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    Peanut allergies have plummeted in children

    (www.nytimes.com)
    178 points JumpCrisscross | 14 comments | 20 Oct 25 18:09 UTC | HN request time: 0.416s | source | bottom
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    aerostable_slug ◴[20 Oct 25 18:29 UTC] No.45647374[source]▶
    Business idea: Allergen Aerator

    Generate a miasma of benign pestilence in your child's crib, mimicking the protective inoculations provided by early exposure to peanuts and other potential allergens, "farm" air, and the like. It could be packaged with Flonase for sneezing parents and an 'essential oils' scent dispenser to cover the barnyard smell.

    Use AI to tailor the precise blend of aerosolized rodent feces and tree nut dust to optimize your child's immune system, and et voila: funding!

    replies(9): >>45647765 #>>45647804 #>>45647886 #>>45648217 #>>45648649 #>>45648750 #>>45649560 #>>45649699 #>>45652774 #
    mauzy ◴[20 Oct 25 20:08 UTC] No.45648649[source]▶
    Bizarre that this is the top comment as this would drastically increase the frequency of peanut allergies and, more than likely, end in multiple deaths. Research strongly suggests that the key is that the child eats peanuts before being exposed via other vectors (skin/lung) to avoid allergic reactions. Arisolizing the relevant proteins around infants is essentially fast tracking allergic reactions.
    replies(4): >>45648718 #>>45648808 #>>45650261 #>>45657271 #
    1. bodiekane ◴[20 Oct 25 20:22 UTC] No.45648808[source]▶
    I smirked at the parent comment, and it didn't even slightly occur to me that someone might interpret its intent as serious and literal until I saw your comment.
    replies(4): >>45650081 #>>45651898 #>>45652644 #>>45652845 #
    2. michaelt ◴[20 Oct 25 22:11 UTC] No.45650081[source]▶
    In my experience HNers are extremely credulous.

    As far as I can tell, there's no level of satire so heavy-handed and unsubtle that it won't get a reply taking it seriously. If anything, the more obviously ridiculous your suggestion, the more urgently HNers want to disagree.

    replies(5): >>45650185 #>>45651811 #>>45656881 #>>45657165 #>>45657344 #
    3. oblio ◴[20 Oct 25 22:23 UTC] No.45650185[source]▶
    I've been on the internet a long time. There are enough weirdos out there to make you understand humor doesn't scale, and it definitely doesn't scale across cultures.

    Things are different when you actually know people but we killed that when we killed forums.

    replies(1): >>45657168 #
    4. minetest2048 ◴[21 Oct 25 02:30 UTC] No.45651811[source]▶
    Partly because reality is getting more stranger faster than satire. There's even an entire subreddit dedicated to that
    replies(1): >>45652253 #
    5. SapporoChris ◴[21 Oct 25 02:43 UTC] No.45651898[source]▶
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe's_law
    6. vacuity ◴[21 Oct 25 03:43 UTC] No.45652253{3}[source]▶
    Yeah, I don't think "surely no one seriously believes this" is viable now, if it was before. Of course, what you choose to do with that conclusion is still up to you.
    replies(1): >>45653253 #
    7. renewiltord ◴[21 Oct 25 05:06 UTC] No.45652644[source]▶
    I think it’s actually a pretty good comment. Most people would not know that skin and food exposure are different. This is something you are told as a parent though. E.g. My daughter had a skin reaction to (chicken) eggs at week 29 but tolerates them just fine as food and we were not particularly concerned but if no one had told us I would have thought it was a problem.
    8. blargey ◴[21 Oct 25 05:45 UTC] No.45652845[source]▶
    The "non-ingestion allergen exposure" thing is a dangerous and common misconception, and the business-idea "joke" doesn't hinge on knowing or recognizing this, nor does it encourage questioning that part of the premise.
    9. AceyMan ◴[21 Oct 25 07:11 UTC] No.45653253{4}[source]▶
    I'm pretty sure the widespread adoption of Crocs heralded this tipping point. [viz., 'Idiocracy']
    10. notahacker ◴[21 Oct 25 15:16 UTC] No.45656881[source]▶
    tbf, there's also almost no level of satire about business ideas so heavy handed and unsubtle that some HNers won't think it's an idea worth pitching to an investor...
    11. dlivingston ◴[21 Oct 25 15:41 UTC] No.45657165[source]▶
    Autism-per-capita is very high here. :)
    12. fuzzfactor ◴[21 Oct 25 15:41 UTC] No.45657168{3}[source]▶
    What a coincidence :)

    Friday night I'm going to help move equipment for my good friends in Benign Pestilence.

    They're opening for Barnyard Inoculations at the newly remodeled Allergen Aerator.

    And the big headliner of the night is of course, Miasma.

    Just back from the world tour.

    It's going to be a deathly Metal night !

    replies(1): >>45662486 #
    13. nostrademons ◴[21 Oct 25 15:55 UTC] No.45657344[source]▶
    Poe's Law:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law

    14. oblio ◴[21 Oct 25 22:23 UTC] No.45662486{4}[source]▶
    If it's supposed to be some sort of joke about sarcasm, I'm not getting it.