What is something that people think is dangerous but in reality is completely harmless?
2y 11mon ago by lemmy.fmhy.ml/u/Datman2020 in asklemmy@lemmy.ml
MSG. People will swear it gives them all manner of ailments
I bought a big pack of msg from the Asian supermarket and use it instead of normal salt for many things. My partner and I call it wonder salt.
(Of course, msg like normal salt or anything should be used in moderation lol)
I bought a big pack of msg from the Asian supermarket and use it instead of normal salt for many things. My partner and I call it wonder salt.
I hear the voices of my ancestors cry in confusion.
But seriously speaking, I've never encountered MSG being used in place of salt. We use it here to give food more of that nondescript meaty taste (aka umami).
Personally, if I need both salty and umami tastes I'd reach for soy or fish sauce first (depending on what's being cooked). I'd only add MSG and/or salt if I really have to—usually to make minute adjustments.
I'm sorry for offending your ancestors. I hope they can find it in their hearts to forgive me lol
Tbh, I'm not very good at cooking and I rarely add salt to my food. If I want saltiness, I usually get it through ingredients like soy sauce, for example. I guess I don't mean that I use the msg instead of salt, but I do use in foods where you might add salt, and I just happen to not since I added something else that serves a similar purpose. Does that make sense? But then, like I said, I'm not good at cooking and I just try to make things and experiment a bunch (a lot of experiments have failed horribly)
Also - maybe it also makes a difference that I eat vegan/vegetarian and I don't always know how to fill in the "meaty" gap that I feel like can be missing.
The purpose of salt in cooking is as a flavour enhancer. It brings out the other flavours that already exist in the food. Salt is not a flavour. It's why a lot of recipes call for salt to taste, as how much you add can vary a bit. Next time you cook something that tastes a bit dull, try adding a small amount of salt and note what it does to the flavours as you add more. If it tastes "salty" you probably added too much.
Source - I was a chef/cook for 9 years
That makes sense, thank you! I will try experimenting with salt later :)
They seem to be a lot more confused than angry, lol!
But yeah, thanks for the explanation about your use case. This, and your comment about using MSG on tomato-ey stuff has clarified things for me. The reason I brought up soy and fish sauces earlier is because they too, have MSG, and depending on the flavor profile I'm after, I might elect to use one or the other. That usually takes care of MSG in a lot of cases.
I just happen to not since I added something else that serves a similar purpose
.... Taken that way, we both do a similar thing.
I eat vegan/vegetarian and I don’t always know how to fill in the “meaty” gap that I feel like can be missing.
Ah, that explains a lot, thanks! And I don't really have experience in vegetarian/vegan cooking so I am afraid I can't help with that. There are meat substitutes, of course, but the one I had experience with relied on gluten to achieve a meat-like texture. I've heard, too, that mushrooms can used to give that earthy taste that can be enhanced with MSG. Tofu as well. But please take these with a pinch of... MSG, lol!
I really appreciate the explanation! I've learned a lot from you and the others, and I have some ideas for things I want to try for the next time (which is probably very soon, since it's almost lunch time lol)
I actually bought some mushroom sauce a couple of days ago, and I'm looking forward to giving that a go. I only recently discovered this amazing Asian supermarket near where I live (in Germany) and it has been so fun learning to use things I didn't know I had such easy access to before!
My ancestors are happy to have reeled one in. HAHAHAHAHAHA!!
But yeah! Have fun exploring the various (weird) flavors that you can find in Asian supermarkets. Some of them might be a bit too weird for your tastebuds, but I think that's part of the fun. You might also want to explore Buddhist vegetarian cooking as well, if you haven't already, since there are a lot of techniques there might be useful for you.
I heard a lot about how msg can make stuff taste great, so I bought some a while back and I try it every now and then, but I can't really tell the difference. If I use too much I do notice that it makes the taste worse. I don't know if I'm doing it wrong.
Yeah, using too much is going to make your food taste gross, just like adding too much salt would too. I also think it might not be suitable for every dish, so I think there's some experimentation required. For me, I like to add it to things that have a lot of tomato in them (like a sauce) or when I feel like there's something "missing". I find it rounds out the taste.
Maybe while you're cooking, taste your food before and then immediately after adding some msg, taste it again. It won't be like a huge, in your face difference - it's pretty subtle imo. Then again everyone's tastes and taste buds are different and it might just actually not be for you!
Yeah it just adds umami. Some dishes don’t want umami added. Whiskey really doesn’t from personal experience. Alcohol and curiosity are a dangerous combination
Wait, you added it to whiskey?? That sounds disgusting but also I love that you tried it lmfao
It was not quite disgusting but very not good. Adhd probably played a role in this decision lol
Mmm yes, I can relate. I have also eaten weird shit because my brain had weird ideas.
I remember when I was looking up diet videos years ago everyone was VEHEMETLY advocating against MSG and how bad it was for you, especially for diabetics. I'm still not entirely sure what to believe, but I know MSG isn't as bad as everyone thought it was.
That was the conclusion i came to, it's just another seasoning like paprika or salt. The opposition to it is what keeps me skeptical, if it's just a seasoning why are people so randomly against it? I think it's because it's used in lots of fast food.
MSG isn't "bad" at all, it's just another ingredient really. The campaign against it was entirely bullshit that was driven by racism against Asian people because it's a common ingredient in Chinese food.
It's almost like a cheat code to make almost anything taste better!
But I also I don't understand people who think that it literally is cheating and shouldn't be used because of that. If msg is cheating, salt is also cheating.
For me, msg has become almost as important "tool" in the kitchen as salt.
The holy trinity 🤤.
My understanding of "cheating" when it comes to cooking is that you're becoming reliant on something that might be/become difficult to get ahold of. Pure salt is ubiquitous in western cuisine, so most would feel comfortable relying on it. That's not the case with MSG.
Well if people won't use it because it's "cheating". Then it'll never make it to bw ubiquitious next to salt, like it imo deserves to be.
I also love msg, but 2.4kg would probably last a decade in my pantry. I use it sparingly. How much do you use?
There's glutamate, although not MSG, in breast milk. Also sugar in the form of lactose. That's because that's what gets babies to keep sucking.
MSG is naturally in certain foods too, like tomatos and seaweed.
Msg started from analyzing seaweed, thanks Japan
I love the taste of msg, unfortunately over the past few years it seems to have become a trigger for my migraines. I miss eating noodles with msg.
Had a gnarly migraine yesterday after having msg. Hope its not msg causing it, so tasty 😩
I sometimes eat it knowingly and then question all my life decisions once the migraine sets in 🤣
I remember reading something from Chef John being against MSG (he was commenting within one of his YouTube videos). But not for health reasons. He just felt the flavor punch it gave lead to addictive overeating.
I'm like bitch, that delicious food you showcase does the same thing, you don't hear me bitching about it.
That's actually a misconception within a misconception.
It's not that MSG allergies don't exist, it is that they are often downplayed for the same reason that Celiac's disease is downplayed. When a few people fake or overexaggerate their symptoms, credibility is taken from the rest of us who actually suffer from it. Now people are always quick to invalidate those who are symptomatic.
Yes, it's true that some of the rumors around MSG are racially motivated, and that some people who claim to be affected are lying. But that doesn't mean that MSG related symptoms aren't real for the rest of us. Speaking as someone who is from Hong Kong, grew up with MSG, and absolutely loves the taste of it, but developed health conditions that were comorbid with MSG intolerance.
As a chronic pain and migraine sufferer, large quantities of MSG is a common trigger for migraines (or headaches when I'm lucky). I've been blind tested before with someone else's help using the same quantities of salt vs MSG in a cellulose capsule. Each time, I would happen to be fine after taking the salt capsule with a glass of water. But after taking the MSG capsule with a glass of water, I would have have a headache or a painfully tense sensation around my head. This was done multiple times across separate days to rule out confounding factors.
It's likely true that for the vast majority of people MSG doesn't trigger a reaction. However, a few of us have an intolerance and we are frequently dismissed and medically gaslit. Please believe us. I'm so tired of people telling me that what I'm experiencing isn't real. I wish it didn't have to be real so I could go back to eating whatever I want and not worry about migraines.
I was confused at first how anyone thought that Madison Square Garden was dangerous, could it be all that ice-hockey they play there. Then I read the other comments and now I realize it's the basketball.
Socialism.
Careful, friend. Once you start giving a shit about people who don't have much money it's a slippery slope
Yeah...good trolling there.
The government providing a baseline existence for it's people is like super fucking dangerous.
Dangerous to the profit margin of a lot of companies, maybe.
There are already programs. Run by a government that obviously can't help. We don't need to share our wealth, if we were provided wealth through real jobs. With a paycheck to buy whatever it is you need and be able to save. Less taxes, less inflation. It's the government chopping your wealth at your knees too "feed" other people will only make it harder to become financially well set for your chosen life style.
LGBTQ people and drag queens.
First the gay agenda, now the trans agenda, when will the agendas end?!?
I'm telling ya, it's all a part of Big Agenda...
Can we go back to the simple, front picture changing, neato math/science fact having, paper agenda instead? I'll even have my mom sign in daily it we can agree to this.
Resist Big Agenda! Spontaneity only!
Well dressed people that can often dance (in high heels) and sing and are comfortable in their bodies. What the hell
Speak for yourself, sis. I'm a dangerous homosexual. 💅🔪
This is a great quote. I may have to borrow it.
"Christian"
Nah, quotes not necessary.
True Scotsman Fallacy detected.
In South Korea most fans have timers so they're not left on overnight, because people think it'll kill you if you do leave it on.
This belief wasn't helped by medical examiners putting "death by fan" on the death certificates of suicide victims to help the dead save face and spare the families the embarrassment of a "cowardly death" for a few decades.
What is death by fan supposed to mean? Like how would you die from a fan?
Many people believe that death by fan sucks but really, it blows.
I think they believe it will blow all the air out of the room
Chop up all the oxygen and make it unusable?
If the hydrogen and oxygen get redistributed in the wrong way, the room will fill with water and you drown.
Understandable.
That's basically what they think, yes. That it interrupts the flow of the air, as if capillary action was needed to pull air into your lungs. I'm not sure how the myth started but at one point they were selling fans with special guards or something to protect against the imaginary risk.
Of course, I might be wrong - I read about this on the internet.
Fan Death.
I used to work in a real sweatbox of a factory so we had huge fans running all day. It was deceptive because you'd normally be drenched in sweat but the fans prevented it. So you'd drink a gallon of water and take maybe one brown ass dehydrated piss. I could see something like that being blamed on a fan. Just heat exhaustion or dehydration
So do they think that CPAP machines are just suicide devices?
For my country (Germany): Catching a draft. Basically people believe that a light breeze from an open window will make you ill.
We have a similar one here in the US. People think if you go outside when it's too cold, you'll get sick.
It's not completely baseless. You can't get sick from the cold itself, but lower core body temp does weaken your immune system until you warm up, making it easier for you to get sick if you do get exposed to something.
The cold, dry air during the winter can also dry out the mucus membranes in the sinuses which can make it easier for pathogens to enter the body. Again, doesn't make you sick directly but does interfere with your body's defense mechanisms.
In the US, I hear this more when your hair is wet: "Don't go outside, it's cold and your hair's wet, you'll get sick!"
Not only colds, but you also get stiff necks! According to my mother, it's almost instantly. Leaving two windows open makes here neck stiffer than a priest in a kindergarten, but only inside. Standing in the wind outside is perfectly fine.
Also Russia and probably most eastern European countries. One of my kids will catch a cold and the first thing my mother or grandmother will ask is if they were somewhere drafty.
It's even in the name! A "cold", huh!
God, on one hand, catching a draft makes you die and then on the other STOSSLÜFTEN!!
Tja ein STOSS ist halt kein ZUG!
Schon, wenn meine Mutter lüftet. Alle Fenster im Haus (auch im Winter) und das ist nicht mehr ein Zug, aber ein ganzer Hauptbahnhof lol
Sei froh! Wenn sie die Fenster nur kippen würde wärt ihr wahrscheinlich schon tot oder zumindest schwer krank. Soweit ich weiß ist so ein kleiner Zug, den man kaum spürt, am gefährlichsten. Weil dann fühlt sich der Körper sicher und Killerviren haben leichtes Spiel!
The hero we need, but don't deserve 😔
- meine Mutter, wahrscheinlich
I've heard that cited in stories, usually older. A baby dies and they blame someone leaving the door open too long and letting in a draft.
Similar in France, also airco giving you all kinds of symptoms
I didn't know it's a thing in Germany too. 😊 Drafts are also blamed for pretty much any unexpected ailment, from rheumatism to toothache. And off course cold, flu and so on.
That's totally cultural, in the US it's dehydration
I don't know about that, I always get a pink eye and my sinuses start to hurt if I stay in draft for a longer period of time.
Oh, that kind of draft
Yeah, but then they go and open all the windows to "change the air" no matter the weather.
I used to work with a bunch of Germans in the US. I came in to the office one time at about 4:30am in February. One of the guys had all the windows open when the outdoor temperature was something like -20F.
Like Moritz, I think that avoiding the draft is more important than changing the air at that point. 🙄
I also had an old manufacturing guy tell me that drinking cold water in the summer would kill you because of the shock to your system.
Similar to "fan death" in Korea, where they think running a fan in your bedroom while you sleep can kill you.
Same in Czechia.
Living near a nuclear plant.
Little do they know, that they get more than 50x more radiation effect from the natural surroundings and the rocks in earth than from the nuclear plant 🤭 And our body is really capable of dealing with that since the beginning of our evolution (DNA repairs and co).
https://pages.vassar.edu/ltt/files/2011/04/Screen-shot-2011-04-21-at-1.18.09-AM1.png
here is a chart showing radiation intensities for various sources of radiation
Living near a coal plant, on the other hand, is really, REALLY bad for you.
Woah, this one is actually surprising to me. Even though I am in favour of nuclear power, I do have some fear of living in close proximity of such plants, especially seeing how even the clothing used in the facility is mixed into the barrels of radioactive wastes.
Would you rather the clothing get washed at your local cleaners? Or washed on-site and the water drained into the city sewers?
Seems like a sensible precaution
Yeah, you are correct. It is just that it never occurred to me how careful they take their operations to be. That is why I assumed they would even disallow residential buildings to be built close to them.
Not all the clothing anyone wears in a plant. Clothing special for contamination areas. They also do scans at thresholds and anything you carry with you that gets contaminated is confiscated. Nuclear plants genuinely have a level of safety in the us that is pretty hard to comprehend, it's all done out of an abundance of caution more than a genuine need for it. Not quite security theater, just a very high degree of security.
I remember reading about a guy who worked at a nuclear plant that was tripping their radiation detectors on his way into work but not on his way out at the end of his shift. Turned out he had a radon problem in his home that needed to be addressed.
it's not the background radiation that worries people, it's the risk of a Fukushima-type incident.
Ehhhh, those are the ancient light water designs. Fuck light water, even though it's actually pretty safe. Advanced sodium reactors are where it's at. One loop is molten salt and nuclear fuel. The salt makes it less dense so it can't melt down like a traditional reactor. A second loop of salt is what steals heat from the fuel, which loops around to a water boiler further away. In essence, it's airgapped. While corrosion can be an issue, the lack of water in the salt loops helps a ton.
Solar towers with molten salt generators also work in the same way. The salts are molten and continue pumping out power for 12 hours after the sun has set, which makes them an excellent source of power for cities :)
I'd live next to a nuclear plant any day of the week! Especially if the homes are less expensive because of it :D
While the modern technology is relatively safe, it’s not a technical issue with the reactor design. It’s a trust issue with the humans, particularly for-profit companies, that operate it.
While true when everything works, people don’t want to live near a nuclear power plant because sometimes there are accidents. They are rare, but severe when they happen. Also because nobody wants to live in sight of one, it affects how easy it is to sell land and property.
The probability of such accidents are waaaay to overestimated by the general population. Take a look at this: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/death-rates-from-energy-production-per-twh
it shows the deaths per kWh for various sources of energy. Nuclear power is really as safe as wind and solar. Nuclear power is sooooo safe honestly. But coal? We have global climate change, dirty air, smog, .... and radioactive materials in the atmosphere due to the coal 😅 Fun fact: Way more radioactive materials are spewed into the atmosphere due to burning coal than is actually by nuclear power plants.
The human emotions are waaaay too inaccurate in this situation here
Not disagreeing. We need more nuclear. Just saying people are scared of a major event than the constant low grade radiation.
I love that chart and I've posted it in several discussions about the safety of nuclear. A lot of people have weirdly volatile reactions to it though. It's really hard for them to believe that nuclear is on par with renewables.
I read somewhere that suggested that background radiation is actually (ever so) slightly lower near a nuclear plant, because all the shielding effectively casts a 'shadow' in the background.
Microwaves are harmful. Unless you mean the device. Which still can be harmful if it's broken. Edit: I see the good old Reddit behavior of downvoting facts is back.
Or dropped on someone
Only sort of, it's not ionizing radiation so it can only burn you. Internally.
5G, Vaccines, MSG, WiFi, Socialized Medicine, Jews.
Why did I read that like the Pokérap
Or lyrics to an updated Billy Joel song "We Totally Started This Fire"
Studies showed that MSG is entirely safe and only that some people may have "sensitivity" to it, akin to caffeine or any other food sensitivity. (note this is not allergy)
I've always wanted to try mixing my Bugles with a dusting of MSG, it could be so tasty!
2.4ghz WiFi is actually classed as a carcinogen by the WHO. There's some pretty interesting and heavily peer reviewed research supporting this. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10643389.2021.1951549
Staying in hostels when traveling overseas. The amount of people who tell me I'm crazy and going to get murdered if I stay in a hostel is ridiculous.
Hostels are great, and not any more dangerous than hotels are, you just have to look at reviews and go for the type you want. You can also rent private rooms at a lot of them. I always stay at one's with a kitchen so I can save a bunch on food, too.
The Tor Browser, it's just a normal Browser with some functionality to improve privacy.
Swimming around in a spent nuclear fuel pool: https://what-if.xkcd.com/29/
This whole Japan nuclear wastewater thing going around the news has me shaking my head.
The word nuclear in general just scares people.
Well we've had decades of fossil fuel company scare propaganda to make sure everyone is scared of nuclear power.
Can’t have that pesky solution come here and actually make our product obsolete!!
Most of it is fear mongering but you know bioaccumulation is a thing right? Water is a nice shield against radiation reaching you but if radioactive nucleai are in the water, it's going to accumulate in animals that grow in that water and cause heavy metal poisoning, like Mercury.
I think there is a Tom Scott video where he does exactly this
Jet fuel.
People seem to have the impression that it's some extremely explosive stuff that has to be handled with the upmost care, but it's just highly refined kerosene. It can be used as a replacement for Diesel fuel in many cases - in fact, U.S. military vehicles can run off either. We put it Toyota Hylux pickups up in northern Greenland because it doesn't gel up like Diesel fuel.
Australia. Maybe not completely harmless, but far less dangerous than non-Australians make it out to be.
That's what the drop bears want you to believe...
Video games. There’s absolutely no evidence that they make people more violent.
Nah man, my friend plays GTA and the next morning he got hit by a bicycle, that's very dangerous
Friend of a friend sued an antibiotic manufacturer. I think it was Cipro? He started a course for something then a few days in snapped and stabbed someone several times. His claim was that the Cipro caused him to become violent. I don't think my friend is friends with them anymore.
It's not quite NO evidence. I would say that it's very weak evidence of a minor effect. For example: https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2000/04/video-games
It's a nuanced point where the people who complain that video games are ruining society should be completely ignored, but things like age ratings on games are probably a good idea.
It's very easy to correlate a lot of things. Particularly if weak correlation is sufficient. For example, what do you think we'd get if we tried to correlate murderers with cheese consumption?
I would suggest using the word evidence very carefully. Particularly in a scientific context.
I think part of the nuance may be that people who already have violent tendencies might gravitate towards more violent video games. In that regard it may be an indicator of existing violent urges but the game being the cause of violent behavior in otherwise non-violent tending people seems not to have any hard evidence.
Except age rating is a joke - especially 18+. I get that many games are violent, contain sex scenes, drugs etc., but in my eyes 18 is a barrier when you become responsible for your actions, which would imply playing 18+ games is dangerous like alcohol and cigarettes, while it's just a PEGI's way of saying "Somebody said fuck several times".
Like Witcher 3 obviously fits into 18+, but not because it's should be 18+, but we got used to these games being 18+. At the age of 14 in school I was required to read Sapkowski's novels, but god forbid you play Witcher 3.
No informed person I know takes the numbers seriously for ESRB. They often do look at the rating, but they don't consider the "17 and up" rating to actually mean 17 and up.
Even my own parents who honestly could barely understand video games still understood that the ratings were heavily inflated. I mean, I remember being I think 13 and my dad being like "you're finally old enough to watch an R rated movie with me if you'd like". Video games were similar. For my family, once I was about 13 or so, I was considered old enough for M (17+) rated games.
Gacha games and addiction though.
More violent? No. But there are mountains of evidence that video game addiction is detrimental to people's mental and physical health.
Nothing wrong with spending some spare time gaming, but when it becomes something you arrange your life around it's not healthy.
Would you still consider "arranging your life around" a problem if it were a different hobby?
Yes.
So like.. not even like biking, gymnastics, programming, woodworking? Like all those in-depth hobbies are just like... off limits because they're resource intensive?
They are large, and they gallop across your ceiling like demented gazelles, chasing down cockroaches.
However, they're nonaggressive to humans, you'd have to seriously harrass one to provoke it into biting you, and the worst they could do to you is a beesting-like bite.
They're also all named Kevin.
Sorry, as an arachnophobe, Kevin better stay out of my house or have a faster draw than I do or he's toast. Castle doctrine applies to spiders that large lmao.
My house would be a pile of ashes if I saw one of those inside.
My house would not change, it would just become Kevin’s house. I’d be back in with my parents.
This is all true except I've met huntsmans with different names.
Also as you said, they are not completely harmless like OP requested. Going by these standards we could also list a lot of animals that occasionally bite or sting non lethally if provoked.
Granted, but they look a whole lot more threatening than they are, which I felt was in the spirit of the thread.
Yes, that's true
I sincerely hope you aren’t lying because I will accept this as fact and act accordingly should I ever see something I think is a huntsman spider
There's apparently one subspecies of huntsman that could make you a bit nauseous and headachey, but the majority aren't going to do more than hurt a bit. And yeah, they're cool.
Of course, I'm not going to take responsibility if you misidentify something else as a huntsman...
Of course, I’m not going to take responsibility if you misidentify something else as a huntsman…
Oops, that was a 2011 Ford Mondeo coming straight at me, not a huntsman spider.
Not again!
I'm allergic to actual bee stings ...
I've never had one, so I don't know. I've always been irrationally nervous around bees, and I really, really don't want to find out if I am or not.
It's not worth it
Sharks.
More people die due to things like selfies, falling out of your bed, tipped vending machines and heck, even balloons, then to a shark.
Just because something can kill you doesnt mean it will, more often than not, it actually wont.
Here there might be a confusion between danger, and statistics.
all those examples are about events or things that are far more frequent than be near a shark
if the average person could be close to a shark as many time in life than leaving a bed, be close to something that can flip, or to people taking selfies, statistics might be very different
Most of the fear of sharks is due to media. Like the vast majority of sharks will not attack a human even when in close proximity. There are like 1 or 2 species of sharks that have any danger to humans: bull and tiger sharks if I remember correctly. And even those 2 will most likely not attack, it's just that other species are no danger at all.
A shark killed my brother a few years back. He was just standing there minding his own business and this shark came out of nowhere and toppled a vending machine on top of him. Poor bastard never knew what hit him.
That's because people rarely are where sharks can kill them. If they were, sharks would quite often kill them. Much more often than vending machines, though I'd watch for those too.
Wolves are similar, but for more understandable reasons. They may leave us alone, but they really love our livestock.
I'd be interested in the death numbers relative to exposure. What percentage of people who tip vending machines die compared to those who swim among sharks at the beach? How about compared to those who sleep in a bed?
My favorite has always been that falling coconuts kill more people than sharks
Nuclear power in general.
Completely harmless? C'mon.
There have been three accidents related to nuclear power generation, Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukashima. There were a total of 33 deaths attributed to those three incidents (32 from Chernobyl and 1 from Fukashima.)
There are 58 deaths per terawatt-hour attributed to coal alone, mostly due to air pollution.
I'd say that nuclear power is very close to completely harmless in comparison. Certainly in contrast to its perception among the general public.
The death toll from Chernobyl is debated, but way higher than 30.. More like several or tens of thousands. Especially since you compare with air pollution deaths from coal.
Just shows how terribly it was built, I hope we learned since then
It's like saying airplanes are completely harmless. Compared to cars sure, you are much less likely to die in one, but it isn't a nill chance.
You're right, but it's all relative and almost anything could kill you. Eg, vaccines are also a fantastic answer to the title question. They undeniably save lives and are extremely safe. But they can still kill you in very, very, very rare cases. I'm not sure any answer to this thread could have a nil chance. Even the video games answer, there's been people who got so addicted to video games that they played them till they dropped dead (but that's obviously an utter insane extreme and obviously video games are very, very safe).
The dark. Everything seems more scary in the dark
Scuba Diving. Lots of people have heard that your lungs can pop or something similar and it makes them really afraid to try it. If you hold your breath, you may have issues with your lungs but your SCUBA apparatus is such an amazing design that even if you need to throw up underwater it's designed to filter your vomit through the apparatus so you can continue breathing even after throwing up THROUGH it (which you should do if you feel nauseous down there). Just keep the apparatus in your mouth and don't stop breathing and you'll have a great time.
Scuba Diving is one of my favorite things to do and I really think more people should try it!
I'm simultaneously amazed by being able to vomit while diving and just breathing normally - and disgusted when trying to imagine how that' would look and feel like...
But thanks for the info. Never thought they're so Great
In the same vein, freediving is easy to learn up to a certain point and safe as long as you don't hyperventilate and stay away from caves. Most people can learn to dive to 10-15m and look around a bit before they have to resurface. That's far from breaking any records, but enough to have fun and see some cool stuff that you can't see from the surface.
Plus, you don't need any special gear, besides snorkel, mask and fins.
I want to free dive so bad but I'm a heavier weighted dude so I float too easily and have to work to keep myself underwater. Working on losing weight so I can do that kind of stuff!
I'm also a bit heavy and I know the struggle. I use a lot of energy just do prevent popping back up like a cork. I've considered using a little bit of lead, but what I like about freediving is not having a bunch of belts and vests and other gear on me. So I'm currently also trying to lose weight.
Spiders.
Even black widows basically have to be harassed into biting.
Dihydrogen monoxide except for when it completely replaces the air.
Oh, that shit is dangerous.
At high pressure it can cut through pretty much anything.
Heated to vapor can cause severe burns. (Steam)
A high percentage in the air when it's not enough will cause your body's cooling ability to fail. Killing you very quickly.
And that's just off the top of my head.
Not to mention it's potency as a solvent.
It also severely decreases function of you car brakes, which can lead to severe injuries or death.
drinking more than a liter (L) or so per hour for several hours can kill you
Dam I was hoping no one had suggested that one yet!
Canadian Geese. They are super aggressive but cannot hurt you.
Dude one stole some Doritos from me once. Wtf do you mean "they can't hurt you"
One time, I was walking along the sidewalk next to some geese. They were so close that the intrusive thoughts won, and I tried to poke it. It hit me with its wing and left me with a nice bruise :(
If you successfully poked it, was it kinda soft? They look kinda floofy.
The feathers are quite silky, but it was surprisingly hard underneath, at least on the wing.
I've heard stories that their wings are powerful enough to break an arm... But I've never heard first or second hand of that actually happening.
Considering how much denser our bones are than thiers, it always struck me as a risky proposition on their part to hit us that hard.
My nuts would like to disagree with you.
Cellphones in a gas station. Also double dipping in a sauce or dip.
People who are dependent on opiates and opioids.
Some people who are in a lot of pain legitimately need the medicine in order to have a normal life. It doesn't make us high, it makes us 'normal' because we actually require the medicine to bring us to normal levels of activity.
Just because someone is physically dependent on the medicine, does not make them an addict too
Most of us would rather never take another pill in our lives if we were suddenly healed.
If you’re dependent on the drug that’s an addiction. You may feel that your addiction is more justified than others, and that’s ok. Humans have been using drugs for thousands of years both recreationally and medicinally.
That's not true. There's a difference between addiction and dependence medically.
You don't say that a person on insulin is an addict. You don't say that a person on heart medicine is an addict. We shouldn't say that a person on opiates are addicts.
Addicts take the medicine without a medical need. Dependent people need to take the medicine in order to live a normal life.
I was just commiserating with my wife about how we both exhibit a bunch of signs of ADHD but can't get medicated because doctors are highly discouraged from prescribing them, because of the misuse associated with them.
GPs won't prescribe them because of societal pressure, and yet there is also a nationwide shortage of psychiatrists.
The end result is that people who need something to get them to baseline suffer because politicians need to make a hammer-style policy for a scalpel-style problem.
A lot of people are turning to the dark web to get just basic medicine because it's such a headache to get the medicine that they need. It's WAY cheaper too.
It's sad that people have to resort to that, but it's better than suffering.
Hmm. I'd be concerned that the lack of regulation from medicines from the dark web would cause you to take something that makes me suffer even more.
Yeah, but it's easier and more reliable in some cases.
For example, every three months I have to go through a renewal process to get my diabetes medicine with my insurance. That's up to a week without my life saving medicine.
If I were to get it on the darknet, I'd add years to my life since I don't have to wait weeks to get the proper medicine.
A similar thing with me. I am on Trazodone for sleep. If I miss one dose the next day I will have panic attacks where I’ll sit curled up in the shower and bawl my eyes out until I get another dose. I am chemically dependent on this medication. Whether the or not it even helps for insomnia anymore I don’t know.
Wild strawberries. As far as I know there are no wild strawberries that are poisonous. There are two types, wild strawberries that resemble normal strawberries but smaller, which taste delicious, and mock strawberries, which taste like water but are also safe to eat. Mock strawberries can be recognized as growing upward and having protruding red seeds.
Muslims.
On the surface level, yeah. But if you dig a bit deeper a religious person upholds the idea that religious belief is reasonable. When people have the opinion that religious belief is reasonable it causes measurable harm to everyone on this planet.
An individual believer cannot be separated from the religion.
My point was that people fear the average person who works a common job raising a family but is also Muslim. There's definitely crazy religious zealots in Islam, but they are the minority of the ~1.5 Billion.
Yeah individually religious people can be fairly benign. The fundamental problem is with religion.
Extremists are able to hide behind the guise of religion because non-extremists enable them. Because the only way for “moderate” religious people to oppose religious extremists is to admit that it’s all metaphorical bullshit.
I think you mean that the problem is with extremist, not with religious people. Also, people where I live do oppose them because being an asshole is generally against Islam. (I live in a Muslim majority region)
I meant oppose in the theological sense. Religious extremists are given legitimacy by religious moderates. (I live in a Christian majority region)
Not all religious people are fundamentalists. The vast majority of Muslims (and Christians and Hindu and Jews and Buddhists etc etc) are moderate to progressive believers who aren't necessarily any more toxic than those of us who aren't religious.
Not separating individual believers from the religion and each other is every bit as bigoted and stupid as claiming that all atheists eat babies just because I do.
This is a very narrow viewpoint in my opinion. I'm not denying religion has caused harm, but a large portion of people have found it to be a means to do good (and I mean legit good that almost everyone can agree on, things like foodbanks, stopping addictions and so on)
That's ridiculous, secular people do lots of good all the time. In fact, religious people have a far greater chance of doing harm, because they sometimes believe in things like homophobia, misogynism, genital mutilation etc. If people didn't have religion to back up these evil ideas then we'd see less of them.
Any culture can be harmful and secular people can and often do good.
I’m not a Catholic, so I don’t consider bad deeds to be ok so ling as you do a few good.
Someone call a plumber, /r/atheism is leaking again
As an Icelandic guy in Palestine I confirm this is true.
How are you finding Palestine in general. I'm planning a trip in a couple years to visit the done of the rock and although I'm a Muslim in a very white blonde hair blue eyed American with very limited Arabic skills.
It's pretty nice all in all, I reccomend it. The old city of Jerusalem is a bit tense but the rest is chill. Since you're blonde blue-eyed and would like to go to Al-Aqsa mosque I'd reccomend bringing some proof that you're a Muslim. :)
I don't know about this one man.
I'm sure that most common day Muslims are fine normal people that live their lives as decently as anyone else.
And there are crazy ass Christians and Jews and Buddhists out there of course. But the kind of crazy levels Muslims can attain are astronomical!
I mean... The dress code of women alone are just out of this world...
Extremists are extremists.
Everyone’s got crazies.
Muslims as you said.
For Christian’s in the US they are the largest terrorist group.
https://www.congress.gov/116/bills/s894/BILLS-116s894is.xml
For Jews (I am Jewish and Half Israeli) look at the current Israeli administration.
Frankly it doesn’t matter what religion, dogma, ideology, or doctrine you follow. Replace label X with Y. Someone will always take the rhetoric to far.
There's crazies across the board, like I said. I just feel like Muslims are the most unhinged.
A lot of that has more to do with modern politics than with religion, most of that is a reaction to Western Imperialism. Look at the way women dressed in the 50s and 60s in Tehran. Even Indonesia, the country with more Muslims than anywhere on earth had a female prime minister before Hilary even ran.
There's definitely a lot of crazy ass Muslims as well as Jews, Christians and Buddhists like you mentioned. However, I think the fear is irrational. Most of them just want to raise a family and live life. There's extremists in all groups: every race, every religion, every political belief system, etc. This doesn't mean that the minority extremists should define the majority.
I love to read. As a young teen, I read lots of religious texts. As an autistic teen I found religious people illogical and wanted to understand them better. Old / new testament, buddhist dhamapada, hindu vedas, quran AND hadith (you need to read the hadith to understand historical context of many surah).
I've also lived amongst muslims for most of my life. Taken at face value, it's a horrible, divisive, violent religion and imo with exception of some genuinely peaceful sects (eg ahmadi, who are considered not real muslims by majority) is not very compatible with modern western societies.
Everyone should take the time to read the quran, educate yourselves. Learn which surah are abrogated by later ones, and which parts majority sects live their lives by. You might be shocked or surprised. FWIW I think all fundie religions are incompatible with modern western societies, before you think I'm singling islam out.
My favourite excerpt from islamic texts is from hadith, might not have it word for word but it's when Mohammed wants a new wife, suddenly gets a commandment from god that it's allowed, and his wife (Aisha) says "Oh how your god rushes to fulfil your whims". Even she knew it was bullshit.
For sure, totally agree, and that's my point, they're the craziest as the outliers.
Climbing, the gear is all rated to lift 2 tonnes, so a medium sized car. It won't snap with you on it.
Edit: sorry this is misleading, climbing is not harmless, and a lot can go wrong even with good equipment. The point I wanted to convey was that equipment failure is an unlikely cause of problems for climbing
I’m a climber and while yes, the gear is very well made and over engineered climbing is still quite dangerous. That rope could be rated for 500KN but if you repel off the end of it you’re still going for a fall.
You're right, my first post was a bit over reaching
I don't think it's the ropes that are used that make climbing dangerous...
what is it in your opinion?
Using the equipment incorrectly.
Agreed
Or other forms of inexperience. If you were climbing a rock face and didn't realize the part you were trusting your life to wasn't as stable as you thought it would be and your attachments give out.
And sometimes bad luck. RIP my uncle, who has been climbing for decades until one day he fell to his death.
I had a huge carabiner holding a free climbing rope fail on me at my local climbing gym. Dumped me at least 15’ and I broke my foot. Definitely a weird one off but it’s not always the rope that fails.
ah that is unfortunate, they probably hadn't inspected it in a while
According to my mother, gay marriage. Nuts on mustaches is just the end of the world to her for some reason.
Otherwise, she's a sweet lady.
Gay sex is fine, but they dare not try to ceremoniously demonstrate their love and devotion.
I was actually a bit disappointed when it wasn't as hyped up as religion makes it out to be. It feels extremely similar to having sex with women, lmao. I thought it would be super different and scandalous or...something? But yeah. Guys, gals, and everyone in between are basically just slightly different muscle tones, and slightly different pressure points.
Everyone gets excited by romantic dates and you doing the dishes out of love, remembering anniversaries, all the normal stuff. Sometimes boyfriends like to play videogames and do pedicures too, which are actually a blast and everyone should try them, haha.
Most US cities are not as dangerous as the news makes them out to be.
ITT: people that don't know what completely harmless means
Right? Jews aren't completely harmless
Are you going to make me log back into reddit to find the most upvotes comment to this question?
Use a cellphone under trees in rain.
Learned few days ago that it's not actually dangerous, at least doesn't make you have a higher change to be struck by thunder.
Threads
/s
Like, the movie?
Reading in the dark.
Not dangerous but definitely becomes more difficult the older I get.
I do this a lot (reading books on my phone before I sleep)
it does but damage the eyes?
It doesn't damage them, just makes them more tired. Sleep can fix that, though.
Sharks during scuba dive. Most sharks are not dangerous / interested to humans when following some rules.
How do you get the sharks to follow the rules?
Reward good behavior with snacks and belly scratches.
Punish bad behavior by screaming loudly and getting choppered to an emergency room, thus removing the snacks.
To be fair, sharks have the statistical advantage of not being where humans are almost all of the time.
Many people think sharks are dangerous, but shark attacks are accidents in which sharks mistake humans for seals. Sharks are actually in more danger from us.
Vaccinations!
I'm not sure I'd say it's completely harmless, but isn't pumping gas while the car is running generally not a huge risk?
Why would anyone do that outside of a formula one race?
Situations where you can't really turn your engine off. Like I once had my car battery die and after a friend jumpstarted it, I was gonna go drive around for a bit to charge the battery but then I realized my gas tank was completely empty. So I had to fill it up while it was running.
A rare situation for sure, but it's at least one reason.
FYI Formula 1 banned refueling during races in 2010.
Oh that’s news to me. Didn’t follow it for a while.
Even F1 doesn’t take on any fuel during pit stops these days.
Hot exhaust and gas fumes don't seem like a good mix.
I saw my high school chemistry teacher do it and right then, I knew it had to be safe.
According to myth busters, smoking in and of itself is also not a problem when pumping gas. Cigarettes don't burn hot enough to light gasoline. A lighter CAN light gasoline tho (obviously).
Weed doobies
Carbon-Fiber submersibles. There was only one, then it went pop.
Need more, though. We still have far too many billionaires.
Speak for yourself, sis. I'm a dangerous homosexual.
must be the flames
To be fair, a lot of research had been held up by it being federally illegal.
I think enough people have used it for long enough that we can assume it's relatively harmless but we can't say it's completely harmless just because the studies haven't been done.
It isn't harmless. I'm not saying you shouldn't use it. In all likelihood, it's less harmful than tobacco or alcohol, but we shouldn't pretend it's completely harmless.
What people always forget is that it's the dosage that makes the poison. Weed might very well be harmless for recreational use, but recreational use does not mean trying to out smoke Snoop Dog.
Give a 50mg gummy to a weed newbie and everybody's having a bad night.
That's a very good point, along with usage. Weed might have practically no effect if you consume it non-regularly but might have significant effect when you do every day.
Snoop dog doesn't even smoke that much lol, dab smokers probably injest way more THC per day than snoop dog.
Nothing is completely harmless... aspirin and paracetamol is far more dangerous than marijuana.
I'd love to see the data on this if you have it. Isn't weed more long term impact than the others you listed?
According to people like you even a water is more dangerous than weed. Weed is dangerous, that's a fact. Not more than alcohol, but it's dangerous.
Water is far more dangerous than weed - you can literally kill yourself by drinking too much of it.
I mean with the CSU/CDU out of the way, they might finally get around to doing it.
Weed does not agree with me at all, it sends me into truly horrifying attacks of paranoia. It effects people differently so yeah it's definitely not "completely harmless."
It is a softdrug, not a harddrug, but it's a drug nonetheless. It has the potential to destroy your life, but the potentiol is just very low. You should always treat it with respect. Saying "weed is harmless" is respectless. Think of the bullied nerd in highschool who is regarded as a harmless loser. He get's bullied every day, because he never fights back. Until he snaps some day and becomes a top ranking highschool shooter. If you abuse weed long enough, it will change you and it will ruin you.
Eating mushrooms you find wherever
It absolutely can burn you, especially if you're taking about when doing a quick release. I've burnt my hand numerous occasions trying to cover the steam vent with a tea towel.
Yeah the second-worst burn I ever got was from steam when I was opening a pressure cooker.
The first-worst was from accidentally touching a soldering iron.
Ooooh, yeah. 400c soldering iron isn't good for your fingers xD
Terrible idea. Steam will fuck your entire world up. I can put my hand onto a flat top, but steam is bullshit
Fun fact about steam, unlike normal burns it doesn't kill your nerves.
Ouch. Doesn't sound fun.
I would look worried too, from what I've felt the steam from my Instant Pot is extremely hot!
One might say, it's boiling!
I would guess that's hot vapor, not steam. Actual steam is invisible and will burn you
There are a few kinds of steam!
Wet (unsaturated) steam: this is probably what's coming out of the instant pot. It's gasified water mixed with tiny particles of liquid water. Industrial processes do not want wet steam in their systems. They have machinery to separate the liquid out. If that liquid water settles out inside a pipe and blocks it, it'll go shooting down the pipe like a bullet and cause damage to whatever is at the end of the line. If the droplets get into turbomachinery, they'll tear up the turbines. Adding additional heat will not increase the temperature, but will get consumed by the phase change to evaporate the remaining water and change the wet steam into...
Dry (saturated) steam: this is precisely the point when all the water has been evaporated. If you remove heat, it will start to condense without changing temperature. If you add additional heat, it will increase the temperature of the steam, because there is no water left to evaporate. This is useful because changing phase between liquid and gas consumes/yields a ton of energy, and that happens at a constant temperature. So if you need to transfer heat from one place to another, then saturated steam is what you want. Adding heat to saturated steam gets you...
Superheated steam: at this point you can conceptualize water as a gas. Intuitively, it works just like air or nitrogen or whatever. Pressure/temp relationships act like you'd expect from your everyday experience, because you're far enough above the gas-liquid phase change temperature that you don't have to worry about condensation getting into your equipment. If you want to use steam as a working fluid in turbomachinery or something, then you want superheated steam.
All three can hurt you badly, but inadvertent contact with superheated steam will fuck you up or cause irreversible death.
Why do you put your hand into the steam blasting out?