manage to catch up over the next couple of days.

Yesterday I was supposed to be one of the witnesses for another protester, who was supposed to have been my witness as well if the judge who heard my case would have wanted any, but ended up wasting a good four hours in Court, plus the time spent on the road, for no reason. He was last on the day’s schedule and, seeing as this judge heard witnesses, the proceedings dragged on, but when his turn finally came he was told he’ll only be able to use one witness, probably because he was the only one who had both of those he had listed actually show up, and he chose the other one, for obvious reasons. Not that I’m complaining about that part, of course, but it’d have made things a lot simpler if I’d have known in advance that it’ll be like that, so I wouldn’t have gone at all. Still, this should at least mean that there will be no more court dates if no new problems will appear, at least if the Gendarmerie won’t appeal the ruling in my case and if he’ll be successful as well.

What made yesterday even worse, however, was the fact that, shortly after leaving, I noticed that the bottom part of my right shoe was peeling off, so I was sort of limping and dragging my foot, literally, as I went to Court and then to a hypermarket after the hearings ended. Admittedly, at the time it didn’t seem to be that big of a problem because it looked like there won’t be quite that much to glue back together, seeing as these have the soles split in four, with this front part making up most of the surface, the part under the heel being split in two and another part, which doesn’t seem to have any practical purpose, in the area that makes less contact with the ground. However, now that I had a better look at them, I noticed that the parts under the heels of both are coming off as well, while that middle part of the bottom of this right one is completely gone, plus that it may be getting a little torn in another area as well.
Having the bottom part fall off the old ones, completely and on both at once, while taking a walk, was the reason why I ended up getting these, I believe about seven years ago, but now the plan is to ignore what’s gone, since it doesn’t exactly matter anyway, and still try to glue everything else that’s coming off back together, seeing as it was obviously simply glued in the first place. However, there’s quite a lot to do and I’m not sure if it’ll be worth it, nor how long it’ll actually last, so the glue may be an additional and more or less useless expense and I may end up needing new shoes soon enough anyway, and I definitely don’t care to go looking for any.