Post-peak oil dentistry

Some lines of odd questioning, with odder, creepy answers can't go un-blogged, and they weren't thanks to How The World Works. But I'll steal his idea. This is from a blog devoted to the transition to a post-peak oil world. The (paraphrased) question:

How strong will the demand for dentists be in a post-peak oil world?

Dentist #1: Well, as I see it, we are in a society near the edges of collapse. I don’t actually think the governmental structures will be able to function in the long run, so spending five years on a dental course may not be in the individual’s best interest, unless a slow steady decline can be envisaged. It all depends on how bad things get.

There may well be a decrease in the availability of refined carbohydrates reducing rates of tooth decay, but conversely, food shortages will of course effect peoples immune systems and will likely increase the risk and rate of gum disease. Also as society trends downwards, people will look for ways to escape from an ever increasing sense of despair through distractions like alcohol and tobacco (a government that wants to cling to power will make sure these are available in my opinion).

I think this may become my first screenplay.

Seriously, I want to grow up to be half as good a blogger as Andrew Leonard.

My entrepreneurial spirit

LessonSeek.com has launched!! Someone clicked an ad, and I made my first 6 cents!

Of course, it cost me 67 cents of Google ads spending to get that 6 cents...

Two notes - I don't see the Google Ads on my site using Firefox, which isn't cool. [They're there, I just had ad-blocker on my Firefox] Second - to my friends, don't just click the ads! Google kicks people off the ad network for exhorting others to click on ads.

Facebookin'

When you're looking up friends on Facebook you never know what you're going to find. Like a group devoted to hating a friend of yours (or at least a person with the same name)

Some other interesting finds below. I blurred the names to protect people from the massive scrutiny that would come from being mentioned in my blog, of course.

Katy


Jake - is this a pic from sophomore year with Neal?


Frank - I knew him when...


Negin?

Optimal smoking

Tim Hartford answers the question, "So at what age could I sensibly start smoking in order to achieve sufficient pleasure to make the shortening of lifespan worthwhile??"

If you’re 20 years old and smoke in full defiance of the risks, you still have a chance to look brash, daring and just a little bit sexy. If people see you smoking at 60, they won’t realise your brilliance in taking up the habit at age 58. They’ll simply assume that, pathetically, you’ve never been able to quit.

My advice, then, is that the optimal consumption path for cigarettes is either never to start, or to start young and stop fairly quickly.

Nice, me. Still, I can't wait to take up smoking again at age 70.

Here's the link to Tim Hartford's writing, which I recommended to a friend recently. I've blogged about a post of his before.

Online dating

Not the best ever, but let's just say the topic is hot among my crowd.



You don't like? What about candidate Bloomberg as Celebrity Abortionist Doctor Atheist Von Gay of France.

Oh Video Dog, it had been so long.

Notes from a goodreads.com user

Here is my profile. I signed up for daily emails, so I could keep up with which books my friends read. But I was shocked at how much antipathy I felt towards people, whom I genuinely like, when I got the email pictured above. 342 new reviews?!?

If reviewing all the books you read in high school, to up your goodreads.com review count, while simultaneously hating your friends for doing the same, is hypocritical, well...

Seriously though, once we all finish reviewing all the books we've ever read, this will be excellent to keep up with what your friends are reading, and what they thought of the book. Also, if you look up a book, you can see how all your friends rated it, which is nice.

It felt good to link to a prior review in my goodreads profile. That was the first thing I ever wrote on the internet.

My previous experience as a book reviewer has clearly helped me as a goodreads reviewer, as you can see below. No, I didn't game this -

Avg Ranking by my friends (minimum 20 rankings):
me: 3.04 (Nice, average review is near the mean. Owning up to the bad reads in my past.)
Jake: 3.24
Katy: 3.39 (141 reviewed. She's pure evil)
Melissa: 3.49
David: 3.67 (We're getting into love-fest territory over here)
Cathleen: 3.77
Nina: 4.00 (Review Halldor Laxness. That will help you out here)
Julia: 4.00
Tara: 4.30 (!!!!!!!)