I guess they know that, statistically, officials in officialdom just announced that the Earth now holds eight billion people. Who counts? Maybe counting crows, though as I recall people are supposed to count crows and some people like to be known as Counting Crows professionally. Anyway, eight billion.
The counters also inform us that human world population will level off at around 11 billion and then do something. Just what is "level off?" Does this actually mean something, or is this a United Nations admission that they can't count anymore after reaching nearly 12 billion? Is a decline expected when the magic 11 number hits? I suspect that what this comes down to is that by the time we reach 11 billion, we will have killed off all the animals and plant life and human survival will be quite the trick.
But don't despair! Help may be on the way. Depending upon your point of view.
I've long been impressed with medical research performed in Israel, though the results aren't always to the liking of medical institutions and governments in other countries.
That's why I was rather surprised to find a November 15 article in The Times of Israel by health and science correspondent Nathan Jeffay, describing how men's sperm counts worldwide have accomplished a cliff dive of some 62 percent in less than 50 years!
Adds study co-author Hagai Levine, not only is that bad news for fertility and men's health, it could also "threaten human survival." The study cover years after an initial study, and clearly shows an acceleration of sperm decline in research which encompassed 53 countries.
So. . .this is a bad thing? Just as every dog has its day, it seems that a terribly large number of species have had theirs, only to go bye-bye forever. Save the planet? Hell, seems we can't even save ourselves, and nature will help. So wha's up? Well, war, diminishing nutrition in our heavily processed foods, plowing and paving over of fields and forests, killing everything in sight that moves, precious water sources fouled by fertilizers and everybody's poop, Frankenstein chemicals everywhere -- and the list goes on. Not to leave out crazy people demanding an increase in human populations because we're running out somehow.
Survival of the fittest? That might eventually indicate survival of the last. Children currently showing up in the medical community with severe illnesses may represent the iceberg's tip, for immune systems of the young seem increasingly difficult to nurture and perpetuate.
Maybe, like spaces on Earth, the universe doesn't like a void, but it probably doesn't like a continuously stupid and worn out planetary Vaudeville show, either, so maybe we're simply destined to flame out as a species.
Could be the planet will say thank you.
- Other topics of which you can neither live with or without -
Jeffrey Dahmer dramatized on TV? Okay, but wait until they most assuredly will get around to a series on Dean Corll, "the man with the candy" who sexually tortured and murdered many young men and at least one boy in his house, culminating in his own death by gunfire via accomplice Elmer Wayne Henley one day when things weren't exactly going Dean's way. I believe I recall seeing a page years ago in the satirical Harvard Lampoon entitled, "Dean Corll's Favorite Jokes." Nothing funny about a carefully designed torture board.
Taylor Swift and Ticketmaster's sweet music: Why bother attending her extravaganza? You'll just tempt fate with thousands of people coughing on you and spraying your face with an assortment of nature's worst viruses and bacteria. Then there are the audience members who don't wash their hands after using the bathroom, but stick a drug or food morsel in your face and insist that you "try this." Is it worth the risk, when you can just buy the music and save ticket money? Or maybe wait around for the release of "The DOJ's Greatest Hits" as Garland prepares to go on the attack against capitalism at too-big Ticketmaster.
The DOJ goes after Trump (yawn): Every time I see Merrick Garland, he appears to need Geritol or something to conquer an iron or life force deficiency. Actually, I would have preferred Judy Garland as attorney general, at least she could belt out a song, but of course she's dead so I'm out of Garlands. Had Merrick Garland been appointed to the Supreme Court, I wonder if HE would have known what a woman is? Anyway, here he is, putting up a former special prosecutor from the Hague (!!) to investigate Trump. This guy, this Jack Smith, attired as he was at the Hague he reminded me of Vincent Price as the madman in the Poe-derived movie, The Pit and the Pendulum," so I don't care, Jack Smith, Jack-o-Lantern or Jackass, this clown show continues uninterrupted until they can cook up a Trump conviction. I wonder if there's time for Garland's cat-o'-nine-tails to go after Schiff and other Dems who orchestrated the first phony Russian collusion impeachment?
Benjamin Crump's big adventure: Attorney Crump need not stop with inferior education in Baltimore, he may as well sue the rest of the country's schools for turning out the largest collection of teenage dopes ever. Best of all would be to get the mega-teachers' unions out of the picture and let school boards of quality do their jobs.
Shoplifting as a profession -- Contained by a progression from social to frontier justice: Walgreen's, Target and other stores continue to close stores as shoplifting in heavy volume continues, perpetrated both by individuals and large crowds. We continue to suggest that by now the best cure is to shoot these thieves in the head, in the stores. Let the message get out. It won't take many, and with luck fed-up judges will tell tearful criminal lawyers looking for damages to go away, far away. Yes, police officers must he hired and forces enhanced, but we contend that there's nothing like a good old skull-piercing bullet to say we love you and away you go forever to the perpetrator class.
Accommodating multiple invented genders in college: No. There are two genders. Install a zipper on the front of your body and I will show you. Colleges and universities wishing to continue this charade need to lose some serious benefactor and -- one day soon, we hope -- government funding. Surgical intervention on children under 18? You go to prison, doctor, lacking a good reason. Remember, too, that psychiatrists and psychologists can be just as nuts as their patients, it's just that crazier people even higher up in the bird cage gave them credentials. Oh how I miss you, Dr. Max Rafferty, you explained it all.
UFOs still: Um, the government is a tad late for a scheduled report. Some expect a nothing-to-see-here paper, but that will be bullshit all the way if so.
FTX scandal: Not sure which to mistrust more this week, FTX or the Fed.
