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Here's one way to get by without student loans: be a dental hygienist and save your money, then when you have enough, go to college. You'll need two years of community college and you'll need to take a licensing exam. You'll also need to put your hands in people's mouths eight hours a day, but you'll have gloves. There are other ways to bootstrap yourself; you just have to look.

http://www.ada.org/en/home-ada...

I stand by my statement that taking out student loans is an incredibly risky thing to do. Yeah, you can do it and have everything work out. It can also fuck up your financial future more than if you took out a mortgage, bought a house, set it on fire (accidentally) without having insurance, maxed out all your credit cards, and then wrecked your Tesla which you took out a car note to buy (and didn't have collision coverage for). Is "never" too strong? I don't think so.

"Completely and totally financially secure" was meant in a relative sense. Even the 1% aren't completely and totally financially secure, as the French Revolution demonstrated. What I meant to say was done with your education, settled into your career, in a marriage you expect to last, that type of thing.

Finally, in modern times, unless you're a subsistence farmer, children are, objectively, a burden. For some people, the burden is worth it because they enjoy having children. Pets are also a burden. Maintaining a boat is a burden. Owning and maintaining a house is a burden. Most things in life are optional, and the optional bits often come with costs of time and money. Those costs we can refer to as burdens. Just because something is a burden doesn't mean you shouldn't do it. It just means you should do a cost/benefit analysis beforehand.

Oh, and, yeah, cars suck. You're right on that.

" I had mercury fillings in my teeth when I was younger, which I was then told was poisonous and had to be drilled out and replaced. Very pleasant."

Whoever told you that was misinformed or lying (maybe they wanted to profit by drilling them out and replacing them). Your fillings weren't "mercury". Your fillings were mercury/silver amalgam. An amalgam is an alloy that forms when mercury reacts chemically with silver. An alloy is a stable chemical compound. It does not spontaneously decompose into its constituents. If it did, your fillings would have dissolved and disappeared long ago.

Yes, when amalgam fillings are first placed you are exposed to some mercury vapor. That is why the ADA recommends that amalgam fillings should not be placed in small kids or pregnant women.

Amalgam is a very durable, long lasting restorative material that has been in use for over 100 years. Amalgam restorations normally last much longer than alternative materials such as tooth colored composites which require frequent maintenance/replacement. Did they tell you about that before they drilled out all your "mercury" fillings?

For the ADA position see latest info summarized here: http://www.ada.org/sections/pr...
The summary on page 2 says:
"In the six years since the LSRO report was published the identified research gaps have
not been completely addressed. However a number of studies have added to the
growing body of literature on the topic of amalgam safety. The findings of the studies
published between January 1, 2004 and June 15, 2010 showed no consistent evidence
of harm associated with dental amalgam fillings, including for infants and children. There
is some evidence that mercury excretion may be affected by gender. There was no
evidence demonstrating that some individuals are genetically susceptible to harmful
effects from exposure to the low doses of mercury associated with dental amalgam
fillings. Overall, studies continue to support the position that dental amalgam is a safe
restorative option for both children and adults. When responding to safety concerns it is
important to make the distinction between known and hypothetical risks. "

JAMA is a publication by healthcare professionals, for healthcare professionals. Not for the public. In fact, very little of what is published in the medical literature can be interpreted without a broad understanding of physiology, pathophysiology, research design, and biostatistics. Your points against JAMA Otolaryngology are all based off of fundamental misunderstandings due to deficiencies in those areas. Let me address them not in the order you've brought them up, but from the "bottom up" so we can build off of prior knowledge. First off, study design. Many of your points concern deficiencies in the abstract. The abstract's function is to allow a physician to gauge interest in the article's contents without having to read the entire thing. They're written under a strict word limit and are often submitted to the journal before the final draft of the article is completed, rendering many of them inaccurate. Additionally, the journal does not need to state that this is "just a discovery of an association". This is self-evident by the study design, which is identified in the abstract as "case control". This means that it is a retrospective study, and, by definition, cannot prove causality.

You completely missed the point, as I said above. JAMA publishes scientific articles which are mis-reported in articles for average readers. JAMA does not try to stop the sensationalism and dishonesty in the reporting for the public. There is a financial interest for doctors in being presented as knowing far more than they do.

Moving onto the slides, I cannot find a download link, so I cannot verify that they are correct.

The link to the PDF file is at the bottom of the Slashdot story: Antimicrobial treatment, vaccination, or gene therapy against cariogenic bacteria.

I notice that you don't say if they are correct.

Fluoridation is the process of converting the outer layer of your tooth enamel from a weaker, non-fluoridated form to a stronger form which incorporates fluoride ions. This change renders the outer layer of your teeth...

For some reason you have changed the subject to externally applied fluoride. I clearly said I was talking about fluoride internally ingested during the growth of a child's teeth, so that all the teeth have fluoride incorporated into the entire structure of the tooth, not just the outer layer, as you say.

Nowhere in the article is the discovery presented as causation.

Amazing that you say that! The discovery is presented a possible causation in the title: "Dental Caries May Protect Against Cancer".

What your post does highlight is a huge issue regarding health information. In that there is quite a lot of it, and, despite being written in an approximation of normal English, many terms have connotations that lay people will not have the training to understand. When you add in a number of "health news reporters" without any medical background who write articles that are either materially false or easily misconstrued, you have a recipe for a system that the public does not trust. As of right now, there is a relative paucity of trustworthy health news for the general public.

Again, you have jumped away from the subject. The subject is that JAMA knows the problem of exaggeration and dishonesty in medical reporting exists, but does nothing to stop it.

Fluoridation is the process of converting the outer layer of your tooth enamel from a weaker, non-fluoridated form to a stronger form which incorporates fluoride ions. This change renders the outer layer of your teeth more resistant to (but not immune to) scratching, chipping, and dissolution at low pH (such as is produced by oral bacteria). Fluoridation i

Fluoridation of the water, bad idea? Do you have stock invested in dental companies? Why do you hate our childrens' teeth?

While you support your argument about lead poisoning, you offer nothing about the other two elements.

I'm guessing you're one of those that didn't vaccinate your children and avoid fluorinated water, even though all the peer reviewed research shows you're just putting your children at greater risk of disease and tooth decay, rather than decreasing any risk of autism. But while it's a guess, I'm basing it on your trying to link lead research to mercury and fluoride without proof.

I also suspect that you'll next say "but mercury is toxic!" and show a bunch of links about mercury toxicity as a red herring. Fine. But you can't come up with one reputable peer-reviewed link against fluoride in drinking water. And don't you dare try to say MMR vaccinations caused autism, because the long-term results are in.
ADHA on Fluoride
ADA on Fluoride

23 studies refuting MMR and autism link
CDC's website on MMR and autism

If I've gotten you all wrong (which I doubt, based on your anti-fluoride stance), then you have my apologies. Next time, support your argument.

While I'm sure women do work as hard, I'm fairly sure the statistics show they do not work as long.
Here's a couple of citations for that:
http://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2007/jul/wk1/art01.htm
http://jada.ada.org/cgi/content/full/135/5/637 (specific to dentists)
http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/infbrief/nsf06302/

I'm pretty sure there are a lot more, but there's some term for this I can't recall that would probably turn them up.

You don't eat meth. See these two articles on "meth mouth".

Just put the mercury in your teeth. We are assured by the American Dental Association that this is the one safe place to put what the EPA says is a highly toxic metal.

Interestingly, http://ada.org/ fails too.

The ADA levies fine against Big League Chew.

The total acid level (titratable acid) is considered more important than pH level, because it will determine the actual H+ available to interact with the tooth surface. ADA

A good example of work by an organization that invests millions a year into promoting FLOSS can be found here.

Coffee may help reduce plaque on teeth, as reported here and here. But I guess this involves drinking your coffee like a real man :P

Dude Your teeth need fluoride and YES I now it is most tooth pastes but You don't ingest any of it. Vitam A can kill you if you take to much. ADA if you don't get enough fluoride your Teeth will decay. However I wonder If the HIGH amount of fluoride in most US teeth pastes is good for you.

I have more access to e-mail [...] than access to some random IP based service.

Gee, I always thought email was an IP based service...

If someone would just make sure that everyone had equal access we wouldn't have the lawsuits from the ADA about equal unfettered access to various services.

What the hell does the American Dental Association have to do with anything? Access to what services? Teeth cleaning services? Boy, you sure are loosing it, aren't you?