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We waited a while to introduce our oldest to peanut butter, my wife was pretty scared about it because she had a friend growing up with a peanut allergy. It just kinda got to the point where we didn't have peanut butter in the house anyway, it just wasn't a staple, not out of any real thought to specifically avoid it.

There is no history of food allergies in either family, though my side does have some heavy animal allergies. We finally gave him a spoonful of peanut butter and he broke out in hives and then threw up about 10 minutes later. We freaked out of course and had him in for some allergy testing, he had a pretty big blow up with the skin prick test and his blood levels came back very high.

This is where everything gets to be an approximation. We still don't know his allergy. A skin prick test just proves that the allergens on his skin react to it. The blood test proves he has the potential for a big reaction to peanut proteins in him. Apparently there are 8 proteins in peanuts, and some cause stronger reactions than others. It is possible your blood test comes back 'high' yet your body doesn't react to the proteins that will cause an anaphylaxis reaction.

Further, it depends how your body breaks down the protein in your digestive system, it could be possible to come back with high levels on the test yet your body breaks everything down into small enough quantities that the allergen never triggers even though you have the potential for an explosive reaction.

The only authoritative way to determine the allergy is an oral challenge, but due to our son's high levels and his previous reaction, would be really dangerous for him until he is a bit older. The only thing to do is keep testing and hoping the levels drop enough to try a challenge.

Right now hes in 'avoid cross contamination' mode and it really is a bit life changing. We have to take an epi pen around with us and be 'those people' that ruin it for everybody. My son has to ask if new food is safe, because we put peanuts in every god damn product. We had a sunblock we put on him that caused him to break out in a rash and we looked up the ingredients and one of them was derrived from peanuts. It is insane.

And nobody gets it, even here some of the comments are really insensitive because they love their peanut butter. For us that substance is a deadly poison that targets our son and it is everywhere, every, fucking, where. I've been on there other side where I've gotten on a plane and couldn't eat the snack I brought with me and complained, but I guess once I get on the other side of it, I realize how scary it can be.

We were playing at a rec center after a group class and he was making new friends playing at a pool table when I noticed a dad come over with a half eaten sandwich to give to his kid... whats on the sandwich... peanut butter! SHIT they've all been at the same table touching the stuff, that kid is little he'll be all over with that food, we have to GET OUT OF HERE NOW.

That is the bullshit you have to deal with with this thing, the world is suddenly full of boobytraps that'll put your kid in the hospital or kill him if you aren't fast enough to stick him with the epi pen. It SUCKS, way more than having to wait to eat my snack until after I got off the plane.

Eh.. I get what you are saying, but is eating honey really some sort of life necessity? Will a child really be not well adjusted in life because they didn't eat honey? I don't think its helicopter parenting to take some basic steps to avoid some risks, like waiting a touch to have honey or anchoring your large furniture to the walls.

This is sort of a turning point with the intenet age where we do have a lot of information at our finger tips, more so than ever before, so the number or perceived risks is overwhelming to parents, you can't really blame people for wanting to make sure their kids get old enough to have the chance to fuck things up on their own.

Yes sir. Waited for a friend to have an interview in my car when I was in highschool, listened to the radio for about 45 minutes. When he got back, went to turn the car on and, boop, no power... Had to get a jump from the guy my friend was interviewing with.

Pretty ignorant on my part but lesson learned. Could have used a 10 min shut off timer ;)

Right on. I live in NJ and see so many shit driving accidents on my way home, it'll be awesome when computers take over and do it right all the time.

For the people that still enjoy driving manually, I could easily see 'manual drive' roads cropping up once automation takes over, roads that are built only for fun and interesting driving rather than the functional roads that end up being fun by accident of on account of the terrain it was built on.

Isn't that how it is done? It is about 3 seconds on every light I stop at in NJ. When I started driving a manual transmission I had to really pay attention to when the lights at intersections were going to change so I could be prepped to go (was nervous to start/stop the car when learning).

After the other lane goes red, there is a 3 count of all red to clear the intersection and then you get green. Some of the 'all reds' are longer at different intersections depending on the gap where you might be stuck, there is an awkward one over a railroad track at a busy intersection that has a longer 'all red' for example.

I think it depends on the tools you need. I tired several times to make a run at VIM but wasn't seeing much of an advantage over the ultraedit/notepad++ speed I was used to for doing things... but then again I don't have to do any work where I'm stuck in a terminal. If it were the case I'd make a serious run at learning vi/emacs or whichever.

I recently found SublimeText and I have to say it is a real leg up over notepad++/uedit for a rich editor, it sort of marries keyboard navigation with the gui in a really cool way. Each has its strengths, and it is nice to see something realize that without feeling like it has to shun one or the other. I liked it so much that using it for just a few moments had me switch over to it everywhere I use a 'rich text editor'

I really don't think people think "Oh man, how do I appear smarter here, yes, yes, I will use BEGS the question, only the intellectual elite use this phrase, and I shall be one of them!!"

I think the phrase just makes no sense, I still can't understand how I'm actually supposed to use it. If I just looked at the words in the phrase, I would read it as something begging for a question, raising the need to ask a question. I didn't even know that phrase is somehow related to academia in anyway.

But I guess I know now that the word seems to activate elitism, a moment to declare superiority, which begs the question of why it is so prevalent for people who know the proper use of the phrase to assume its misuse is just an attempt for the person to be as educated as they are, and not a common misunderstanding.

I am hoping for the day we won't let people drive anymore. It is a task that when failed for just a moment can end lives, proven time and time again, every day. Automated cars with good sensors can do a better job, and I can't wait untill I can buy a car that doesn't even need to think about there being a steering wheel or pedals in it.

Push a button to go to my location, sleep, read a book, play a game, whatever, and get there faster (routed around traffic, faster and more efficient merge speeds etc) and safer than I do today. Travel times suddenly become free time, which would be great. I know I won't see this in my life time (even though we have the tech to build something like this today), but maybe for future generations.

Ideally there would be no need for lights.

Tying my shoes is the only knot I know how to tie, I guess I was lucky in that I was taught the 'right' way the first time. After watching the video I ended up tying my shoes wrong trying to reverse what I normally did.

This should be modded up!

Networking while you are in school is probably the most important thing you can do right along side getting an education there. In fact your school should be chosen based on the networking opportunities available for you.

These opportunities come from any angle, even if seemingly unrelated. A student in your class could be starting something up or end up in a role to hire you years down the line.

My first job came from a reference from a long term admin at the school in the science building. I used to work for the school's website and she came in to look for some help creating her home site for a bit of cash. I went over and we just hit it off and got a long really well while working on the site. I thought nothing of it until a few months later, having sent out 100+ resumes with no response for two months, about a week from my "get any job you can, or go home to mom!" calendar date, I got an email from a company asking to see my resume and have me come in for an interview if I would like. Turned out the owner of the company had gone to the same school years ago, was friends with the admin, and asked her for any recommendations she might know of.

Instant career, and here I am in the same field 12 years later, all for a 2 day random side job. That's how it works, that's why it is so important when starting out. NETWORK!!!!!

Truthfully school isn't about learning, it is a game where you try to figure out the system a teacher employs to determine the material on the test, a game to manipulate faculty members into liking you enough to offer extra credit and special exceptions for failings, and ultimately tailoring your school 'resume' well enough facilitate you into whatever job or school you want to move to next.

I made the mistake in assuming academia was about learning and fairness above everything else while I made my way through it. It is a mistake I won't let my children make for very long as they soon enter the great beast of our education system.

I was the same way. I hardly ever took notes, I guess I wasn't a perfect student, but I found that if I took lots of notes in class I would do much worse, I would spend all my energy on writing it down and trying to keep up with what was being said, my attention divided, learning less of everything. Instead I just like to listen and focus, and if I really wanted to remember it, write a summary after.

For stuff I had to work through like math and CS I would write it down. Also when starting a new program or piece of one I like to do the psudo code on a piece of paper as that helps me focus, which might be in this case the information is coming from my head rather than an external source. It also makes arrows and boxes instantly available unlike on the computer. Can't wait till I have a low latency tablet and pen though, would throw out the paper immediately.

The worse was getting punished often for not taking notes, teachers would grade them or assume I wasn't paying attention if not copying information down.

I remember one year in college I decided to try to be more than a B student and did everything 'right'. I sat in front, aggressively tried to answer questions, I took copious notes, did homework immediately rather than procrastinating, pretty much tried to be the model student we are asked to be. That semester I pulled my first D average when I had rode the C through A grades my whole life (based on interest in the subject).

Did I ever mention that I hated school?

Had to drop firefox finally because it failed to render text properly. I tried to follow the random threads of advice to disable this and that and flip this setting here or there, or uninstall xyz microsoft patch (which I couldn't find on my sytem). Either way it was all too much out of my day to try to even have to fix this, you would think rendering text, being the only thing a browser has to do, would be a pretty fucking serious priority to fix, but I guess not, lets move the fucking menu button to the right!

I recall continual sore feet all summer from my walmart job at around 19 years old, I can't imagine what this would do to me now.