Comments

1
No, EVERYONE has a food allergy-- didn't you get the memo?
2
How about just not expecting privacy on a social network?
3
Diaspora has literally no chance of displacing Facebook. Nobody is going to pay for a service that they did just fine without five years ago, and the description of the way the service works is going to prohibit 90% of Facebook's clientele from using it. Did these guys not read about the clusterfuck that happened on ReadWriteWeb a few months ago?

Anyway, there have been no fewer than four "Oh shit Facebook is going to own our souls" panics in the past two years, and it hasn't stopped them from growing. Delete your account if you think it'll make you safer, but don't expect it to delay your nightmare dystopia where every corporation has all of your personal information and is constantly trying to sell you acai berries and penis enlargement pills.
4
Stop Faking It: You don't really have a food allergy.


I miss peaches and cherries so, so much! Dear birch pollen: I fucking h9.5 you!
5
Food? Who needs food? I manage to survive quite nicely on coffee, beer, whiskey, Jagermeister, and cigarettes.
6
@3: No phenomenon of social enterprise on the internet — in its entire, forty-year history — has ever maintained its grip-hold as the most popular platform on a permanent basis.

Facebook is no different. The function of time shall demonstrate this. Give it some.
7
@5: Well, that'll putcha in a pickle!
8
I love articles that talk about food allergies, it brings out all the crazies and food allergies nuts are a 1/2 step behind the anti-vax people on teh crazy scale.
9
Oh Telsa, you sage you. In yesterday's thread, you said you predicted Facebook's demise four years ago. Four years ago, Facebook had 12 million users. Today it has 400 million. I can see why you would want to gloat about predicting its downfall.

Nothing ever lasts, on the internet or not. People don't listen to Mozart anymore, they go outside without hats, and they don't name their children Ethel and Myrtle either. Seeing as how it is a fundamental rule of human nature to abandon fashionable things after they have run their course, it seems a bit redundant to declare Facebook dead in the water because one day they will succumb to the same fate. Facebook's predecessors had serious problems, whether in design or marketing strategies. Facebook does not have these problems in nearly the same degree, and it will not die the same death that they did. Some poorly conceived upstart certainly is not going to be the one to destroy it.

One day, people will stop using Google as their main search engine. That won't necessarily be because of a poor business model, nor will it be a reflection of how good or bad Google is. It will simply have run its course and will fade away. Facebook will end the same way.
10
Can you update the PSP link? It redirects to the stranger edit post login page! Thanks :)
11
It's brutal social calculus but i think most of us strongly suspect that the moment those cops kicked that Latino suspect then Diaz became the 'shoe in' for Seattle police chief. screwy social justice though it is.
12
after-hours night club at spl downtown sounds fantastic, especially up in the reading room...something like SAM remix, perhaps.
13
No allergies? Bu- but how will the hypochondriacs feel validated??
14
@9: It's less a downfall than it is to rely on hindsight and experience of the way social media trends ebb and flow online. The only difference for me, personally, was that unlike other social media predecessors, I didn't join. That's really it.
15
just so you know: The "Monogrammed Jackets and Lip Balm" link is broken (points to the 'edit entry' function in the Stranger CMS).
16
I have been harping about the food allergy myth for years but people don't want to hear it. I am glad the article focuses attention on the allergy procedure itself on not the individual. Millions of people are told by doctors that their child has an allergy to wheat or fish or meat and they should find alternatives despite the fact that eating the food does not directly incite an allergic response (unlike the rare peanut allergy). People do have stomach aches, rashes and other symptoms but they are being caused by other environmental forces such as parasites, bacterium and harmful mold spores. Like the stress ulcer myth the food allergy myth will be debunked but not before the wacko allergists are able to rake in billions of dollars from monthly allergy shots.
17
@8: What I would do to have an in-season Texas/Ontario/California/Georgia white peach right now, juice running down my arm.

Until 2009, I could. Something I'd never heard of before — "oral allergy syndrome" — put an immensely fast stop to that. On the order of about four minutes-fast. Pics, plus my pharmacist ten minutes later very nearly phoning paramedics on the spot when she saw my lips pillowed out, are what I have to remind myself of it. Oh, that and bitter a contempt for food-pollen interactions as they affect me.

Just as soon as I move somewhere birch pollen isn't so dominant, I can wait about two years and then go back to having all the peaches I could possibly stuff myself with. I'm looking forward to it.
18
@ 9, no one listens to Mozart? You sure about that?
19
@5
And hot sauce too, right? Surely no one can survive without hot sauce?
20
It is amazing to think that people can get privacy on the internet. Even "private" information on facebook can be hacked and has been before.

I hear so many smug people talk about how they "lock their facebook down" despite the fact that if it is out there is is likely to eventually get out.
21
@Telsa: I have the exact same feelings regarding my inability to enjoy cherries anymore, but until you wrote the word "h9.5" I had no idea how to properly express them. Thank you.
22
pretty sure that Puget Sound Partnership link isn't what you meant to put there.
23
@20, My response is usually so? OMG someone will find out where I went on vacation. Or what I think about some news story. Big fucking deal. If someone cares that much there are substantially easier ways to find out then hacking my facebook. Hell the fact that I put something on there means I am pretty ok with people knowing it.

Now ff you're an idiot and post shit that could get you in trouble at work or with the law iwell then thats your own damn fault.
24
EXACTLY, @ 20, 23. I absolutely love facebook. But I consider it a public bulletin board, and choose my posts carefully. And yes, my boss is on my list of friends.
25
Urgutha, while it may not make the short list of "essential" items, I agree that several different varieties of hot sauce are good to have around. Even the lowly Tabasco sauce has its place. I'll add A-1 sauce and some good soy sauce to that list also.
27
Thank you cow and pain. The link is fixed.
28
anybody else think diaspora is a stupid fucking name for ANY social network?
29
i wonder if anyone ever thinks we are lying when we order food for our two boys. they both have egg allergies, and one also has a dairy allergy. i don't mean irritated, but hives and throat swelling. that article makes me sad :(
30
Off Topic - Lewis Black's take down of Glenn Beck of the Daily Show last night was hysterical. He was filled with such zeal he was coming out of character.
31
@28: that depends.
32
A reaction to gluten is not really an "allergy" in that the two processes involve different kinds of immune reaction. But if by "allergy" you merely mean any adverse immune reaction, then everyone is "allergic" to gluten.
33
Hey Telsa, I dunno if there's birch spores in Eastern Washington (probably), but the peaches and nectarines my local hippie food outlet gets from a farmer up by the border are FUCKING AWESOME.

If you can eat 'em, come crash on my couch for a few weeks in August and stuff yourself. If the effort wears you out, we could hire a neighborhood kid to lift the peaches from the table and into your mouth for just pennies a day. Little punks don't have anything better to do in August except STEP ON MY LAWN!

Off topic? /switching to decaf
34
People do have stomach aches, rashes and other symptoms but they are being caused by other environmental forces such as parasites, bacterium and harmful mold spores.


Or they have a food intolerance. The article admits as much. My getting the shits when I eat wheat certainly isn't enough for me to be an asshole to waitstaff at restaurants, but it is enough for me to use alternatives whenever possible.
35
@33: Awesome! Cheers!

I think alder pollen is the big bug-a-boo there. I haven't had problems with alder, so I'll just need two years to flush things out first. Then we can put those brats to work.
36
I've never understood why the library doesn't explore the option of reducing their weekday daytime hours, instead of cutting back on nights and weekends. Evenings and weekends are when most people have the time to go to the library. It drives me nuts every time I forget that the libraries nearest me close at 6 p.m. on Fridays, and try to stop on my way home. Why don't they just not open until 1 p.m.?
37
Oh, and anyone who puts anything on Facebook - or anywhere else on the Internet - that they really can't afford to have become public is a fool. Just assume it's all public, lock it down as tight as you can, and quit worrying so much about it. Don't put your birthyear, SSN, home address, real email, etc., on there. If you are worried about predators finding your kids through FB, don't put what city you're in. Things like that. Don't use your real name if you really want to make it a little tougher.
38
@18- That's right, not a single soul listens to Mozart, that's what I meant. Of course, I'm wearing a hat right now as I prepare to go outside, but let's take everything I said at face value and assume that I mean it when I speak in absolutes.
39
I tell people I have a "wheat allergy," but I don't. That's because Celiac disease is actually an auto-immune disease that is triggered by exposure to gluten. When I go to a restaurant, I describe it as an "allergy," because people are famailiar with allergies, and I've long hoped restauranteurs will take it as seriously as anything leading to anaphylaxis. A tenth of a teaspoon of gluten (crumbs) is enough to trigger cellular damage in my GI tract. Please don't let the good science in this article (and my own lies about an "allergy") make you less attentive to my legitimate needs and requests. (I'm biopsy-confirmed and have pics of the damage gluten does to my intestines.) Also, I tip exceptionally well when I think restaurants are taking my needs seriously.
40
@38, no shit. You obviously meant that Mozart is out of style and few people listen to him. What you need to do, however, is take a look at the playlist of any classical station in the world and count how many times Mozart shows up in a day; then look at a classical album sales chart and count how many works by Mozart are represented; and finally, go look up any major orchestra or opera company and see how many of them feature Mozart in their season. Then, come back and repeat your absurd claim with a straight face.
41
I'm not real clear on what you're arguing here Matt. Are you arguing that Mozart is in style right now? I made clear that on any given day, you will see many people wearing hats, right? Would you wager the number of either group rivals even the number of people still on MySpace, which is no longer fashionable?

Since we can both agree that Mozart is still listened to by some people, and in fact is still very popular in some very limited circles, can you accept that I was not asserting the opposite? Can you see, maybe, that I meant that Mozart is not Lady Gaga, who ten years from now may still have admirers, but will certainly not be the household name she is today?
42
@41: Perhaps if you tried using a better tactic than the rhetorical interrogative to drum your point, you'd get somewhere productive. Oh, and by the way, check your wall.
43
@ 41, what I'm saying is that, while your other examples fit your point, Mozart does not. Yes, on any given day, FAR more people are listening to his music than Lady Gaga's. And that's just in these United States. You would have been better off saying MC Hammer. Or taking Tesla's advice @ 42.
44
If you wouldn't dance around the fact that you're idiots, I wouldn't have to drum my point.

Telsa, you wrongly predicted that Facebook would go the way of Friendster and other social networking sites. No other Social Networking Site, including Twitter, ever came close to the momentum that Facebook has. Facebook is, and will continue to be, an influential internet property for the next few years. It will not in any way mirror the arc of any other social networking site. The fact that you insist on waxing poetic about ebb and flow is just wasting time and space. It appears that you wasted your time on a bunch of shitty social networking sites, sat out on the one that actually worked, and are now snottily talking about how it won't last just to avoid engaging people realistically on the subject.

Matt, I don't know how to respond to your assertion that more people are listening to Mozart than Lady Gaga. Literally, I have no idea. I tried pulling up some sort of comparable stats, but as far as I know nothing of the sort exists. If you have evidence of your claim, it would be nice to see it.
In any case, you're still missing my point. I was grandstanding in my first post, but I thought that I later made clear that I'm speaking of things that are in fashion. Mozart, regardless of how many people listen to him, is not in fashion today. Mozart used to be fashionable, and it could have been said that everybody listened to him, even though that's as false as saying nobody listens to him today. Today, everybody listens to Lady Gaga, because she is the fashionable thing. Mozart could very well have more listeners today than he did during his lifetime, but it would not have any effect on the comparison I was trying to make.

There, no questions. Are you happy now?
45
Chris, just admit that you made a bad comparison, okay? MC Hammer would have worked. Mozart does not. Why? Because he transcends trends and fashion. His music is permanently part of world culture, just as the art of Michaelangelo is. Discussing them in terms of trends is absurd. My assertion that more people are listening to Mozart is based on this knowledge. There aren't any stats; there's no need for stats. Millions of people will listen to Mozart on the radio, their iPods, their stereos, and elsewhere today. They will be all ages (unlike Lady Gaga, who will have few listeners over 35). You made an apples to concrete blocks comparison. You wouldn't resort to insult if you weren't painfully aware of that now, lashing out to save face - on an anonymous blog.

Now, in case you haven't caught on, I don't care about the rest of your point. That's why this is the only part of your comment that I'm spending any time discussing. Now, just learn from this and make sensible comparisons in the future. Maybe when that happens, you'll earn the respect on this forum that I command.
46
Now you're just not being serious at all. Respect? You? Buddy, I don't talk here a lot, but I've been on Slog for over four years, and the few times I remember seeing your posts, someone was dressing you down for being an idiot about one thing or another.

My comparison was not bad. It expressed my point exactly as I wanted it to. You're not even arguing my point. What you are arguing is irrelevant to my point. What you are arguing is irrelevant period, but you are still dead wrong. You are vastly overestimating the amount of people who listen to Mozart. The Classical Radio station in my area (WCEP-NC) has two Mozart pieces scheduled for their 18 hour play period today, totaling 55 minutes. The station has a robust 150,000 listeners a day. How many of them are listening to Mozart? Of those, how many recognize his pieces? I listen to classical on the radio, and even as culturally ubiquitous Mozart is(as I freely admit), I probably can't recognize 95% of his work. I, unfortunately, would be able to recognize most of Lady Gaga's music, despite my great desire not to. There is simply no way Mozart has even a million domestic listeners on any given day, and there are thousands of clubs that will be playing Lady Gaga for hundreds of thousands of patrons tonight, never mind all the other ways people have of listening to her.

You've already admitted you're not concerned with my original argument. Why are you concerned with a comparison I made that was superficially incorrect, but meaningful in the sense that I intended it? You just want to be condescending to someone who you view as being less cultured than you. And at the same time admonish me for insulting you. Why else would you bother to press on with your completely unevidenced claim?

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