Lost in a Lost World (Page 10)

ghostgeek: That never happened in the past, so why should it happen now? War and pestilence have always ridden side by side.

Zanjan: Pests will always be with you, war won't.

ghostgeek: I see your point. When there are no humans left, there'll be no more war. Might happen sooner than we're all banking on, given the way everybody jumps in aeroplanes to spread the latest virus.

Zanjan: Maybe they should be quarantined in lockdown for 14 days before getting on the plane as well. Forget self-isolation - people can't be trusted.

ghostgeek: Seems everyone nowadays craves foreign holidays, even if it kills them. Makes me wonder when the craze for jetting off to the world's hell-holes first began.

ghostgeek: And if you're suffering from a sudden spell of optimism, here's something that should bring you back to your senses:

A report titled Surviving and Thriving in the 21st Century, published today by the Commission for the Human Future, has isolated ten potentially catastrophic threats to human survival.

Not prioritised over one another, these risks are:

decline of natural resources, particularly water

collapse of ecosystems and loss of biodiversity

human population growth beyond Earth’s carrying capacity

global warming and human-induced climate change

chemical pollution of the Earth system, including the atmosphere and oceans

rising food insecurity and failing nutritional quality

nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction

pandemics of new and untreatable disease

the advent of powerful, uncontrolled new technology

national and global failure to understand and act preventatively on these risks.

[ https://theconversation.com/there-are-10-catastrophic-threats-facing-humans-right-now-and-coronavirus-is-only-one-of-them-136854 ]

I bet you're feeling more like your old self already.

Zanjan: My old self challenges their list, which is based on the assumption there's no solutions.

> decline of natural resources, particularly water <

Nothing new - Stop using fossil fuels and burning down the rainforests. Sea waters are rising - get more desalination plants. Import sand - the Saharah has lots its not using for anything. Resources don't have to be made from natural materials.

>collapse of ecosystems and loss of biodiversity<

Nothing new - Quit hunting/poaching wildlife. Stop pouring fertilizers and sewage into waterways and spraying pesticides (chemical drift) - apply organic farming/gardening techniques.

>human population growth beyond Earth’s carrying capacity<

Outdated information - earth's population rate is decreasing; birth control is practiced by more people, male fertility rates are decreasing worldwide. Families are smaller - extra people must be imported. Viral pandemics and antibiotic- resistant bacteria are devastating populations where wars would have done the same thing. Nobody knows what the earth's carrying. capacity is anyway.

>global warming and human-induced climate change<

See above - Don't pollute. Recycle. Reduce carbon footprint. Mine Astroids and send garbage to the moon - its not using its natural tunnels for anything.

>chemical pollution of the Earth system, including the atmosphere and oceans<

Same as above - repetition is not another point.

>rising food insecurity and failing nutritional quality>

Localized issues - share wealth, including intelligence.. Put down dictators and insurrections. Save your money for home-cooked food instead of the vices. Grow your own food. Stop being such a picky eater.

>nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction<

As if that's a frequent occurrence in any country. Weapons- grade plutonium is extremely difficult to find and intensely costly even if smuggled. Pretend your missiles are nuclear-armed. Why bother with WMD when you've got farmers spraying pesticides?

>pandemics of new and untreatable disease<

History for at least the last 3 million years. First, you complained about too many people! Balance of nature.

>the advent of powerful, uncontrolled new technology<

Cell phones and TVs are getting mighty racy these days but you still need authorization to use them. If the best we have is a robot vacuum cleaner and voice activated switches, we've got lots of time until the next boom.

> national and global failure to understand and act preventatively on these risks.>

Even now we hear everyone cry Orwell's 1984. The risk is people. Avoid crowded areas.

ghostgeek: Here, in the UK, it's going to be mandatory to wear a mask when going into a shop to help stop the spread of you-know-what. This is all a bit perplexing for me, seeing as we've gone for months without bothering while the number of infections has fallen. Also, shops other than supermarkets seem to lack the one thing needed to spread a virus: customers.

ghostgeek: Oddly, nobody entering a pub or restaurants will be required to wear a mask, even though people can get very close to each other in such places. Seems that spreading the virus whilst socializing is OK.

Zanjan: Definitely crazy. That sort of thing is going on in the USA as we speak and their record for pandemic control (excluding New York) is horrifically embarrassing.

Lusting for Personal Rights can trap one in the jaws of doom.

Kids are going back to school in September - maybe when these start dying, more people might be willing to sacrifice a wee bit of personal comfort to protect them.

ghostgeek: In my less philanthropic moments, I get to musing that pandemics are the price you pay for being able to jet anywhere in the world.

ghostgeek: A 15 year-old boy has died of bubonic plague in Mongolia, according to the country's health ministry.

The National Centre for Zoonotic Diseases (NCZD) said the teenager from the western province of Govi-Altai had died from eating marmot meat.

A quarantine has now been put in place on five districts in the province, which shares a border with China. ...

The death follows the news earlier this month of two people testing positive for the disease in the neighbouring province of Khovd. ...

Last year, a lockdown was imposed in the Mongolian province of Bayan-Olgii after reports that a couple had died from the bubonic plague after reportedly eating raw marmot meat.

[ https://news.sky.com/story/bubonic-plague-teenage-boy-dies-from-black-death-disease-12028222 ]

ghostgeek: Eating raw meat? I guess some people like to get close to nature.

Zanjan: Never heard of steak tartar? I've tried it and don't see what all the fuss is about. Raw meat is much richer in nutrients but you'd better know where it comes from. Arctic waters are a safe bet.
Never eat lake fish raw......deep sea fish are ok.

ghostgeek: Don't eat meat, fish or fowl; not for over half a century. Seem to be getting by OK.

ghostgeek: Here's some good news for a change:

Being bad-tempered and pessimistic helps you to earn more, live longer and enjoy a healthier marriage. It’s almost enough to put a smile on the dourest of faces. ...

The truth is, pondering the worst has some clear advantages. Cranks may be superior negotiators, more discerning decision-makers and cut their risk of having a heart attack. Cynics can expect more stable marriages, higher earnings and longer lives – though, of course, they’ll anticipate the opposite.

Good moods on the other hand come with substantial risks – sapping your drive, dimming attention to detail and making you simultaneously gullible and selfish. Positivity is also known to encourage binge drinking, overeating and unsafe sex.

[ https://getpocket.com/explore/item/why-it-pays-to-be-grumpy-and-bad-tempered?utm_source=pocket-newtab ]

ghostgeek: Of all the positive emotions, optimism about the future may have the most ironic effects. Like happiness, positive fantasies about the future can be profoundly de-motivating. “People feel accomplished, they relax, and they do not invest the necessary effort to actually realise these positive fantasies and daydreams,” says Gabriele Oettingen from New York University.

Graduates who fantasize about success at work end up earning less, for instance. Patients who daydream about getting better make a slower recovery. In numerous studies, Oettingen has shown that the more wishful your thinking, the less likely any of it is to come true. “People say ‘dream it and you will get it’ – but that’s problematic,” she says. Optimistic thoughts may also put the obese off losing weight and make smokers less likely to plan to quit.

[ https://getpocket.com/explore/item/why-it-pays-to-be-grumpy-and-bad-tempered?utm_source=pocket-newtab ]

ghostgeek: Perhaps most worryingly, Oettingen believes the risks may operate on a societal level, too. When she compared articles in the newspaper USA Today with economic performance a week or a month later, she found that the more optimistic the content, the more performance declined. Next she looked at presidential inaugural addresses – and found that more positive speeches predicted a lower employment rate and GDP in during their time in office.

Combine these unnerving findings with optimism bias – the tendency to believe you’re less at risk of things going wrong than other people – and you’re asking for trouble. Instead, you might want to consider throwing away your rose-tinted spectacles and adopting a glass half-empty outlook. “Defensive pessimism” involves employing Murphy’s Law, the cosmic inevitability that whatever can go wrong, will go wrong. By anticipating the worst, you can be prepared when it actually happens.

[ https://getpocket.com/explore/item/why-it-pays-to-be-grumpy-and-bad-tempered?utm_source=pocket-newtab ]

ghostgeek: My glass is nine-tenths empty and has a hole at the bottom.

Zanjan: Consequently, you drink straight from the bottle?

Obviously, there's good science and bad science. That study results go in and out of fashion approx every 10 years should make one wonder why they keep studying the same issues. I'm waiting for the study on eating bacon and eggs to return for the third time.

" By anticipating the worst, you can be prepared when it actually happens. "

I dare say anticipation is a poor substitute for organizing a disaster kit and exit route to a muster point. A HAP (hazard avoidance plan) is embedded in childhood training wherever they live; hopefully, the adults have completed this without scaring the kids half to death.

ghostgeek: I do drink straight from the bottle. It's easier to hold, therefore there's less likelihood of a disaster.

ghostgeek: Bacon, sausages, eggs, beans, mushrooms, tomatoes, black pudding... if that's what you had for breakfast, scientists say you've chosen the healthiest way to start your day.

No, seriously. Hot on the heels of yesterday's chocolate-is-good-for-you findings, researchers say a full English breakfast is better for the heart, waistline and blood pressure than carbohydrate-rich cereals, breads and pastries.

It is thought that a fried breakfast sets up the metabolism for the rest of the day, making it easier to burn off other meals and snacks.

[ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1262453/High-fat-bacon-eggs-breakfast-healthiest-start-day.html ]


The latest U.S. research on eggs won’t go over easy for those can’t eat breakfast without them.

Adults who ate about 1½ eggs a day had a slightly higher risk of heart disease than those who ate no eggs. The study showed the more eggs, the greater the risk. The chances of dying early were also elevated.

[ https://www.statnews.com/2019/03/15/are-eggs-good-or-bad-for-you-new-research-rekindles-the-debate/ ]


Even small amounts of red and processed meat - such as a rasher of bacon a day - can increase the risk of bowel cancer, according to research.

The latest study led by Oxford University and funded by Cancer Research UK, adds to evidence, including from the World Health Organization, that eating red meat can be harmful.

[ https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-47947965 ]

ghostgeek: I guess you pick the study that gives you the results you want to see.

Zanjan: That is, you can choose how you want to naturally die. I think it all depends on how often you eat them and what your family's medical history is.

What we do know is that bacon and eggs are high in bad cholesterol so, if you'd rather die from atherosclerosis, leading to heart failure, eat those. Bonus, a slimmer waistline when you die is good for the mortician.

ghostgeek: It's strange, but people throughout history have made a point of dying. Mmm ... what would planet earth be like if nothing popped its clogs? No standing room left.