Freaknomics vs. Peak Oil

Even some Mensans I know have been suckered in by the myth of "Peak Oil". "Peak Oil" hypothesizes that the rise of oil prices will produce sudden inevitable collapse of civilization. As the Freaknomics authors point out, this completely contradicts economic theory of supply and demand - and they use the New York Times' own article promoting "Peak Oil" to debunk it.

Hopefully this will put the nail in the coffin once and for all.

Even the Internet is old now.

You know, I remember the days before this Web thang, when the Internet was TEXT. I remember finger, and gopher, and telnet, and 2400 baud Internet connections.

But I never realized how old the Internet was until this happened:

Backstory: Late a couple nights ago on OKCupid, I get IM'd by this nice girl. 18 years old, in a different state, just looking for folks to talk to. No biggie. We chat, we get along fine (OKCupid has a good matching algorithm). During the course of a recent conversation, I use the term IMHO.

"IMHO?"

"Don't you know what that means?"

"No."

"You mean there are Internet acronyms that have actually fallen out of use? Is the Internet that old? Am *I* that old? *despair*"

There are Internet chat acronyms that have actually fallen into disuse. I now speak Olde Internet.

So depressing.

The "Amsterdam/Why Scot Is Going To Hell" Story

In the last year of the 20th century (that's 2000 for those of you not up on your calendar trivia) I worked for the Microsoft TV project. This was (and still is) Microsoft software for cable boxes, e.g. Comcast.

As part of the job, I attended the huge yearly TV trade show in Amsterdam. I loved Amsterdam - the people were very friendly when they found out I wasn't British, most of them spoke English, the beer was wonderful, and I cannot do literary justice to what those fine people can accomplish with butter and cheese. Also, beautiful and tall blonde women grow on TREES out there. Even in the 'burbs.

Microsoft hosted a party in Amsterdam. It was held in De Oude Kerk - the old church - which is the oldest building in the city, and the center of old Amsterdam. The building is roughly circular and you can see on the map how the roads radiate out from it, when canals don't get in their way.

It's also the center of the Red Light District. As some folks know, the Red Light District is the home of some of the legal prostitution in Amsterdam. Girls stand or sit in front of plate glass windows with a long red light above the window. Behind them is a small room, where business is transacted. The shortest route to De Oude Kerk from the train station is straight through the Red Light District, although this night was not my first visit there. As I walk up to De Oude Kerk, I see the circular alley that surrounds it - populated with girls in glass windows looking for customers.

So, I'm going to a party in a church that's surrounded by hookers.

In the invitation to this party, women were advised not to wear high heels. As you walk across the central floor of De Oude Kerk, you stumble over very uneven flagstones with carvings often worn to illegibility.

These are graves. Tombs would be more precise, I suppose. Apparently to bury someone in the church, they just winched up a flagstone, put the body under it, dropped the stone again, and carved an epitaph.

So, I'm partying on graves, in a church that's surrounded by hookers.

The party was a lot of fun, with a lot of state-of-the-art videogames setup on one side, food and dancing, and some special guests including an opera singer who sung a wonderful aria from a balcony. As the population of the party is somewhat geek-centric, someone had the forethought to hire hostesses for the evening. These hostesses circulated among the clientele, getting them to stand up and actually socialize, even - gasp - dance.

The twist to this is that the hostesses were transvestites.

So, I'm partying on graves with transvestites in a church that's surrounded by hookers.

This night is one of the many reasons why, if there is a Hell, I can fully expect to be there eventually.