On Thursday this week I needed a dental procedure. Seeing I was interested, my dentist took the time to explain a few things to me. I apologise to anyone who already knows this stuff:
Seems the pulp of teeth has no defence against infection. None. If bacteria get in, tooth becomes infected and will be lost if of not treated.
He agreed with my observation that teeth are not designed for long term use. Probably for around 20-25 years. A bit short of the biblical 3 score years and ten.
I’ve made this observation before; evolution is lousy engineer. Good enough is good enough. An evolved anything needs only to work, it does not need to be elegant . Could one not reasonably expect an intelligent designer to produce beautiful, elegant designs?
Evolution’s “design” is very elegant. Your teeth last just long enough for you to breed and raise your offspring until they become self-sufficient. Then your teeth rot and poison you or fall out so you can’t eat anymore, and you die. Beautiful.
When I got my first cavities in my early 20s, I remember thinking that I’d be happy if I could just live till 30 without seeing a dentist and then die. Now I’m nearly 40 years past my use-by date with a mouthful of bridges, crowns, and ceramic fillings.
Nice observation. I’ll make sure to mention this the next time I encounter biblical literalists. However, I suspect that they will counter by claiming that back then, the DNA of the old-timers and their body composition was so much more perfect (due to being much closer to Adam and Eve), so their teeth didn’t wear out that quickly(*), and that it was only later - when the original super-DNA of Adam and Eve was diluted enough - that people were susceptible to this kind of bodily weaknesses.
(*) Like this super-villain who battled against James Bond:
My dentist told me that the teeth of ancient humans ‘in the wild’ that have been found tend to be flat. This is due to diet. Few or no cavities because of only natural sugars and not much of them.
The teeth of the ancients going back say to Greece, Rome, Egypt, were a mess. The culprit was stone ground flour. A lot of grit in their bread.
Well, I’m 68 years old and have all of my teeth except for the wisdom teeth, which were extracted because there was insufficient room in my jaws for them. Four fillings, though, three of which were first filled in '73 and replaced about 7 years ago because they were coming loose.
Welcome from sunny South Australia, where it is spring with perfect weather.
Me too. Will start feeling human after a couple more. Over they course of the day, I will have eleventeen demitasse--------I drink only fresh coffee; I think life is too short to drink instant coffee
Well, I know Australia has seasonal weather control down to a fine art (each season lasts precisely 3 months) -but this last week has been perfect spring weather, so it’s Spring. Proof is the light spring rains they’ve been having in NSW.
You will confuse our septic cousins mate…come clean. Spring is September to Jan and then it is Summer, then Fall, then Winter (such as it is in WA) .
It IS spring for them, but for us it is the last hurrah of summer, those fag end days when the heat starts being lazy and drilling your bones at the end of the day.
Mind we had a nice lot of rain recently…I remember a couple of years back I walked out my Motel in a normally arid area and greeted a fellow resident with " Isn’t the rain glorious?" He looked at me and replied “You just have to be a f*****g Aussie” in a broad welsh accent. On further enquiry he opined that only the Aussies would greet another human in a rainstorm in such a fashion. I had to admit, on reflection, that was true.
And yes, it is springlike weather except in NSW where they are being roundly punished for electing the most corrupt lot of arseholes since federation.
If you haven’t been following the scandals (which are becoming as regular as the scandals enveloping Morrison’s putrid federal lot of misogynists) . The premiers boyfriend was engaged in unsavory and illegal profit taking, property developments and “letting slip” pillow talk that directly benefitted unsavory associates. The premier denies any knowledge of any of his dealings…despite being his escort at several functions to celebrate his “acumen”. Other ministers have had to resign over various “infringements” yet ICAC is being slowly defunded and emasculated by those very same politicians. It is a fascinating, tortuous read.
Of those incorruptible NSW police are not free of the taint either, being closely associated with some of the nefarious goings on…
" The NSW Upper House inquiry into the Berejiklian government’s corrupt Stronger Communities Fund reached the obvious conclusions on Tuesday – it was “a clear abuse of the grants process”, “a brazen pork-barrel scheme” and “a misuse of public money”, among other things.
This was the $252 million doozy about which Premier Gladys Berejiklian effectively said: “Sure it’s corrupt, but it’s not illegal, so too bad. That’s the way we roll and we’ll keep doing it.”" From the New Daily today.
Good God, how much reverence can you have for a Supreme Being who finds it necessary to include tooth decay in His divine system of creation? Why in the world did He ever create pain?’ Shiesskopf’s wife pounced upon the word victoriously. ‘Pain is a warning to us of bodily dangers.’
‘And who created the dangers?’ Yossarian demanded. ‘Why couldn’t He have used a doorbell to notify us, or one of His celestial choirs? Or a system of blue-and-red neon tubes right in the middle of each person’s forehead?’
‘People would certainly look silly walking around with red neon tubes right in the middle of their foreheads.’
'They certainly look beautiful now writhing in agony, don’t they?
Joseph Heller, Catch-22
Sums it up quite eloquently for me. If the best a deity with limitless power and knowledge can do, is a world filled with ubiquitous suffering, then it would have to be a sadistic maniac.
A Victorian era woman once asked why god couldn’t have chosen a less disgusting form of human reproduction.
Me? As a younger man awash with testosterone and a prick like a rivet gun, sex was my favourite activity.
An English curate of the same era stated that everything of any possible importance had already been invented. Seems the Victorians thought they lived in an era of marvels, as do we. Both opinions were and are correct imo***
*** My references; “London’ The Biography” ,Peter Ackroyd and “The Victorians”, A N Wilson
