Harris Wolobah, a healthy 14-year-old from Worcester, Massachusetts, tragically died last Friday, hours after eating a single ultra-spicy tortilla chip seasoned with two of the hottest peppers in the world.
The teen's mother, Lois Wolobah, reportedly picked up her son from school that day after getting a call from the nurse that he was sick.
[...]
Lois Wolobah believes the chip played a role in the death of her son, who had no known underlying medical conditions."I just want there to be an awareness for parents to know that it's not safe," Wolobah told The New York Times in an article published Wednesday. "It needs to be out of the market completely."
On Thursday, the maker of the Paqui chip—Amplify Snack Brands, a subsidiary of the Hershey Company—announced that it was taking the potentially deadly chip off shelves.
The chip was intended only for adults and carried clear warnings, the company said in a statement. It was not intended for "children or anyone sensitive to spicy foods or who has food allergies, is pregnant or has underlying health conditions."
[...]
The Paqui chip was seasoned with the Carolina Reaper pepper, the current hottest pepper in the world, and the Naga Viper pepper, which was the reigning hottest pepper in 2011 but is now merely among the top 10.
[...]
As a group of doctors from the University of Mississippi wrote in a 2020 medical case report:The content of capsaicin, the compound that gives peppers their spicy taste, may be measured in Scoville heat units (SHU). The Carolina Reaper pepper boasts up to 2,200,000 SHU. For reference, standard pepper spray contains around 2,000,000 to 5,000,000 SHU, ghost pepper 1,000,000 SHU, and jalapeno pepper 3,500 SHU.
According to PepperScale, the Carolina Reaper is the 4th hottest pepper in the world. Behind the #1 Pepper X, #2 Apollo Pepper, and #3 Dragon's Breath Pepper. Though, none of those have been verified by the Guinness Book of World Records.
(Score: 4, Funny) by DannyB on Wednesday September 13 2023, @05:49PM
Gee, if it has that many conditions for use, maybe these chips should be available by prescription only?
We do that already for drugs that have lots of possible side effects and contra indications.
It is different than the gold ol' days when I could drive down to the county fairgrounds and get a covid-19 vaccine injection in my arm for free without even getting out of my car.
When trying to solve a problem don't ask who suffers from the problem, ask who profits from the problem.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by canopic jug on Wednesday September 13 2023, @05:50PM (24 children)
That's some interesting spin on the incident. If I had been the editor there I would have focused on the risks of social control media and the challenges that its addicts are manipulated into carrying out to the detriment of themselves and or others.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by epitaxial on Wednesday September 13 2023, @06:02PM (23 children)
Peer pressure never existed before social media. Right.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by canopic jug on Wednesday September 13 2023, @06:17PM (21 children)
Peer pressure never existed before social media. Right.
It certainly did not exist at the levels it occurs at now through social control media. Even before Bytedance launched its weapon, Tiktok, things were getting bad as Twitter and Facebook became weaponized. Blue Whale Challenge for team building at your next company get together perhaps?
The old fashion peer pressure which you refer to is a very different thing and looks quaint in comparison. Now: "Adults" smash an egg on their own toddler's head and laugh at him or her about it, while streaming the whole thing. Or teens form flash mobs to loot shops, while streaming the whole thing. Or just go in alone or in small groups and steal as much as they can get away with, and stream the whole thing. Or eat over the counter medicine until severe adverse symptoms manifest, and stream the whole thing. And so on.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 2, Redundant) by epitaxial on Wednesday September 13 2023, @06:27PM (11 children)
I shall repeat. People were never shitty before social media. Right.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Freeman on Wednesday September 13 2023, @08:40PM
Cutting Back on Social Media Reduces Anxiety, Depression, Loneliness [soylentnews.org] Social Media in it's current form is about as toxic as it is helpful for communicating with friends.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 4, Insightful) by owl on Wednesday September 13 2023, @09:27PM (8 children)
No, there were indeed plenty of shitty people before social media.
What was different was that those shitty people's sphere of influence was much more limited (pretty much only to those which were in a local physical vicinity of the shitty person).
Social media allows for all of those psychopaths (most all of which existed before) to extend their sphere of influence from "those few in my local physical vicinity" to "millions world wide". I.e., those shitty ones can now degrade by far more others than they previously were ever able to impact.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Runaway1956 on Thursday September 14 2023, @02:20AM (3 children)
I think the girls from Salem might have a word or two for you. I don't recall any witch hangings in recent news.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Opportunist on Thursday September 14 2023, @07:34AM (2 children)
You think witch-hunts are over? Or that they don't get promoted and augmented by antisocial media? That it's not possible to hype dimwits into hysteria and go commit murder for "the greater good"?
One word: Pizzagate.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Runaway1956 on Thursday September 14 2023, @12:13PM (1 child)
Another word: Jan 6 insurrection. Titty for tatty, huh?
(Score: 4, Touché) by Opportunist on Friday September 15 2023, @11:36AM
Another great example how to incite dimwits to murder people, yes.
(Score: 5, Touché) by Reziac on Thursday September 14 2023, @02:25AM (3 children)
Not only that, but now the shitty people can all FIND each other, and thereby amplify their shittiness far beyond the reach of even one shitty person with an internet megaphone. Now the shitty people can all shit in unison and bury everyone else.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday September 14 2023, @03:56AM (2 children)
Are you buried by kids eating extremely spicy chips?
(Score: 3, Informative) by Reziac on Thursday September 14 2023, @04:22AM
That would be a truly horrible prospect.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Sunday September 17 2023, @08:52PM
Sounds more like the kid that died from an extremely is the one that got buried.
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Thursday September 14 2023, @07:32AM
Sure they were. But one shitty person with a lethal "dare you" challenge could maybe off one or two of their peers before someone stopped them.
With antisocial media, they can stack up a bodycount in the thousands before anyone steps in and warns about the consequences.
(Score: 3, Funny) by NotSanguine on Wednesday September 13 2023, @07:04PM (5 children)
--George Carlin
[Source: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/43852-think-of-how-stupid-the-average-person-is-and-realize [goodreads.com] ]
That's nothing new either.
And they did stupid shit like this back in the day, too. You just mostly didn't hear about it because most folks didn't walk around with a video camera in their pocket. Now those from the shallow end of the gene pool can document their Darwin Award (or at least honorable mention) seeking activities for all to see.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 14 2023, @12:33AM (4 children)
> Now those from the shallow end of the gene pool...
So, when can we have Internet 2 that is much harder to use?
If that existed, I'd put in the time to work it out, and leave Internet 1 behind.
(Score: 3, Informative) by NotSanguine on Thursday September 14 2023, @01:35AM
Never!
Remember, remember it's Eternal September [wikipedia.org].
With apologies to Guy Fawkes.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 14 2023, @03:26AM
> So, when can we have Internet 2 that is much harder to use?
Internet2 was killed when Van Houweling ended up in charge of it, having failed upwards yet again.
https://www.educause.edu/ir/library/html/cem/cem97/cem9722.html [educause.edu]
Shit floats.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 14 2023, @09:22AM (1 child)
TCP/IP is fine. Design your own difficult to use network to run on top of it.
Incorporate encryption, Napster style file sharing, Torrent style file sharing, and an authenticated, signed, encrypted, messaging layer that can be used for everything from SMS's to multi-TB file transfers.
Do all that and I would probably take the trouble to learn to use it.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 14 2023, @03:49PM
Have you tried Jami? Worked great when I ran a test with an old friend earlier this year. It checks quite a few of your boxes-- https://jami.net/ [jami.net]
Bonus for the SN graybeards, it's GNU software--the front page even says "As in free beer AND as in freedom".
(Score: 2) by Tork on Wednesday September 13 2023, @07:16PM (2 children)
I am curious what specific levels you're referring to went up and by how much. Throughout my entire life I've been hearing about how specific social fads are the new end-of-the-world danger (rock'n'roll, DnD, Mortal Kombat, garbage pail kids, harry potter, GTA, internet porn, beavis and butthead....) and every-single time the dangers were blown out of proportion by people chasing the result they want.
I'm not telling you your'e wrong, I don't actually know, I am just explaining the roots of some of my skepticism.
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 3, Interesting) by canopic jug on Thursday September 14 2023, @05:14AM (1 child)
I'm not telling you your'e wrong, I don't actually know, I am just explaining the roots of some of my skepticism.
There's not much to be skeptical about. The "apps" on the phone are designed for addiction. When they get someone hooked, they then are used to modify the addict's views, values, and perceptions through operant conditioning. These "apps" are effectively Skinner boxes [simplypsychology.org] which the victims immerse their minds in and which adapt real time to each individual addict's changing weaknesses.
Look at it this way. There is not one Facebook versus millions of addicts. A percentage of mind share in each addict is influenced or even shaped by Facebook in each of those addicts, to a greater or lesser extent, but there nonetheless. Millions of fractions add up across the population to be in practice tens of thousands of Facebook equivalents. No wonder Facebook and the older social control media have been weaponized ( in contrast Bytedance's Tiktok is designed as a weapon ), the return on effort is just too high to avoid attracting malevolent interests. Thus millions of mionds fractionally steered by Facebook are effectively amplifying Facebook profoundly when measured at scale.
The problem is looked into at scale by Jacob Ward in his book, The Loop: How Technology Is Creating a World Without Choices and How to Fight Back [jacobward.com]. I haven't seen a good summary of it, though plenty of bad ones. The gist is that with respect to the operant conditioning now going on at scale, there are negative feedback loops at three levels: the individual's inherited behavior, modern society's barriers and opportunities which guide behavior as people "go with the flow", and lastly where software is nowadays designed to prey on and shape the first two. The warning of his book is that this software is currently not designed to promote our best interest or, for that matter, even our survival as a planetary civilization.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 3, Informative) by NotSanguine on Friday September 15 2023, @03:36AM
The author explains it here [youtube.com] in ~12:30 minutes.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Thursday September 14 2023, @07:30AM
It did. But it was peer pressure. Not pressure from some dimwit halfway around the world who won't get smacked silly by his parents for making you eat that worm.
That's like saying "duh, there was never someone stealing your wallet" when talking about online credit card fraud. Yes there was. But the level was a way, way lower one.
(Score: 2) by istartedi on Wednesday September 13 2023, @06:08PM
Pretty wild to see this on the front page after I had just recently used super-spicy food as an analogy for being manipulated in to pedophilia [soylentnews.org]
So yeah, "freedom", but it has its limits. Some things need to be regulated and when people get sick and/or die from a product that's the time.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 3, Informative) by progo on Wednesday September 13 2023, @06:33PM (7 children)
I don't know what SHU means, physically -- is it a per gram thing or overall score regardless of the mass of the food? Anyway, it doesn't take a genius to conclude you shouldn't eat pepper spray flavored "food".
(Score: 4, Informative) by ElizabethGreene on Wednesday September 13 2023, @06:42PM
SHU = Scoville heat unit = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scoville_scale [wikipedia.org]
It used to be measured by extracting the heat compounds and diluting them until human tasters couldn't taste them. Now they use chromatography to make it less subjective. (Insert joke here about the lack of humans willing to "test" recent generations of absurdly hot peppers.)
(Score: 3, Interesting) by krishnoid on Wednesday September 13 2023, @08:01PM (5 children)
How do you actually die if you eat something that hot? I guess it could burn your tongue and mucus lining, but what is the actual mechanism of death?
(Score: 4, Informative) by PinkyGigglebrain on Wednesday September 13 2023, @08:32PM (2 children)
not 100% sure but IIRCC the COD is usually something heart related. Something about the heat triggers heart palpitations that can cause the heart to spasm and not actually pump any blood.
Watched a show about a hot sauce contest many years ago, they had paramedics standing by in the judging area just in case. Saw one judge try a little too much pure Capsicum (16,000,000SHU). Poor guy was flushed red as a lobster, sweating like he was in a sauna with a fur coat and literally panting. Pretty sure he lived. Should note that the amount he ate was what you get from just barely dipping the end of a toothpick in the stuff. It was all heat no real flavor, only use would be to spice up a big batch of chili or something without messing with the flavor.
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 13 2023, @11:46PM (1 child)
A thing to watch out for in this regards.
There are a number of 'novelty' (read: crappy quality, but in a 'fancy' bottle) 'hot' (alas, usually not) sauces of Chinese origin where they use Capsaicin extract (surplus to military/police requirements, no doubt) to boost their heat.
Being a lover of hot sauces, they're something I try avoiding as they have no real taste to them, unfortunately I usually end up with at least one set of these every year as either a birthday or Christmas present from well-meaning but clueless family members, and they'll get used out of politeness.
Several years back, the legendary Chinese quality control (lack thereof) struck, I'd swear the stuff that year had grams of Capsaicin added per bottle.
I'm ok with Reapers and Bhut Jolokias, but this stuff was...hot, painful and just plain bloody nasty, not to mention just a wee bit of a rather unwelcome surprise on a cheese & tomato sandwich, especially when you were only expecting the usual mediocre tasting sauce so had used copious amounts of the damn stuff.
After an initial really unpleasant ½-¾ hour or so, It took me another couple of hours to get back to sort-of normal, and with children in the house we couldn't risk having them getting to the sauce, so it got flushed.
Last Christmas I got another set, I now check the bloody things before using them and this time it was the bottle of their Jalapeño sauce (of all things) that would have given Dave's Insanity sauce a run for it's money heatwise, but not tastewise.
So, beware Chinese 'boosted' hot sauces in novelty bottles.
(Score: 2) by canopic jug on Thursday September 14 2023, @05:27AM
I'm ok with Reapers and Bhut Jolokias, but this stuff was...hot, painful and just plain bloody nasty, not to mention just a wee bit of a rather unwelcome surprise on a cheese & tomato sandwich, especially when you were only expecting the usual mediocre tasting sauce so had used copious amounts of the damn stuff.
There used to be a restaurant near where I once lived which offered weekly hotsauce tastings. I observed that many of the sauces are just pepper extracts and that there are only so many ways to extract capsaicin from crushed or fermented chili peppers and that alone offers a paucity of flavor experiences. Even ubiquitous Tobasco, as mild as it is, has a flavor. Thus heat is not a culinary experience in and of itself, I concluded, but when present in moderation an enhancement to existing flavors. There were some good sauces to consider but the only name I recall was Clancy's Fancy, which was the one I considered the best of the lot. It's got heat but lots of flavor and would be perfect for your aforementioned cheese sandwich or an omelette.
I feel bad for the kid's parents and the other victims of Bytedance's weapon. Every week there are new trending "challenges" there which are highly destructive to the body and or psyche of society and not just the individual nabbed by their algorithms.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Freeman on Wednesday September 13 2023, @08:45PM (1 child)
According to the article:
(RCVS, essentially "brain spasms" and heart attack are linked to ingestion of super hot peppers. Though, perhaps it's more of a response to the pain being inflicted from the ingestion of the peppers?)
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 3, Insightful) by RS3 on Wednesday September 13 2023, @09:54PM
Very brief websearch (no time right now) said the doctors had not yet made an official cause of death determination. But yeah, maybe Wolobah had some kind of unknown heart problem? Hopefully they'll figure it out and let us know. Not a Dr., but I wonder if some aspirin (vasodilator) might have helped him?
(Score: 4, Informative) by Barenflimski on Wednesday September 13 2023, @06:40PM (15 children)
I grow these.
I have never done anything with them. They look like Habeneros that are super wrinkly. My guess is they started with Habeneros and selectively breed these things until they turned into crazy.
I think folks typically use these to make sauces, but I'm not 100% sure. They are a good looking plant!
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Wednesday September 13 2023, @06:47PM (4 children)
The capsaicin is a very effective natural pesticide.
(Score: 3, Funny) by darkpixel on Wednesday September 13 2023, @07:03PM (2 children)
For bugs?
...
For bugs....not humans...right?
(Score: 5, Funny) by ikanreed on Wednesday September 13 2023, @07:06PM (1 child)
Aphids, caterpillars, locusts, crickets, Japanese beetles, tiktokers, cutworms, weevils, rootworms, stinkbugs, you know pests.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 13 2023, @07:37PM
Took me a 2nd or 3rd read to catch "tiktokers" in there. Good one!
(Score: 2) by Barenflimski on Wednesday September 13 2023, @09:30PM
That's interesting. I wonder what it takes to make that without burning my eyes, hands and other appendages out.
I'll have to look it up. A squirt for the chips, a squirt for the bugs?
(Score: 2) by istartedi on Wednesday September 13 2023, @10:11PM (9 children)
I grew Habanero one season and they were such cool looking peppers, like orange wax. I ate *one*. I wanted to experiment with making sauce, and they were such a hassle to process. I don't like to wear gloves. I know, I know; but I was careful and never burned my eyes. With the Serrano that I grow, you wash your hands twice to be sure after working with them, then lick your fingers for good measure. With Habs it was 7 washings before licking to make sure, and my fingers would still be hot sometimes. In the final analysis, I actually don't enjoy the flavor note of Habanero and the hassle of working with them made it a one-time thing.
If I grew super-hots, I'd leave them on the plant and just take pictures, LOL.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 13 2023, @10:29PM
I didn't grow my habaneros long enough, so I ended up with mostly milder green ones by the end of the season. But still spicy. I dried and powdered those.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 14 2023, @12:43AM (7 children)
I think what a friend gave me from his potted plant was some Habaneros. He warned me they were hot. We dried them (hanging) and then put in a ziploc. When we want to make a crock pot of chili hotter, we use one or two dried peppers (each less than an inch long, 2cm). Put them in a little coffee grinder, the kind with a high speed blade, and pulse on and off until it is powder. Works great, more than enough "heat" for us northerners.
(Score: 1) by Runaway1956 on Thursday September 14 2023, @02:41AM
I've mentioned that I drove truck. Team driving with Claude, a half-breed Apache, we often went to Bimidji Mn. Generations of German farmers, who don't eat much hot food. Old Claude would fill a paper lunch sack with mild and medium peppers from the garden, then throw 2, 3, or 4 habaneros into the mix. We would sit down in the local truck stop / diner, and Claude would hand his bag of peppers around. The old man would laugh himself silly for weeks after each of his pranks.
(Score: 2) by istartedi on Thursday September 14 2023, @06:04AM (5 children)
You pulverized dried super-hots in a coffee grinder? I think you're either lucky not to have effectively pepper-sprayed yourself, or the peppers were weak. I actually dry red Serrano because it's got an interesting flavor profile and AFAIK it's not available in stores. I use a mortar and pestle carefully, and I still sneeze. Those are not super-hots. The thought of putting dried Habanero in a high-speed grinder sends chills down my spine. I guess it worked out OK for you though somehow.
Sadly, I was busy this year and have only grown tomatoes, and few at that. The long rainy season had a weird impact I think, and I also got distracted and failed to do deer defense in time. Such is the way of gardens. I'm glad I don't depend on farming for my livelihood.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Thursday September 14 2023, @09:36AM (2 children)
I bet the spice grinder he's using is like this one pic [alicdn.com]. I've got a similar one and the lid fits pretty good. No dust or even smell of the spices until you take the lid off.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Thursday September 14 2023, @01:53PM (1 child)
...and then you die.
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Thursday September 14 2023, @09:22PM
Well, I don't grind ghost peppers in mine, but coffee, caraway and those milder little red chillies come out nicely ground up. Let it sit for a few seconds before you take the lid off and there shouldn't really be any problems.
Why anyone would bother I don't understand. It's not like those things have any decent flavour, you might as well eat a chemical irritant.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 14 2023, @04:04PM
> You pulverized dried super-hots in a coffee grinder?
Pepper grinder here. No, these weren't super-hots and they were bone dry, ground up easily. One or two of the little peppers were about right for a few quarts/liters of chili--for us northerners who aren't used to massive amounts of heat.
Yes, it was the kind of grinder with a tight fitting lid, pushing down on the lid also turns on the rotor. I waited and tapped on the lid to let the dust settle in the container, before opening! And after use I wiped out the grinder carefully with a damp paper towel.
No one was hurt in the course of grinding up these particular peppers!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 15 2023, @10:10PM
I used a coffee grinder for my dehydrated green habaneros. Pepper "smoke" does drift off of it when you lift the lid, but it wasn't so horrible. That might be a good time to wear one of the million face masks everyone has and a pair of safety glasses.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by looorg on Wednesday September 13 2023, @07:00PM (1 child)
I have not had Carolina Reaper, but I had Trinidad Scorpion (it's about 2,000,000 SHU or there about) that is a couple of steps below it on the ranking list. It was ground up in sausages and I had it with mashed potatoes. There is a definite burning and warm sensation as you eat them to start with. Not bad so you keep eating. But then it just becomes worse, my stomach actually hurt after eating them and I also started breaking out in cold sweat. After a while you sort of feel like you want to vomit. I ended up basically drowning them in mashed potatoes and multiple glasses of milk just to finish the meal, so it wasn't exactly what I would consider a great meal in that regard.
Why did I eat them? They had them at the store and I thought I kind of liked spicy food and I thought it was worth a try. I'm never buying or eating that again. Also why didn't I stop after eating just one of them (they came in a pack of three sausages)? I don't know. Stupidity?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Freeman on Wednesday September 13 2023, @09:00PM
People that eat Jalapenos like candy, think they know what "hot" is. They literally have no idea. (Not saying that you're in the that camp.) It's just that as far as Jalapenos go, they are actually on the mild end of the scale. Habaneros are at least starting to get someone acquainted with what "hot" really means. Then, you think something 4 to 6 times hotter than the hottest habanero. Yeah, that is stupid hot.
I did a little digging and the hottest substance is apparently this stuff: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resiniferatoxin [wikipedia.org]
The Scoville heat units for pure Capsaicin (derived from peppers) is 16 Million. The Scoville heat units for Resiniferatoxin (Derived from a cactus that is native to Morocco.) is 16 Billion.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 5, Touché) by VLM on Wednesday September 13 2023, @07:03PM (2 children)
Perhaps the real problem is he washed it down with a tide pod?
(Score: 2) by SomeRandomGeek on Wednesday September 13 2023, @10:46PM (1 child)
I'm pretty sure that tide pods are better for you than Carolina Reapers.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Thursday September 14 2023, @02:31AM
Probably. There's some association between routinely consuming hot-n-spicy and stomach cancer.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 13 2023, @07:23PM (2 children)
The first step, without looking into anything, is to ban the product for all eternity. No need to investigate.
(Score: 4, Touché) by epitaxial on Wednesday September 13 2023, @07:51PM (1 child)
On Thursday, the maker of the Paqui chip—Amplify Snack Brands, a subsidiary of the Hershey Company—announced that it was taking the potentially deadly chip off shelves.
Reading really isn't your strong suit.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 14 2023, @07:09AM
Reading and comprehension is not your strong suit.
(Score: 4, Touché) by DadaDoofy on Wednesday September 13 2023, @08:41PM
"Harris Wolobah's cause of death is not yet determined; it's not certain if the chip is to blame."
I guess it's like horseshoes and hand grenades around here. Apparently, close enough to come up with a definitive headline like "Teen's Death After Eating a Single Chip Highlights Risks of Ultra-Spicy Foods".
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Wednesday September 13 2023, @09:17PM (6 children)
I say this also to that teen girl who died however many years ago it is now, who had a heart condition and knew not to drink energy drinks, who died after drinking 2 of them with friends.
If the label tells you not to, or you know in advance it's not safe, don't consume the fucking thing.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by Barenflimski on Wednesday September 13 2023, @09:39PM
One would think its that simple. For most of us, it is that simple, but not for all.
Our dear leaders operate without the idea of "God" or "Fate" or "People sometimes make stupid mistakes" and therefore believe they are the worlds saviors. They make decrees to save you from any of the above. They enforce them with the threat of locking you in a cell for your own good. If you disagree with their remedy, you're considered a heretic, and they have ways to deal with that too.
They operate under the premise, "Every death is a terrible one and could have been prevented if only....." Whatever comes next becomes another law/decree. It's a giant merry-go-round with few people at the helm.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by SomeRandomGeek on Wednesday September 13 2023, @11:00PM (2 children)
The quality of warning labels is highly inconsistent. The world is full of warning labels for things that are not that likely or not that dangerous. "Warning! Bridge freezes before road surface!", "Warning! Low ceiling!", etc. It rather dilutes those warning labels that you need to treat as serious and immediate. I'm not saying that you should ignore the warning labels. I'm just saying that I can see how people are conditioned to do so.
In Vietnam era fighter jets, there was an alarm for every dangerous thing that could happen. When pilots went into combat, they would all go off simultaneously. So, the pilots insisted on getting a master alarm switch, and the first thing they would do in combat was disable all the alarms.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Thursday September 14 2023, @03:18AM (1 child)
To be fair, usually things like "Bridge freezes before road surface" (I actually have one of those near me) and similar road signs tend to be rather more serious than they sound, when you're steering a 2-ton hunk of metal that can cause significant damage or kill you pretty easily.
Food warnings--assuming you're not allergic to anything--I would take much less seriously. The idea that you can buy a food item that is spicy enough to kill you is admittedly a rather bizarre one, especially when the vast majority of products labelled "spicy" are usually pathetically mislabeled (I recall a few years back that Taco Bell had a limited edition thing called "ghost pepper blah blah" that was laughable; Wendy's "spicy" offerings taste like they shook a little black pepper on them).
My coworker tells me that this is the latest Tiktok version of the "cinnamon challenge", basically? These damn kids and their eating Tide pods, and snorting rat poison, and soaking tampons in gasoline to shove up their ass or whatever...
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 3, Funny) by Opportunist on Thursday September 14 2023, @07:25AM
If they'd drink bleach, we could finally really call those challenges "chlorinating the gene pool".
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Thursday September 14 2023, @07:23AM (1 child)
Butbutbutbutbut... I'm way smarter than everyone else and especially scientists, and the internet said it's safe to do!
Hmm... we need a "Godwin-like" law for "every discussion on the internet eventually descends into one about anti-vax idiots"...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 14 2023, @04:16PM
> we need a "Godwin-like" law for "every discussion on the internet eventually descends into one about anti-vax idiots"
Wouldn't that be the RFK Law, or Bobby's Law?
(Score: 2) by weirsbaski on Wednesday September 13 2023, @11:29PM
Obligatory link for the One-Chip Challenge...
(or, "the heat is not the worst part about it")
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcrMmCbn_yg [youtube.com]
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Thursday September 14 2023, @07:21AM
The headline should be "Teen's Death After Eating a Single Chip Highlights Risks of Social Media and the idiotic "challenge", "dare ya" culture that evolved on it"
But maybe that would not have fit into the headline box.
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Thursday September 14 2023, @08:33AM (5 children)
What a damn shame, I'd have liked to try the challenge at some point in the future (just take a nibble with friends).
Idiots ruining things for everyone else. Although I'm not sure I can blame the kid, teen boys are stupid. Maybe society just needs to be less tolerant of stupidity, a stricter upbringing could have saved the kid.
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(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Thursday September 14 2023, @09:42AM (2 children)
So let's keep our kids under wraps 'til they're 18, then release them out into the world? Yeah, that's much better. Sure, you're not responsible for their blunders anymore, but that doesn't exactly make it any better.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by darkfeline on Thursday September 14 2023, @10:49AM (1 child)
That's... not good parenting, and I have no idea how you arrived at that conclusion. Well, I have some ideas, but it's probably not worth mentioning them.
A strict upbringing means teaching them to think, understand right from wrong, understand consequences and responsibility. Specifically, that last part about consequences and responsibility are the key factor for the "strictness". For example, you would teach them about alcohol and allow them to drink a small amount at home under supervision, and punish them if they break that rule. You would neither allow them to go hog wild nor blanket ban it without explanation. Those two parenting extremes are what lead to kids such as our unfortunate exemplar here.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 14 2023, @04:19PM
> That's... not good parenting,
Um, where's the "Wooooosh" mod when I need it. GP was clearly being ironic or sarcastic.
(Score: 2) by theluggage on Thursday September 14 2023, @11:25AM
One form of stupidity is selling coffin-shaped "One Chip Challenge" boxes and not anticipating that people will get hurt.
You're welcome to go to a specialist food store, buy a bag of Nebraskan Suicide Peppers (insecticidal use only!) or whatever and spend a fun evening finding out whether any of your consenting adult friends have undiagnosed cardiovascular or auto-immune conditions.
The problem here wasn't even some emergent internet meme: a company was quite deliberately marketing a "one chip challenge" product in fancy packaging specifically designed to appeal to young people (including teens - lets face it: products like this only sell if they appeal to teenagers aged 10 to 60) and intentionally fuel an Internet meme (for profit).
Yes, maybe some parents, schools etc. should do a batter job of teaching kids responsibility, but that doesn't give businesses the right to profit from quite deliberately testing that responsibility to destruction.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 14 2023, @04:33PM
Who are the idiots? I think he was just unlucky. Some people have fatal reactions to consuming peanuts or other foods, others don't. Same probably goes for very hot peppers. See also: https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/south-carolina-teen-died-caffeine-overdose-coroner-rules-n759716 [nbcnews.com]
The reason why it's "adults only" is more to protect the company than to protect the consumers. I doubt it's much safer for adults compared to teens. Esp the older adults.
But I guess more youths use YOLO as an excuse to do dangerous and/or painful/stupid stuff, while more older adults use YOLO as an excuse to NOT do such stuff.