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