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Why You Shouldn't Stifle Your Sneeze (theguardian.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the better-out-than-in dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: In a season where colds are rife, holding your nose and closing your mouth might seem like a considerate alternative to an explosive "Achoo!" But doctors have warned of the dangers of such a move after a man was found to have ruptured the back of his throat when attempting to stifle a sneeze. Medics say the incident, which they detail in the British Medical Journal Case Reports, came to light when a 34-year old man arrived in A&E with a change to his voice, a swollen neck, pain when swallowing and a popping sensation in his neck after he pinched his nose to contain an expulsion. The team took scans of the man's neck to investigate and discovered bubbles of air in the tissues at the back of the throat, and in the neck from the base of the skull to halfway down the man's back. That, they say, suggested a tear had occurred at the back of the throat as a result of increased pressure from the stifled sneeze, leading to air collecting in his soft tissues. The authors warn that blocking the nostrils and mouth when sneezing is dangerous, noting that while tearing of the throat tissue is rare, it could result in a ruptured eardrum or even a brain aneurysm.

179 comments

  1. Convert to Islam by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    Convert to Islam. Science I'd a lie, created,to distract you from the truth that is Allah. There is no God, no truth, outside of Allah.

    1. Re:Convert to Islam by Tablizer · · Score: -1, Flamebait

      Convert to Orangelam, science is a lie! The Earth is flat and that's how you should wear your toupee.

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
    2. Re: Convert to Islam by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      Why must you Christians spread your hate? Allah is the only God. Islam is the only truth. Muhammad, peace be upon him, is the prophet of Allah. Facts are facts.

    3. Re:Convert to Islam by ChrisMaple · · Score: -1, Troll

      Inside Allah, your brain will be digested.

      --
      Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
    4. Re: Convert to Islam by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      My God can beat up your God! He even knows Kung-Fu.

    5. Re: Convert to Islam by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      Why must you Mudslimes spread your hate? Scienceman is the only God. Science is the only truth. Black Science Man, peace be upon him, is the prophet of Scienceman. Facts are facts.

    6. Re:Convert to Islam by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      If you really had faith, you'd log in and post. The fact that you post AC reveals that this is just a fairly dull attempt at trolling.

      You pretend to be Muslim, offend people and get a 'let's you and him fight' going.

      *yawn*

    7. Re: Convert to Islam by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      Anonymous posters calling out other anonymous posters for not logging in. Good work, hypocrite. I don't need the validation of anyone here because I have Allah, who is all I need.

    8. Re: Convert to Islam by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      Anonymous posters calling out other anonymous posters for not logging in. Good work, hypocrite.

      bzzt. Try again. I'm pointing out that you're a fake. Your lack of an account and accountability is an indication that this is a false flag. Were you real, you'd have no issue with creating and using an account. It's not about validation. It's about accountability. Why are you afraid to use an account?

      Dull troll is dull.

    9. Re: Convert to Islam by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      By accountability, you're upset that you can't punish my karma and, therefore, restrict my posting. There are multiple posts here with xenophobic remarks, so I have no doubt I'd be targeted by their moderation. In fact, you might well have also posted those comments. Just because I choose not to be subjected to your censorship, doesn't mean that this is a false flag. You are disingenuous, posting anonymously while criticizing me for posting anonymously. Log in and post from your account, otherwise your claim is baseless.

      I don't need your validation, anyway. I have Allah, who is all I'll ever need. I know that I have the truth in Islam, so your posts are meaningless. I just want others to see that Islam is the truth, and that they will also find all they'll need in Allah. Instead of posting your trolls, perhaps you ought to go read the Qur'an instead.

    10. Re: Convert to Islam by burtosis · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      I thought god only brought love and marinara sauce with his noodly appendages. Damn, this is confusing me.

    11. Re:Convert to Islam by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      In his belly you will find a new definition of pain and suffering as you are slowly digested over a thousand years.

    12. Re: Convert to Islam by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      I stand corrected. Your convictions are sincere, and I apologize for calling you out. I don't share your Islamic beliefs, but if you feel the need to continue posting about them, I encourage you do to so. I admit that you would be suppressed if you posted from an account, so it makes perfect sense why you're not doing so. I apologize for calling you out earlier in this thread.

    13. Re: Convert to Islam by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      my karma

      So you have an account that you don't post this sort of thing under.

      punish

      The role of karma is to allow the community to moderate the message. How is this punishment?

      restrict my posting

      Ah, so you're abusing the ability to post anonymously to avoid the moderation by the community of which you are a part.

      There are multiple posts here with xenophobic remarks

      Yes, but I'm calling you out

      so I have no doubt I'd be targeted by their moderation

      Yes, negative moderation can only be xenophobia. Besides, what's a little negative karma compared to real sacrifice for the sake of your professed beliefs?

      subjected to your censorship

      bzzt. More exaggeration. You aren't/won't-be censored. You are being provided with feedback on how well your comments fit the guidelines of the community. If your need to spread the truth trumps civility, then log-in and take it like a person of faith. Stop hiding.

      You are disingenuous, posting anonymously while criticizing me for posting anonymously

      And earlier you accused me of hypocrisy. Wrong on both counts. As I said, I'm not claiming to be speaking truth or calling people to share a faith. I'm criticising something that looks a lot like a shallow attempt at trolling.

      Log in and post from your account, otherwise your claim is baseless.

      Fail again. Our positions are not equivalent. I'm not spamming every story with a poor imitation of evangelisation.

      I don't need your validation, anyway.

      It's not about validation, and I have no expectation of persuading you. You lack the intelligence to be creative, so its unlikely you'd have the grace to accept being called on a poor attempt.

      I have Allah, who is all I'll ever need.

      Those I've know who really had faith had little need to preach, and people would ask them for the secret to their apparent peace and happiness. The only preachers I've met all had something missing inside that their preaching tried to cover. But you aren't even a good parody of them.

      so your posts are meaningless

      And yet you reply.

      I just want others to see that Islam is the truth

      If that were true, you'd be doing so in a very different way. You're a poor parody of a Muslim, devout or otherwise. You're two dimensional. You're a caricature; a stereotype. It's not even vaguely convincing.

      perhaps you ought to go read the Qur'an instead

      Oh, but I have. Have you?

    14. Re: Convert to Islam by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You probably missed the fact that I use English spelling rather than American. Not surprising. Your attempt at pretending to be a Muslim is equally superficial.

    15. Re:Convert to Islam by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      On second thought, let's pass on that, huh?

    16. Re: Convert to Islam by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      Your posts are at -1 as well. You are abusing anonymous posting, and yet continue to post anonymously. You should subject yourself to the moderation system by logging in and posting from an account. However, you refuse to do so, and conveniently ignored that part. You're complaining from a position of hypocrisy. You've conveniently deflected and ignored this.

      I'll stop posting about Islam if you log I'm and reply to this from your account. If you want me to stop, log in and reply from your account. If you're sincere, you'll do it, and face the consequences to your karma.

      To prove my conviction for Islam and Allah, I will keep my word about not posting this content, provided you log in and reply from your account. It's that simple.

    17. Re: Convert to Islam by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I reviewed the posts that appear to be years. You didn't use any words that are spelled differently between British and American English. That's the central claim of your post, and it's completely without merit.

    18. Re: Convert to Islam by rgbatduke · · Score: 0

      What is this "consequence to your karma" stuff? Aside from the fact that the post is obviously inappropriate religious trolling and entirely off topic (especially for a first post) and hence EARNS some bad karma, we are WAY down in the thread at this point and nobody cares.

      Look, poster human who allegedly is trying to convert people to Islam: The Quran is a violent -- incredibly violent, almost maximally violent as far as comparative religious mythology is concerned -- inconsistent, absurd collection of assertions. Its only -- only -- possible claim to being perfect truth is that it claims, as often as possible "This document is perfect truth". Here, look, I can make the same claim -- "This post is perfect truth". Do you now believe it? No, you judge it on the basis of certain common-sense comparisons to your prior beliefs and your life experience, that is, the EVIDENCE for how the world works. If you completely lacked this common sense base, you'd do things like walk off of buildings because you disbelieve in gravity, burn your hands on the red hot stove the third or fourth time just because the red coils are pretty, be unable to drive your car or operate simple machinery.

      Having read the Quran cover to cover multiple times, it is a purely extortionist document. Count the number of times Allah threatens to burn up unbelievers. My favorite -- where he details how he will hold unbelievers in the fire and burn off their skin, then magically regrow their skin back so he can iterate, burning their skin off in an unterminated do-loop for the rest of eternity. It isn't ever "believe this because it makes the most sense and is in perfect correspondence with your experience of the world and the evidence of your senses" it is "believe this because if you don't I will HURT YOU FOREVER!" It's like Muhammed took the hell meme from Christianity -- where it is really only barely expressed in a few places and is itself inconsistent and silly and quite possibly an add-on from long after Jesus lived, IF Jesus as a unitary entity and not a syncretic creation ever lived -- and said "That's the ticket! If they won't believe this crap straight up, I'll scare the robes right off of them with all of the horrific stuff Allah will do to them if they call me a liar!"

      The beauty of evidence-based reasoning is that it is self-correcting and anybody can use it. You don't need angels dictating to you in caves, you don't need angels showing you golden tablets, you don't need mystic poets or prophets or seers. You don't have to be beloved by God (if God exists) or selected by God (if God exists) or be brainwashed into considering some documentary collection to be the one authority on how the Universe REALLY works BEYOND QUESTION at the expense of completely turning off your critical reasoning facility when examining certain aspects of the world. Anybody can play. Yes, you probably need an IQ on the high side of 85 or 90, but that's enough to have a fair bit of common sense and to be able to learn not to play with fire or walk off of tall buildings.

      "Science" is just the collection of beliefs about the real world that are supported by a mostly consistent network of evidence and evidence supported beliefs. Like a belief in the law of gravitation -- gravity doesn't CARE what you believe -- as you grow up and drop things (including yourself) it will teach you what it is, and you can either learn or not learn and if you walk off a cliff in the future it and the laws of physics, chemistry and biology that govern your material existence will cause you to splat at the bottom and cease as an organized named biological entity quite independent of your beliefs. Using those laws you can infer the age of the Universe and conclude that documents that assert that the Universe is (say) 6000 years old are absurdly wrong. Using simple common sense and math you can conclude that documents that assert that there was a big flood that covered the entire surface of the world from a rain that lasted 40 days and nights, and that

      --
      Even when the experts all agree, they may well be mistaken. --- Bertrand Russell.
    19. Re: Convert to Islam by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Successful troll is successful.

    20. Re: Convert to Islam by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Great reply to our sockpuppet so you could post this ramble that excuses and ignored other religions

    21. Re: Convert to Islam by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I disagree with your reply, but I do appreciate it.

      I'm not accusing people of bigotry, not at all, but I think there are some inherent biases. People develop these biases and they may not even be aware of it. The solution is to make them aware.

      I promise you that if I was telling people to convert to Christianity, no one would hesitate to accept the authenticity of the author being a Christian. Yet the message of conversion to Islam is met with skepticism as to whether the author really believes the Islamic faith. There is an inherent bias and I am defending my Christian friends on this.

      With respect to science, there is another inherent bias. The idea that the universe is a simulation, governed by some programmer outside the universe, is taken seriously enough for scientists to discuss it and even look for evidence. However, replace the programmer with Allah or God, and the message is ridiculed. This is another inherent bias that I've noticed. Essentially the same concept is treated differently depending on whether it's presented in a religious context or not.

      In regard to the Qur'an being violent as religious texts go, I assume you have a point of comparison against which to make that judgment. Your post implies you have also read the Bible. With a text of that length, it's very difficult for you or anyone to make an accurate assessment from your own reading which texts ate more violent. Rather than a general statement as to which is more violent, you cite an example from the Qur'an and make a somewhat inaccurate comparison to Christianity. There are plenty of depictions of Hell in the Bible including Jesus describing the "wailing and gnashing of teeth" in a parable, the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, and the Lake of Fire described in Revelation. The Old Testament doesn't discuss the afterlife much, and in many respects, it's a Christian innovation.

      That said, the Old Testament God is pretty violent in his own right. He's very jealous and constantly demanding praise. He unleashes plagues upon innocent Egyptians because of the failures of the Pharaoh, ultimately drowning most of the Egyptian army. God is murderous, even demanding genocide of the tribes living in the promised land. He's hardly a wholesome character, leading some atheists to describe the Christian God as the most evil character in fiction.

      You might argue that the New Testament is different, and for most of the way, it is. The message of Jesus is strikingly different from the Old Testament God. Although there is violence as part of the crucifixion, it's different because it doesn't reflect God being violent. By the way, Islam teaches that Jesus is a prophet, and Muslims also venerate Mary, the mother of Jesus. It's all well and good until Revelation, which is back to the wild visions of Ezekiel and Daniel, but with far greater violence. It depicts a period of time in which angels are sounding trumpets, opening scrolls, and pouring out bowls on the Earth, each of which leads to a plague. Each of the plagues is seemingly more violent than the last, many of which are killing large portions of humanity. As God is torturing and killing humanity, he has the audacity to wonder why the people he hasn't killed aren't worshiping him and praising him. All this time, the faithful in Heaven are praising God and celebrating God as he kills those unfortunate enough to be on Earth. That's more violent and more vile than your depiction of Hell, especially because God's rage is directed at all of humanity.

      More to the point, natural language analysis of the Bible, using computers and statistics, has found that the Bible actually is more violent than the Qur'an. In fact, Muslims who exclusively follow the Qur'an tend to be extremely peaceful. However, most Muslims believe some texts of the Hadith, some of which are very peaceful, and some of which are full of rage. Basically, I disagree with your assessment that the Qur'an is a particularly violent religious text.

    22. Re: Convert to Islam by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are correct, there was no difference in spelling at the time you wrote your parody/imitation.

      I didn't see the parody post until after I had replied to something else (which did contain English spelling), and replied based on that.

      I apologise.

    23. Re: Convert to Islam by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your posts are at -1 as well.

      Yes, because I don't want to cruft up the discussion with this off-topic debate. I'm using the fact that AC starts at 0 to prevent my comments from being seen by anyone except you and parties interested in this discourse. You claim to want to inform people. You won't do that from 0 or -1 posts. Either as an AC or a regular account that is moderated not because of xenophobia, but because you are offtopic (which is not to say that xenophobia is absent, but that it's a drop in the bucket compared to the far more prevalent disgust with off-topic posts and spam).

      You're complaining from a position of hypocrisy. You've conveniently deflected and ignored this.

      No, I've addressed it directly several times now. I'm not sure how to explain that our goals are different and hence that while the choices I make are the same as you (to post AC) the reason for doing so is different. Or should be different if you are what you claim or are attempting what you claim to be attempting.

      If you're sincere, you'll do it, and face the consequences to your karma.

      *laugh* I hope to plant a seed. I can't persuade you. Or stop you. But maybe some of what I say will add to the comments and reactions that other people give you and over time you'll learn. But probably not.

      Be well.

    24. Re: Convert to Islam by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      (not the person you were replying to, I'm the AC from above)

      Thank you for your reply, and had you posted something like this instead of spamming your 'convert ...' then this would have been a much more interesting conversation from the start.

      I'm not accusing people of bigotry

      And yet you claim that if you posted under an account you'd be subject to xenophobia. You go on to mention biases, but I'm not sure I understand the distinction you are making. 'Bias' and 'xenophobia' both seem to be a form of bigotry.

      no one would hesitate to accept the authenticity of the author being a Christian

      And I assure you that if they did so in the way you did, I'd call them on it in much the same fashion.

      is taken seriously enough for scientists to discuss it and even look for evidence

      Some take it seriously because they believe it is or may be true. Others take it seriously because the formulation of the argument is interesting, or because disproving it interests them. Importantly, they don't spam forums like this with 'convert to Simulationism' like you did. Nor do they knock on doors on Saturday morning to talk about Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints, nor do they set up charities that help the poor, so long as the poor are Christian - etc. So, sorry, not equivalent except in the broadest sense.

      Essentially the same concept is treated differently depending on whether it's presented in a religious context or not.

      Are you suggesting that if I were to go to a Muslim forum and spam 'Islam is a lie. Science is the only reality' that I would be treated the same as if I asked a question of interpretation of a Surah?

      Do you not evaluate science through the lens of your belief? Why would you expect others to behave differently?

      For the record, I have no issue with Muslims or much of Islam, just as I have no issue with Christians or much of Christianity. There are individuals who happen to be Muslim, or Christian who act in ways that I object to, and there are sects and sub-sets of both groups that preach violence, intolerance or use religion as means of control that I disagree with.

      Your actions (if you are the 'convert to Islam' spammer) are objectionable. Not your beliefs.

      Please consider that no-one on these forums is likely to be unaware of the existence of Islam. Consider as well that while some, even many, may have a negative view of Islam, _nothing_ in the content or the way you posted was likely to alter that, but on the contrary was likely to justify negative opinion in those that already held such and to engender it in those who may be neutral and I have to point out that your stated intention of showing people the truth of Islam is contradicted by your actions. If you really have the faith you claim, you've done more harm than good for that faith.

      You've pushed people away from Islam by your actions and behaviour. No-one likes being told what to do. No one likes someone coming into their community and ignoring the rules. I recall several passages from the Quran that advised courtesy (I can't quote reliably, and googling feels like claiming a familiarity that I don't have - I've read the Quran once, about 20 years ago, although I'v re-read parts more recently), just as similar parables and instruction appear in the Bible. Unsurprising given that they both come from similar roots and cultures. I've argued the same point with Christian evangelists who seem to think that yelling loudly at people on street corners is going to do anything except fuel their (the preacher's) need for persecution.

      So, if you post one or two lines of spam I'll call you a troll, because there's only one outcome from that behaviour.

  2. actually pinching nose? by iggymanz · · Score: 0

    are there really people that stupid, and they need to read a warning not to do that? They are the ones that need "caution: hot, may cause burns" on drive-thru coffee cups? how about we forego warning them and instead hope they get brain aneurysm and die before they reproduce?

    1. Re:actually pinching nose? by VernonNemitz · · Score: 2

      There is a much better alternate way to reduce a sneeze. Anyone paying attention will first notice an "about to sneeze" situation, and one aspect of that is an inhalation of air. All you need to do is close your throat to cut short the full inhalation. This can result in some temporary discomfort as your body continues to try to get air into the lungs, but the discomfort only lasts a moment because, after all, you are about to sneeze! Only now, because you restricted the amount of air involved, the actual sneeze can be legitimately described as "petite" --you won't have any reason to try to stifle it.
      Regarding how to "close your throat", some practice might be useful. Start by saying "Ahhhhhhh", and attempt to break it into sections using throat muscles only (no tongue or lips). Once you are confident you can do that at will, you are ready --if you think of it fast enough-- to make all your sneezes petite.

    2. Re:actually pinching nose? by lucm · · Score: 5, Interesting

      They are the ones that need "caution: hot, may cause burns" on drive-thru coffee cups?

      You know that the old lady who got famous for that case was not driving, that the car wasn't moving, and that she got severe burns from the incident? Every time you parrot this hot coffee thing you're doing the dirty work of Karl Rove and his evil campaign to cap damages in civil cases.

      https://www.democraticundergro...

      --
      lucm, indeed.
    3. Re: actually pinching nose? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      Just sneeze normally and focus on more important things. If you convert to Islam, you will the truth that you and everyone else seeks to find. Islam is truth. Allah is truth. The Qur'an is truth. Allah is the only God. Follow the way of the prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, and you will find truth. That is far more important than suppressing sneezes.

    4. Re:actually pinching nose? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > actually pinching nose?

      In my experience, pinching my nose often kills the sneeze reflex outright. Like it un-tickles something in the nasal cavity.

      I dunno about actually trying to sneeze into a pinched nose though.

    5. Re:actually pinching nose? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Read this and educate yourself.
      https://www.huffingtonpost.com...

      Mcdonalds confessed to doing a lot of things WRONG.

        "caution: hot, may cause burns" isn't what was needed. What was needed was for Mcdonalds to make their coffee at NORMAL temperatures that every other food joint makes it.

    6. Re:actually pinching nose? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      VermonNemitz - that would work but there is usually a reason why you wanted to sneeze and that is reducin the effectiveness of what your body wants to do. Instead of reducing our sneezes we should sneeze into a hankerchief or tissue. I know there is a social stigma with using a hankerchief but that needs to be that thing that changes not the way that we sneeze.

    7. Re:actually pinching nose? by aevan · · Score: 2

      It's.. coffee. Coffee is meant to be made with water around 91is degrees, 'off the boil', like black teas (greens are lower).

      Now if some of you prefer to have your drinks sit there for a while and cool off, fine. When I ask for fresh coffee though, I'd expect it to still be cooling down to drinking temps. But no, personal responsibility is hard, coffee should be served lukewarm. People already suing over nacho cheese and pizza cheese though, so screw accountability.

      Now if the cup had a fault and burst, or the staff had spilled it on her, sure. Not the case here though.

    8. Re:actually pinching nose? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The other joints known for shitty coffee?

    9. Re:actually pinching nose? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thanks for spreading the word. Also described here https://priceonomics.com/how-a-lawsuit-over-hot-coffee-helped-erode-the-7th/

    10. Re:actually pinching nose? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you need your coffee to be heated to boiling you don't like coffee that much.

    11. Re:actually pinching nose? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Like all things in the food industry, there are legal limits on everything. McDonalds was above the limit and had been warned multiple times but chose to continue selling too hot coffee. When someone was finally severely burned, the jury decided to punish the company for ignoring the warnings.

    12. Re:actually pinching nose? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's.. coffee. Coffee is meant to be made with water around 91is degrees, 'off the boil', like black teas (greens are lower).

      Now if some of you prefer to have your drinks sit there for a while and cool off, fine. When I ask for fresh coffee though, I'd expect it to still be cooling down to drinking temps. But no, personal responsibility is hard, coffee should be served lukewarm. People already suing over nacho cheese and pizza cheese though, so screw accountability.

      Now if the cup had a fault and burst, or the staff had spilled it on her, sure. Not the case here though.

      Yeah, fuck those people who want unpressurizerd vessels for thier beverage. I expect a 2000psi 300* cup!
      Or maybe the actual details of the case matter.
      https://www.lectlaw.com/files/cur78.htm


      Further, McDonalds' quality assurance manager testified that the company actively enforces a requirement that coffee be held in the pot at 185 degrees, plus or minus five degrees. He also testified that a burn hazard exists with any food substance served at 140 degrees or above, and that McDonalds coffee, at the temperature at which it was poured into styrofoam cups, was not fit for consumption because it would burn the mouth and throat. The quality assurance manager admitted that burns would occur, but testified that McDonalds had no intention of reducing the "holding temperature" of its coffee.       [bold added for emphasis]

      We can make plenty of jokes about McDonalds being fit for consumption, but that's their own QA manager.
      So yeah, F- Mcdonalds in that case.

    13. Re:actually pinching nose? by VernonNemitz · · Score: 1

      A handkerchief might still be needed, even for a petite sneeze. And I know for a fact that not every sneeze is necessary; Google for [ sunlight sneeze ] (brackets represent search box) to find out about how, for some folks, a sneeze can be triggered by nothing more than a change in light levels. I can also tell you (from experience) that sometimes a petite sneeze is inadequate, and a second sneeze might happen right after the first. It turns out, though, that multiple petite sneezes can be as effective (but less physically painful) than a full-fledged ordinary sneeze.

    14. Re:actually pinching nose? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Funny you should say that because the reason why they had the coffee so hot was to mask its bad taste.

      In fact their coffee was so bad tasting they went right out of their way heavily advertising to fix their reputation for bad coffee. http://www.beanscenemag.com.au/articles/view/mcdonalds-apology-to-australian-coffee-drinkers-not-so-mchappy-about-coffee

      You guys really need to educate yourself on how bad mcdonalds was with the hot coffee.

    15. Re: actually pinching nose? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Jesus loves you.

    16. Re: actually pinching nose? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't see how that affects his point. If you're a regular coffee drinker you know you can't drink fresh coffee right from the cup. Why would you assume McDonald's cups were different?

    17. Re: actually pinching nose? by rl117 · · Score: 1

      In my experience, it's good to drink from the cup right after serving from the espresso machine (but I don't get it from McDonalds...); it's hot but not near boiling point. Using a ceramic cup helps to dissipate the heat.

    18. Re:actually pinching nose? by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      Can confirm this works. A big sneeze can be really painful for me (arthritis and CFS) but this technique reduces it to something manageable.

      You can also do some prevention to avoid getting to this point. Be careful trimming your nose hairs, because if you trim them too much they stop keeping the sneeze-inducing dust out. If you live in a place where masks are socially acceptable they really help. In places where people don't wear masks, blowing your nose it also effective.

      I've tried various cleaning systems but they don't really help IME.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    19. Re:actually pinching nose? by thegarbz · · Score: 5, Informative

      It's.. coffee. Coffee is meant to be made with water around 91is degrees

      How you draw an espresso and what you put in your mouth are two very different things. Coffee is drawn at 91 degrees but pretty much as soon as it hits the bottom of the espresso mug it is safe to drink. Coffee made at home by percolator is not put in a pre-heated mug and also cools significantly the moment it is poured. Combine that with the fact that *most* coffee when served at restaurants or coffee shops is closer to 70 degrees when it's handed to you, and you have absolutely zero basis to expect your coffee to be that hot when you get it.

      That's the whole reason McDonalds lost. Their coffee was far hotter than any reasonable expectation. You're right, personal responsibility is hard, especially when faced with something unknown and unexpected.

      Now if the cup had a fault and burst, or the staff had spilled it on her, sure. Not the case here though.

      And yet she spent 8 days in hospital from a cup of coffee which is in history unheard of. It's easy to see why the courts agreed with her that accountability, personal responsibility and expectation was that McDonalds did something very wrong. You simply wouldn't have sustained such an injury at any other restaurant.

    20. Re:actually pinching nose? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In 1994, a spokesman for the National Coffee Association said that the temperature of McDonald's coffee conformed to industry standards.
      https://web.archive.org/web/20150923195353/http://www.business.txstate.edu/users/ds26/Business%20Law%202361/Misc/McDonalds%20coffee.pdf

      An "admittedly unscientific" survey by the LA Times that year found that coffee was served between 157 and 182 F, and that two coffee outlets tested, one Burger King and one Starbucks, served hotter coffee than McDonald's.
      http://articles.latimes.com/1994-09-16/business/fi-39457_1_hot-coffee

    21. Re:actually pinching nose? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And she didn't spill, the cup collapsed because it wasn't designed for temperature or coffee.

    22. Re:actually pinching nose? by drinkypoo · · Score: 2

      That's the whole reason McDonalds lost. Their coffee was far hotter than any reasonable expectation.

      That was part of it. The other part was that their own internal procedures forbade serving coffee at that temperature, because they engineered the cup the coffee went into and they knew that it would not hold up at that temperature, and that coffee is dangerous at that temperature. The local franchise operator willfully increased the pot hold temperature beyond the prescribed temperature in order to increase the pot hold time, which is what ultimately resulted in the injury to the woman's nether regions. This proved that they knew that they were in the wrong.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    23. Re:actually pinching nose? by Gojira+Shipi-Taro · · Score: 1

      Those same people voted a shaved orangutan with the mind of a 4 year old child in as "president" so apparently so.

      --
      "Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I'm fucked."; ~ Donald J. Trump
    24. Re:actually pinching nose? by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      Even if they weren't in the court order it emerged that McDonald's own practices were to serve coffee at 82-88C. Per American association standards It is normal to be served as low as 71C.

      Tort law assumes fault based on reasonable expectations, and the caution hot coffee label actually predates the lawsuit. Starbucks and McDonalds both still serve coffee at that temperature and have compensated with ludicrously large warnings.

      As a non-American travelling to America and finding the reason people like Starbucks over there is because there's nothing else resembling coffee to be found I almost choked the first time I drank some due to it being unexpectedly hot, and I've drank a lot of takeaway coffee over the years. Despite the warnings I nearly burnt myself on Starbucks coffee.

      At McDonalds in the cafes with automated machines rather than percolators or in proper McCafes you will get served coffee that you can instantly put in your mouth when it's given to you.

      Lots of people call it frivolous, but hey if someone does something unexpected to them, causing them over $10k worth of medical bills, and then throws a few hundred at em and tells em to go away I'm sure they'd sue too.

    25. Re:actually pinching nose? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Obama is gone from office and won't be coming back. Quit making jokes at his expense.

    26. Re: actually pinching nose? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      God bless you!

    27. Re:actually pinching nose? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Bullshit. It's in the court documents, she put the cup between her legs and removed the lid. Then she spilled the coffee. There is nothing there about the cup "collapsing." If it did, it's because she squashed it between her legs.

    28. Re:actually pinching nose? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The old trick of pushing a finger up under your nose isn't meant to block the nostrils, as many people think. It's to jostle the cartilage in your nose and "un-tickle" that sneeze-imminent sensation. It works as well to grasp the end of your nose where the cartilage joins the bone and wiggle it back and forth.

    29. Re:actually pinching nose? by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      You still haven't read about this case. McDonald's had been warned several times about the danger and they ignored it. Their coffee was served much hotter than other places. Most coffee will not cause severe enough damage from an accidental spill to require skin grafts.

      You need to find another example for an "all lawsuits are stupid" campaign.

    30. Re:actually pinching nose? by arth1 · · Score: 1

      When you sit at a meeting table and don't have a handkerchief nearby, the only options might be to suppress it, or take matter into your own hands, so to speak.

    31. Re:actually pinching nose? by arth1 · · Score: 1

      Even if they weren't in the court order it emerged that McDonald's own practices were to serve coffee at 82-88C. Per American association standards It is normal to be served as low as 71C.

      Serve coffee that cold in most parts of Europe, and you will get the cup handed back to you. If you can't see tendrils dancing on the surface, it's just too cold.
      If you don't want it serving hot, wait or blow on it. It's not arcane secret knowledge, but something everyone should be expected to know.

    32. Re:actually pinching nose? by shaitand · · Score: 1

      There is more than a social stigma there is a health hazard. A handkerchief is a bacteria haven.

      The vast majority of the time you are sneezing because of nothing more than a foreign particle, in my experience a sneeze rarely resolves the issue and the issue would have never been an issue if you'd inhaled through the other perfectly acceptable portal of air intake, the mouth. The entire nose filtration mechanism is highly overrated.

    33. Re:actually pinching nose? by shaitand · · Score: 1

      Similarly, along with closing the throat you can push air up against the nasal passages just like you would when holding your breath or swimming to create pressure which prevents air/water from entering your nose.

      Side effects include almost never sneezing (there is a limit but I suppose that functions as a pressure release valve to keep you from damaging your throat), anecdotally the same probability of a second sneeze attempt as going through with the sneeze, and people saying "you can't hold that in like that."

    34. Re:actually pinching nose? by shaitand · · Score: 1

      If you turned on the water in the sink of the bathroom and got third degree burns when you tested the temperature with your fingertip would you consider that an issue of personal responsibility?

      "It's.. coffee. Coffee is meant to be made with water around 91is degrees"

      91 degree liquid doesn't cause burns.

    35. Re:actually pinching nose? by iggymanz · · Score: 1

      hey that's mean and juvenile, orangutans are intelligent and noble primates

    36. Re:actually pinching nose? by iggymanz · · Score: 1

      oh, you mean these facts? "On February 27, 1992, Stella Liebeck, a 79-year-old woman from Albuquerque, New Mexico, ordered a 49-cent cup of coffee from the drive-through window of a local McDonald's restaurant located at 5001 Gibson Boulevard Southeast. Liebeck was in the passenger's seat of a 1989 Ford Probe which did not have cup holders. Her grandson parked the car so that Liebeck could add cream and sugar to her coffee. Liebeck placed the coffee cup between her knees and pulled the far side of the lid toward her to remove it. In the process, she spilled the entire cup of coffee on her lap.[10] Liebeck was wearing cotton sweatpants; they absorbed the coffee and held it against her skin, scalding her thighs, buttocks, and groin"

      what a dumb-ass

    37. Re:actually pinching nose? by iggymanz · · Score: 1

      bullshit, I know all the facts and the woman was a god damned moron.

      "On February 27, 1992, Stella Liebeck, a 79-year-old woman from Albuquerque, New Mexico, ordered a 49-cent cup of coffee from the drive-through window of a local McDonald's restaurant located at 5001 Gibson Boulevard Southeast. Liebeck was in the passenger's seat of a 1989 Ford Probe which did not have cup holders. Her grandson parked the car so that Liebeck could add cream and sugar to her coffee. Liebeck placed the coffee cup between her knees and pulled the far side of the lid toward her to remove it. In the process, she spilled the entire cup of coffee on her lap.[10] Liebeck was wearing cotton sweatpants; they absorbed the coffee and held it against her skin, scalding her thighs, buttocks, and groin"

    38. Re:actually pinching nose? by iggymanz · · Score: 1

      that's 91 degrees C, which is f'ing hot.

      the woman put the cup between her legs and pulled the top off toward herself, getting exactly what she deserved.

    39. Re:actually pinching nose? by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      If you don't want it serving hot, wait or blow on it. It's not arcane secret knowledge, but something everyone should be expected to know.

      That's okay when you're in a civilized country that uses ceramic cups. When you get into some shithole that uses a lot of styrofoam, you have to turn down the temps because the cup doesn't maintain its rigidity otherwise. McDonalds knew this because they engineered both the coffee and the cup, which is part of the reason for their recommended serving temperature.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    40. Re:actually pinching nose? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you turned on the water in the sink of the bathroom and got third degree burns when you tested the temperature with your fingertip would you consider that an issue of personal responsibility?

      You can scald yourself running hot water in your own home. And nobody else is responsible if you stick your hand in hot water, regardless of how much damage it does.

    41. Re:actually pinching nose? by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      Serve coffee that cold in most parts of Europe, and you will get the cup handed back to you.

      Erm no, no you don't. Firstly there's no way to draw an espresso into a cup that won't result it being around 75deg that doesn't also involve the server burning his hands, and secondly everywhere in Europe I've ordered a coffee I've been able to drink it when served, not some arbitrary cooling period after. If your coffee is higher than 75 you're not going to be able to taste much for the following few days.

      If you don't want it serving hot, wait or blow on it. It's not arcane secret knowledge, but something everyone should be expected to know.

      Blow on it? What kind of animal are you. You sound like you live in a messed up part of Europe. You should come over here, the country with the largest per capita coffee consumption in the world by a significant margin where we can show you how it's done properly.

    42. Re:actually pinching nose? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There were extenuating circumstances, but the general perception of "a woman sued McDonald's because she spilled their coffee on herself" is accurate.

      Most people intuit that when you spill something on yourself, whether it's water or coffee or sulfuric acid, it's your own damn fault.

      Once the coffee is handed over to you, McDonald's is no longer responsible for what you do with it. And if you can't tell if it's too hot to drink, you're an idiot. Get a personal attendant because you have poor life skills and you're at risk putting on your shoes in the morning.

    43. Re:actually pinching nose? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If the coffee wasn't too hot, then the burns would have been far less severe. Whether or not she was a moron is beside the point.

    44. Re:actually pinching nose? by volmtech · · Score: 1

      I see others have discovered if you don't inhale the sneeze is pre-stifled. I can't totally close my throat so I have to pinch my nose anyway. I do find that the diaphragm spasm trying to inhale is painful and someone with brittle bones could fracture their ribs.

      I have also pulled a back muscle sneezing while twisting my body to the side while sneezing. Being I am retired at home I just get my shoulders straight, hug my ribs, and let it go.

    45. Re:actually pinching nose? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It doesn't matter whether she's a moron, or the coffee was too hot, or the burns are severe.

      The only liability issue here is: did McDonald's spill coffee on her?

      No. Case closed.

  3. Tell that to strangers by Tablizer · · Score: 2

    Strangers expect you to cover it. You can't hand out a URL to the article after you blast them with boogers. Well, you could try, but they'll think you are a, well, nerd, and some may even pop you one.

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
    1. Re:Tell that to strangers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm pretty sure it's possible to cover your sneeze without pinching your nose and mouth shut. In fact, I do it whenever I sneeze next to people.

    2. Re:Tell that to strangers by sjames · · Score: 2

      Cover it, sure, don't try to lock it in. Sneeze into your bent elbow, for example.

    3. Re:Tell that to strangers by Heart44 · · Score: 2

      I was in an airplane, had my hands full and stifled a sneeze. The semi-slipped disc that resulted meant a few days of quite intense pain. It got fixed by connective tissue treatments but I didn't enjoy the overnight stay in the hotel and my wife had to carry all the luggage.

    4. Re:Tell that to strangers by sheramil · · Score: 4, Funny

      Cover it, sure, don't try to lock it in. Sneeze into your bent elbow, for example.

      And risk having people think I'm dabbing? No thanks! I'll just sneeze openly into the air and be a viral vector, the way nature intended.

    5. Re: Tell that to strangers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You sneeze into the crook of your arm. Or carry a handkerchief.

      Next up: Researchers warn that punching yourself in the face could be dangerous.

    6. Re:Tell that to strangers by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

      No thanks! I'll just sneeze openly into the air and be a viral vector, the way nature intended.

      I never read an article suggesting doing such a thing in Nature.

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
    7. Re:Tell that to strangers by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 2

      I never read an article suggesting doing such a thing in Nature.

      It was in Nature Letters, which aren't as rigorously peer reviewed.

      --
      #DeleteChrome
    8. Re:Tell that to strangers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Holy crap... do people think I'm dabbing when I sneeze into my elbow?... oh the horror...

    9. Re:Tell that to strangers by arglebargle_xiv · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Also, the premise behind the article is bollocks. "Man dies in freak accident, everyone else should change their behaviour in case they also encounter this one-in-a-billion condition" would be a better title. There'll be vastly more people killed by germs spread by sneezes than will ever die by whatever the BMJ's 404 was talking about.

    10. Re:Tell that to strangers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sneeze into your bent elbow, for example.

      Better to lift your shirt-collar up over your nose and sneeze in there because it completely contains the sneeze. And if you blow snot, well its on your chest where no one can see it instead of in your elbow leaving a stain.

    11. Re:Tell that to strangers by sheramil · · Score: 3, Funny

      Also, the premise behind the article is bollocks. "Man dies in freak accident...

      'e's not dead yet. Also, 'e doesn't want to go on the cart.

    12. Re:Tell that to strangers by Custard+Horse · · Score: 1

      I would say don't worry about it but the first display of dabbing I saw was a child - around 12 years old - standing on a bin (diameter of a large pizza) dabbing repeatedly at a busy traffic intersection.

      It wasn't the dabbing that shocked me, it was the idiocy of the public display. If only his mother was there to record it and show it to him throughout his youth to keep him on the straight and narrow.

      On the other hand, he may have been sneezing. It was in the Summer - perhaps he had hay fever?

    13. Re:Tell that to strangers by JonnyCalcutta · · Score: 2

      and my wife had to carry all the luggage.

      See, every cloud does have a silver lining

    14. Re:Tell that to strangers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, sneezing into the shirt seems to contain the aerosol much better. And, in a pinch, you can also use it in reverse (breathe through the shirt) if someone near you who is sick does a bug uncovered sneeze.

    15. Re:Tell that to strangers by desdinova+216 · · Score: 1

      maybe he's pining for the fjords?

  4. What's with all the towelhead spam? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    There's been towelhead spam in three consecutive articles. What's with the towelheads spamming Slashdot? Islam is garbage, and this just makes me hate towelheads even more. Fuck the sand n1ggers and their shithole religion.

    1. Re:What's with all the towelhead spam? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's just some fucking drunk troll. Yes, there truly are people with such empty, worthless lives.

    2. Re: What's with all the towelhead spam? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Take your xenophobia and shove it. Christians say plenty about love, then they turn around and spew hate.

    3. Re: What's with all the towelhead spam? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Leftists. Proof you, christophobic biggot.

    4. Re:What's with all the towelhead spam? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There's been towelhead spam in three consecutive articles.

      Yeah, posted by you, so you can pretend to react to it.

  5. Turn your head and cough by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    same thing.

    What? Women don't get hyenias?

    1. Re:Turn your head and cough by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      > What? Women don't get hyenias?

      No, they don't want to let a dingo eat their babies.

  6. It's true I just blew out the back of my head by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Boy was I surprised anyone have a cloth ?

  7. This is the exact opposite of my problem. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Whenever I get sick (and occasionally when I'm not) I get the urge to sneeze but can't actually do it, which feels 10x worse. None of the stupid online tricks to make yourself sneeze ever work either.

  8. Make a Machine Gun Noise by Kunedog · · Score: 1

    I find the most controllable and least painful way to handle an unwanted sneeze is to press the tongue against the roof of the mouth, in the same way as when you imitate a machine gun. It makes a weird noise but at least it works in private . . . is there a (safe) silent way to deal with a sneeze?

    1. Re:Make a Machine Gun Noise by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'd rather sneeze out the germs than bottle them up inside.

    2. Re:Make a Machine Gun Noise by dacaldar · · Score: 1

      I was with you until you said machine gun. I read decades ago, and it has worked with high probability for me, to simply press the tongue firmly against the roof of the mouth. I can't imagine that pulsing it like a machine gun would help at all - try just keeping it there firmly, applying pressure to the nasal cavities so they don't keep preparing you with an inhale, and the tingle often goes away.

  9. Idiots! by DigiShaman · · Score: 4, Informative

    Sneeze in the inside of your elbow with it placed just above the nose. Whatever doesn't get absorbed by the clothes or arm, will get directed downward. This shouldn't be complicated, but apparently there's enough morons in the world where it needs to be taught. FFS

    --
    Life is not for the lazy.
    1. Re:Idiots! by demonlapin · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Yep, this is correct. "Sneeze like Dracula". This minimizes the aerosolized viruses and the exposure onto commonly-touched surfaces (just don't cross your arms afterward). Standard CDC advice. In 20 years of being a med student and doctor, I've gotten the flu once. The modern proliferation of alcohol-soaked hand wipes and foams has helped., probably as much as the vaccine (which has been unfortunately ineffective this year).

    2. Re:Idiots! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Sneeze like Dracula"

      I don't know about you, but I don't often shoot blood when I sneeze

    3. Re:Idiots! by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 1

      Sneeze in the inside of your elbow with it placed just above the nose. Whatever doesn't get absorbed by the clothes or arm, will get directed downward.

      What and risk not wiping out all of humanity with an airborne strain of Ebola? That would just make all the monkey bites for nothing! ;)

      --
      Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    4. Re:Idiots! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      [Disclaimer: I'm from the generation before they started teaching the elbow thing. Don't try to make me change. Nothing you say can possibly make me consider changing.]

      I've never understood the kids sneezing into their elbows. Great! Now you've got snot all over your shirt (or arm if you're wearing short sleeves).
      They taught us to make a teepee with our hands and sneeze into our palms, and then immediately go wash our fucking hands.

      p.s. I also think all of you elbow-sneezers don't realize how much comes out of your mouth when you sneeze, and elbow-sneezing does not block any of that, but palm-sneezing does.

    5. Re:Idiots! by DigiShaman · · Score: 1

      Ideally, you turn away from people when you sneeze. If possible, walk a good distance away from people to sneeze so aerosol has a chance to clear the air as it falls to the ground.

      --
      Life is not for the lazy.
    6. Re:Idiots! by lucm · · Score: 1

      I don't often shoot blood when I sneeze

      We clealy don't have the same coke dealer

      --
      lucm, indeed.
    7. Re: Idiots! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The problem with sneezing into your hands is the spewage that you smear all over everything you touch. Door knobs, hand rails, even the faucet handle, just because you wanted to be proper.

    8. Re:Idiots! by mapkinase · · Score: 1

      Armani dressed morons

      --
      I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
    9. Re:Idiots! by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      Anyone working in hospitality or the food industry is taught this one too. People sneezing into their hands is feral.

    10. Re:Idiots! by Cro+Magnon · · Score: 1

      What if you're in a big crowd, surrounded by people on all sides?

      --
      Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
    11. Re:Idiots! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Unfortunately it's not just sneezing that can cause damage. During a particularly bad cold I would blow my nose and my throat would sometimes involuntarily close my nasal passage. This caused extreme pressure to build up for an instant before I could stop blowing. It was painful and would make my throat at the back of my mouth very sore. This happened a number of times during that cold and left my throat extremely tender for several weeks. Since that episode, any time my nose is runny it no longer drips out my nose, it runs back into my throat (post-nasal drip). So now during the winter I get to constantly cough out mucus instead of occasionally blowing my nose.

    12. Re:Idiots! by DigiShaman · · Score: 1

      Then they're just fucked =)

      --
      Life is not for the lazy.
    13. Re:Idiots! by danomac · · Score: 1

      Sneeze in the inside of your elbow with it placed just above the nose. Whatever doesn't get absorbed by the clothes or arm, will get directed downward.

      I do this all the time, just make sure nobody is sitting down nearby.

      Sorry Bob! :*(

    14. Re:Idiots! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      When I'm sick (and the aerosol is likely to be contagious) and can't just stay home away from people then I keep a small hand towel with me. That contains the aerosol much better than an elbow.

    15. Re:Idiots! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In 20 years of being a med student and doctor, I've gotten the flu once.

      So you're lucky enough to work in an environment where (other) people know to sneeze like Dracula - and that seems to be effective in preventing transmission (to you)?

      Obviously the best way of preventing people from breathing in an infectious aerosol is distance. If you're home in bed then no matter how much you sneeze you're not going to infect your coworkers at work. But a small hand towel can also absorb the aerosol well (e.g. if you have to come to work when you're sick and you're in an open plan office).

      On the other hand, anecdotally, I've had some good luck with those dust masks available in hardware stores to protect myself from other people. I was on a plane and the guy next to me was obviously very sick and coughing and sneezing relentlessly (and doing absolutely nothing to contain the aerosol) - so I put on my dust mask - and didn't end up getting sick. The virus particles themselves are small enough to go through a dust mask but they actually exist as tiny water droplets - and a dust mask has a good chance of catching most water droplet aerosol particles. Of course, it's not 100% effective but even reducing the risk by, say, a factor of ten is a big deal.

    16. Re:Idiots! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It gets taught to most kids in Australia in playgroups, childcare centres, preschools, kindergartens and so on. You may think that it shouldn't be need to be taught but it is learned behaviour. I was taught to cover my mouth and nose to sneeze with my hand. The instinctive way is to just move all your body parts out the way so you don't get snot or anything on yourself (just watch a baby or a animal sneeze).

    17. Re:Idiots! by alteran · · Score: 1

      Or don't breath in before the sneeze.

      No air, no sneeze.

      --
      Who is RTFM and when will he help me with Unix?
    18. Re:Idiots! by demonlapin · · Score: 1

      My wife is also a doctor, so we have two major routes of infection at home. I use enough Purell during flu season that I joke about getting drunk from skin absorption.

    19. Re:Idiots! by dacaldar · · Score: 1

      Go check with actual public health departments around the world. While they encourage frequent hand washing, guess what, much of the time someone needs to sneeze, they don't have quick or easy access to a hand washing station - and often they would need to touch many common things like doorknobs to get to one. So what are they going to do? wipe their hand on their pants, and as they think "feels dry now", quickly forget that they even needed to wash their hands - and then probably go shake hands with someone or touch more doorknobs or steering wheels.

      Keep your internal shit away from your hands, which immediately touch the things the rest of us public also needs to touch, thank you very much. Elbow or shoulder is correct.

      Yes, my wife works in public health.

  10. Involutarily by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There are a few people, like myself, in which it is a reflex. When I have that moment before a sneeze, where I breath in, my body clenches up involuntarily so when I sneeze most of the time the muscles have clenched it up. Even actively trying to relax does nothing cause that just makes it seem like the sneeze isn't going to happen and then when it does happen it's so fast and explosive that I can't prepare at all and I clench up faster than I can even think.

  11. Wait a sec.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    aren't your eyes supposed to pop out if you totally block a sneeze? At least that was the rumor way back when I was a kid. Also, if you drink pop rocks and coke at the same time your stomach will explode. Or something like that.

    1. Re:Wait a sec.. by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

      Also, if you drink pop rocks and coke at the same time your stomach will explode. Or something like that.

      I think it's "if you drink pop rocks and coke at the same time, tell me where you got your liquified pop rocks".

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
    2. Re:Wait a sec.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      liquified Pop Rocks? Sign me up!

    3. Re:Wait a sec.. by lucm · · Score: 1

      aren't your eyes supposed to pop out if you totally block a sneeze?

      No but it happens quite often especially with the elderly to have small sections of the retina detach from the back of the eye, causing permanent blind spots.

      --
      lucm, indeed.
    4. Re:Wait a sec.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yikes, that's a bummer. Who knew a sneeze could cause such damage.

  12. SLASHDOT SHOULD BAN ALL RAGHEADS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    I'm getting really sick and tired of the sand nigg3r spam getting posted in every article. Don't the dune coons have anything better to do with their time? It's hard not to hate ragheads when they do shit like this. I'm not racist or xenophobic at all, but a couple of well-placed nukes around Mecca would solve a lot of the world's problems. Get the fucking towelheads off of this site

    1. Re:SLASHDOT SHOULD BAN ALL RAGHEADS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ^^^^Same AC who was singing praises of allah earlier in the thread. Just wants to see the world burn.

  13. Cover your mouth by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There is about a kajillionth of a chance of this happening to you, please cover your mouth when sneeze, millennials.

  14. Neither the headline nor the lede are supported by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    The story explicitly says "such complications from sneezing were so uncommon that there was no evidence in general that individuals should not hold one in." -- the headline directly contradicts the story. Here's what we actually learn: There existed a single patient who tore the back of his throat, purportedly as part of stifling a sneeze. Okay.

    I think Slashdot editors should not post stories about science if the headline is inaccurate or if they themselves lack the scientific literacy to evaluate the claims in the headline or the body of the story.

    Embarrassing.

    1. Re:Neither the headline nor the lede are supported by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Though this issue is rare, I suspect that issues in general are not.

      I had a discussion about this in a group a few weeks ago after my wife stifled a sneeze with obvious difficulty and then had to stifle several more. I do not do this because I passed out once when I did. In a quick poll of the room of 25ish folks, all but three had experienced instances of dizziness, ear pain, shoulder pain or other notable side-effects after a stifled sneeze.

      The result of stifling a sneeze is often sneezing again because the body didn't clear whatever was triggering the sneeze. Sneezing has a purpose. We shouldn't second guess it so much.

      I now pull my shirt up over my nose and sneeze away. I have noted that my sinuses don't seem to get as swollen as they used to when I stifled.

    2. Re:Neither the headline nor the lede are supported by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Here is a case from Sweden. This woman stifled a sneeze, ruptured a blood vessel in her neck and got a stroke when blood from the damaged blood vessel reached her brain. She got partial paralysis and lost her ability to speak. (Article is in Swedish.)

      https://www.expressen.se/halsoliv/cinna-bromander-drabbades-av-en-stroke-nar-hon-var-31/

  15. Sometimes you might by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    For me, stifled sneezes are more comfortable and convenient than going full achoo.I stifle them essentially by sneezing while holding my breath. Sneezes vary in forcefulness. I make sure the sneeze only gets stifled if it's less than a certain pressure. If I know it's going to be a forceful I'll skip attempting the stifle because at that point it defeats the purpose.

  16. In related news... by Black+Parrot · · Score: 1

    Supposedly (according to Suetonius, IIRC), one of the Ceasars declared that it's OK to fart at dinner parties, after one of his guests hurt himself trying to hold one back so he wouldn't have to leave the room.

    --
    Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
    1. Re: In related news... by Jesus+H+Rolle · · Score: 1

      The party host was Oda Nobunaga, and the fart-holder was Ieyasu Tokugawa. It's a well-known Japanese story.

    2. Re: In related news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Have you got a source for that please? Sounds interesting!

  17. AGREED: FUCK SAND NIGGERS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1


     

  18. Does this work for everyone? by Solandri · · Score: 1

    Try pushing the tip of your nose next time you're about to sneeze. On myself and the few people I've tested it on, it suppresses the sneeze. You won't feel that great after, but you won't sneeze.

    From an evolutionary standpoint, it makes sense that there would be an "off" switch for a noisy and messy reflex like a sneeze. If you're hiding from a predator and don't have any way to suppress your sneeze, you die.

    1. Re:Does this work for everyone? by lucm · · Score: 4, Funny

      From an evolutionary standpoint, it makes sense that there would be an "off" switch for a noisy and messy reflex like a sneeze. If you're hiding from a predator and don't have any way to suppress your sneeze, you die.

      That's not how evolution works. AR-15 and Desert Eagles are the answer to the threat of predators, not hiding and pinching your nose to avoid sneezing, pussy.

      --
      lucm, indeed.
    2. Re:Does this work for everyone? by coofercat · · Score: 1

      I notice that when my kids sneeze, a world of snot shoots out of their nose and generally forms two rather attractive lines down to their mouth (whereupon a tongue often appears to turn it into a tasty snack). Either way, it seems terribly effective - whatever was in their nose that caused the tickle leaves the building in short order.

      I notice that almost no adult seems to have anywhere near that level of effectiveness - lots of noise, and no real action. Maybe a need to blow their nose, or sniff a bit afterwards, but that's about it.

      Nothing to do with the 'off switch' you're talking about, but I wonder if it's a bit of 'social evolution' that our sneezes get less messy as we get older?

    3. Re:Does this work for everyone? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No. But you almost got it right at the end. Pussy is the answer to the threat of predators. Just outbreed them.

  19. What most people don't know... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    CIA secret: It's quite easy to hardly make a sound while sneezing by simply exhaling without using the tongue to block the airway (neither mouth nor nasal passages). Just open mouth and "wheeze" out. This avoids scaring to death the people around you and doesn't create much spray. Do this into the crook of your elbow, and hardly anyone will even know you did anything.

  20. FUCK ALL NIGGERS! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    Fuck all níggers with a great big rubber dick! Then break it off halfway inside! Then send 'em back to Africa!

  21. You don't need to cover up by burtosis · · Score: 3, Interesting

    To get hurt just sneeze normally. I pulled a damn back muscle once on a particularly large sneeze and it was nearly a pain in the ass for two weeks.

    1. Re:You don't need to cover up by zifn4b · · Score: 1

      To get hurt just sneeze normally. I pulled a damn back muscle once on a particularly large sneeze and it was nearly a pain in the ass for two weeks.

      To be fair, this usually only happens to people with weak and tight core/lower back muscles...

      --
      We'll make great pets
  22. Stop IGNORING the Twitter O'Keefe story by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    The fact that Slashdot editors are willing to run this crap, which has nothing to do with tech, and completely bury the FLAGRANT story of Twitter Orwellianism admitted by Twitter's OWN ENGINEERS is so transparently biased as to be laughable.

    Drudge Report ran the story. Drudge DWARFS Slashdot and all mainstream media. What do you really think you're accomplishing by ignoring the story, other than demonstrating how ridiculous Slashdot has become?

    1. Re:Stop IGNORING the Twitter O'Keefe story by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's on the front page, jackass. You can quit shitting your panties, snowflake.

  23. Consider other famous vampires, e.g. The Count by ToTheStars · · Score: 4, Funny

    Maybe this is something Sesame Street could do in a PSA, with their character of 'The Count'. "Vun! Vun sneeze! Ah ah ah ah...choo!"

    1. Re:Consider other famous vampires, e.g. The Count by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's actually a really good idea!

  24. He? by superwiz · · Score: 1

    In what you universe is this "news that matters"?

    --
    Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
  25. So what by PoopJuggler · · Score: 1

    So one guy hurts himself and that means it's not safe for every single other person on the planet? It's still way better to just hold it in and not spread your germs.

    1. Re:So what by zifn4b · · Score: 1

      So one guy hurts himself and that means it's not safe for every single other person on the planet? It's still way better to just hold it in and not spread your germs.

      If you're really that concerned, wear a mask.

      --
      We'll make great pets
  26. RIP in Peace slashdot.org by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    Yuck. Slashdot is terrible now.

    What happened?

    Articles are all: News for Losers, Stuff That Absolutely Doesn't Matter

    Comments are a completely off topic, and absolutely unintelligible, stream of garbage from racist backwater hicks.
    They seriously just need to remove the comment section on this site altogether. This shit is embarrassing.

    Slashdot used to be good. I read from about 2004-2009 or so and then quit for a while. Coming back, it is sad to see what this place turned into.

    Removing from the RSS aggregator. Off to hackaday to see if I'm in for more disappointment over there.

    1. Re:RIP in Peace slashdot.org by PopeRatzo · · Score: 2

      RIP in Peace slashdot.org

      "RIP in Peace" is redundant. Yes, standards have slipped a bit at Slashdot, mostly because of the 4chan ops which are designed to destroy the place. They haven't been successful, but the hassle has dissuaded a lot of the good people from posting as much.

      But none of that means we should let our grammatical usage slip due to laziness, so you're on notice mister. Strike one.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    2. Re:RIP in Peace slashdot.org by mentil · · Score: 1

      4chan ops? Can you elaborate?

      --
      Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
    3. Re:RIP in Peace slashdot.org by zifn4b · · Score: 1

      Not sure why this got modded down, it's on point. I would mod you up despite being AC.

      --
      We'll make great pets
  27. Yes to the "Vampire" block for coughs and sneezes by bdwoolman · · Score: 1

    This is doubly useful because it also keeps effluvia off your mitts. Not nice if you are wearing short sleeves, though. Personally I use a big bandanna when I can. These come in handy for lots of stuff, including sneezes, but especially to dry my hands in places that lack towels. Also... Along the same lines... Hard honking nose blows can be counter productive -- albeit satisfying. The best method is to gently blow one nostril at a time while sealing the other. Hard blows actually send material deeper into the sinus cavity as well as out. IANAD, but I dated any number of nurses -- back in the day.

    --
    "No fear. No envy. No meanness." Liam Clancy
  28. Looks like we finally have the answer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Calvin and Hobbes
    https://i.pinimg.com/736x/fb/40/eb/fb40eb8694718adc5ab64712a1caf286--calvin-and-hobbes-comics-online-comics.jpg

    1. Re:Looks like we finally have the answer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How about this one ?

  29. Looks like we finally have the answer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Calvin and Hobbes

  30. Just do it by Beat_color · · Score: 1

    In our country, people dont stifle the sneeze. Even they make some funny sounds with that sneeze. It's normal in my country

    --
    a href ="https://beatcolor.com/"> Beat Color
  31. TA CO by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    Dist8ibution make that comprise

  32. Sneeze into your arm or inside your shirt by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hey, sometimes fumbling for your kerchief is just setting yourself to explode in a cloud of infectious spewage. Simply tuck yourself into the nook of your arm, or nestle your face underneath your shirt, and just splatter away.

    Clean yourself up afterwards; donâ(TM)t hug me!

  33. The Takeaway is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...that we now have an official metric to diagnose someone as a pussy.

  34. Stifling a sneeze is dangerous! by The123king · · Score: 1

    My father got a hernia stifling a sneeze.

    --
    If you gave me a choice between a printer and a giraffe with explosive diarrhoea, i'll get my ladder and my raincoat
  35. If one stifles a sneeze... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...to intentionally induce a fatal condition, is that considered attempting suicide?

  36. Breakage by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I broke my rib holding in a sneeze. (At night, in my bed, while laying on my side.) And this to not alarm the wife and child.

  37. And in other common sense news by zifn4b · · Score: 1

    Don't try to hold your poop and pee indefinitely. Slow news day eh Slashdot?

    --
    We'll make great pets
  38. To reduce a sneeze, open mouth wide, use armpit by PeterM+from+Berkeley · · Score: 1

    Don't resist a sneeze, just go with it, if you want to minimize it. Open your mouth wide, open your throat, remove all obstructions. My sneezes this way just sound like loud fast exhalations. Instead of ah-choo it's a-hooo.

    And do all this into your armpit. The loud part of the sneeze is the pressure buildup releasing. Don't provide any resistance, no pressure buildup. I bet it reduces droplet projection quite a lot to sneeze this way too.

    To a lot of people this isn't even recognizable as a sneeze. They look at you like, "what just happened?"

    --PM

  39. Vagus, Baby by kackle · · Score: 2

    Decades ago, I taught myself to sneeze entirely through my mouth to prevent the nostril mess afterwards (adding the Dracula elbow in more recent times). Since I usually only sneeze "once at a time", I wonder about sneezing's effectiveness regarding/correlation with the nose. I've been studying the vagus nerve lately (it innervates SO much within the body), that I wonder whether IT is involved in sensing and dealing with pulmonary/esophageal irritation more than anything else...

    1. Re:Vagus, Baby by Reziac · · Score: 1

      I do this mouth-only sneeze thing naturally; in fact I can't sneeze through my nose. Apparently I'm wired weird.

      --
      ~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
  40. Blasphemer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Christians and Muslims worship the same God. That you do not understand this proves you are merely an ignorant troll.

  41. Re:Yes to the "Vampire" block for coughs and sneez by laie_techie · · Score: 1

    This is doubly useful because it also keeps effluvia off your mitts. Not nice if you are wearing short sleeves, though. Personally I use a big bandanna when I can. These come in handy for lots of stuff, including sneezes, but especially to dry my hands in places that lack towels. Also... Along the same lines... Hard honking nose blows can be counter productive -- albeit satisfying. The best method is to gently blow one nostril at a time while sealing the other. Hard blows actually send material deeper into the sinus cavity as well as out. IANAD, but I dated any number of nurses -- back in the day.

    Best not to dry your hands with a bandanna which was previously used to contain a sneeze (unless it's been washed since, of course); it just transfers the germs to your hands - which was the whole point of using a bandanna in the first place!

  42. It can work the other way too. by Oligonicella · · Score: 2

    I already have a ruptured right eardrum. If I suppress a sneeze it causes an astonishingly loud (only to me, I realize) and painful whistle. So my sneezes sound more like cannon shots.

  43. Re:Yes to the "Vampire" block for coughs and sneez by Oligonicella · · Score: 1

    Yeah, if you're giving it to someone else to use. You can't contaminate yourself with germs you expel from your own body. It's your hands you want to wash.

  44. Re:Yes to the "Vampire" block for coughs and sneez by laie_techie · · Score: 1

    Yeah, if you're giving it to someone else to use. You can't contaminate yourself with germs you expel from your own body. It's your hands you want to wash.

    The point is that if you have germs on your hands (even if it's your own germs), you will pass them on - touching door handles, faucet handles, shaking hands, etc. You obviously do want to wash your hands soon.

    When I was a missionary in Brazil, it was a mission rule to carry trial size containers of hand sanitizer.

  45. Interesting by Doctrinsograce · · Score: 1

    Sounds like good advice. But then my very loud sneezes will wake up my wife. :-(

  46. I didn't know this was a thing by p0larity · · Score: 1

    I didn't know this was a thing. I just do it anyway. That way I'm not sneezing into my hands and then getting that sneeze all over the subway poles I touch, door handles, etc.

    Sneezing into your elbow pit just contains the damage and unless someone grabs your arms before you get a chance to wash them, contains the problem.

  47. Re:Yes to the "Vampire" block for coughs and sneez by RespekMyAthorati · · Score: 1

    Well duh.

    Why would I dry my hands with a banana?

  48. Re:Yes to the "Vampire" block for coughs and sneez by laie_techie · · Score: 1

    Well duh. Why would I dry my hands with a banana?

    Look at the parent post by bdwoolman:

    This is doubly useful because it also keeps effluvia off your mitts. Not nice if you are wearing short sleeves, though. Personally I use a big bandanna when I can. These come in handy for lots of stuff, including sneezes, but especially to dry my hands in places that lack towels

    Being ./ I couldn't tell if sarcasm was included or not.