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Three women contract HIV from dirty "vampire facials" at unlicensed spa

arstechnica.com

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Re: Three women contract HIV from dirty "vampire facials" at unlicensed spa

#61

Post by arittr »

slingnow wrote: post #20
lsaferite wrote: post #13

Just a meta-observation on the discourse here. I'm _shocked_ that the discourse on ArsTechnica for this story seems civilized while here on HN it's all (so far) snark.

Really? HN has been a mini-Reddit for quite some time now. Frequently just a bunch of low quality, unfunny and recycled one-liners hoping to grab a few precious internet points.

I don’t agree with that at all. While I do think HN discussion has become generally more negative I still almost always find interesting or useful stuff in comments. I think they’re a valuable way to check the pulse of the tech community.

Re: Three women contract HIV from dirty "vampire facials" at unlicensed spa

#62

Post by jrochkind1 »

browningstreet wrote: post #43
lsaferite wrote: post #13

Just a meta-observation on the discourse here. I'm _shocked_ that the discourse on ArsTechnica for this story seems civilized while here on HN it's all (so far) snark.

HN has gotten meaner lately.

As has the entire USA, and probably much of the rest of the world.

Re: Three women contract HIV from dirty "vampire facials" at unlicensed spa

#65

Post by itishappy »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #46
moooo99 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But it's not this shit in the name of youth and beauty. Yeah its shit in the name of a bigger biceps and a bigger junk, I don't see how that is any better?

Women get surgery to get bigger boobs, primarily as a looks thing. Are we at the stage of inserting silicone in your junk so your jock strap looks better? (Please note you can just pad your bra if you want to look busty fully clothed. And it leaves scars, so I'm skeptical of the value it has for looking good naked or in teeny, tiny bikinis.)

> Are we at the stage of inserting silicone in your junk so your jock strap looks better?

Yes. Packers exist. Also Synthol is oil injected into your muscles to make them look better.

Re: Three women contract HIV from dirty "vampire facials" at unlicensed spa

#66

Post by itchyouch »

serf wrote: post #48
itishappy wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, we do our share of dumb shit too. Ever heard of synthol or jelqing?

steroids are dangerous, but did I miss an article somewhere where jelqing gave someone HIV? It might be useless, but I wouldn't tell someone with a useless habit that it's dangerous.

Because the outcomes are disproportionate (aids vs non-aids) doesn't abdicate things from being stupid or not stupid.

Re: Three women contract HIV from dirty "vampire facials" at unlicensed spa

#67

Post by kennywinker »

yareal wrote: post #22
lsaferite wrote: post #13

Just a meta-observation on the discourse here. I'm _shocked_ that the discourse on ArsTechnica for this story seems civilized while here on HN it's all (so far) snark.

HN's audience is often pretty petty and biting towards out groups, and tends towards a certain political axis ime (often a sort of progressive individualism) that can be pretty snarky towards people who, in their eyes, "should have known better".

“progressive individualism” seems a lot kinder than I would put it. I’d call it libertarianism or anarcho-capitalism (both derogatory).

Re: Three women contract HIV from dirty "vampire facials" at unlicensed spa

#68

Post by DoreenMichele »

yareal wrote: post #60
DoreenMichele wrote: post #24

Notice how it's never men doing stupidly risky stuff to try to look young and beautiful. The societal pressure on women to look young and beautiful is ridiculous. And influential women actively promoting such garbage is part of the problem. Men get former Mr. Universe's modeling "eat right and exercise." (Arnold in case you aren't getting the reference.) Women get this kind of crap.

The existence of folks like Andrew Tate suggests otherwise. Aren't there dudes doing like infrared blasting off their balls or getting penile implants? Both toxic masculinity and toxic femininity exist.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Tate

I had to look him up. Never heard of him.

In contrast, Arnold is pretty darn famous.

So is Kim Kardashian.

Toxic femininity seems more mainstream than toxic masculinity and, in fact, this is the first time I've heard anyone use that expression. Most people think this cult of youth and beauty is fine and critics like me are weirdos.

Re: Three women contract HIV from dirty "vampire facials" at unlicensed spa

#69

Post by DoreenMichele »

itishappy wrote: post #65
DoreenMichele wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Women get surgery to get bigger boobs, primarily as a looks thing. Are we at the stage of inserting silicone in your junk so your jock strap looks better? (Please note you can just pad your bra if you want to look busty fully clothed. And it leaves scars, so I'm skeptical of the value it has for looking good naked or in teeny, tiny bikinis.)

> Are we at the stage of inserting silicone in your junk so your jock strap looks better? Yes. Packers exist. Also Synthol is oil injected into your muscles to make them look better.

Can someone point me to an informative source for "packers"?

Searching "packers for your junk" or "penile implants" doesn't get me anything that sounds like it's what this comment is referring to.

Please and thank you.

Re: Three women contract HIV from dirty "vampire facials" at unlicensed spa

#70

Post by Mordisquitos »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #40
moooo99 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Notice how it's never men doing stupidly risky stuff to try to look young and beautiful. Steroid use is increasingly common among "hobby bodybuilders", a predominantly male demographic, which has all sorts of nasty side effects. Now there are apparently also procedures where young men break their bones to gain a few centimeters in height. While cosmetic procedures aren't as common among men as they are in women, th…

They also prescribe steroids to boost your immune system when you have nasty infections, so it's not cut and dried that "steroids = all downside and stupidity." Unless you want to insist modern medicine has deep flaws and needs a major overhaul. Good luck getting taken seriously with such opinions.

"Steroids" [0] are a very broad category of organic compounds, and it is a mistake to assume that the effects of steroids used for performance enhancing and bodybuilding —anabolic steroids, themselves still a broad category [1]— have anything to do with steroids in general and the specific clinical use cases that each of them may have.

Furthermore, the steroids that you are referring to are most likely corticosteroids [2], which are most certainly not prescribed to "boost your immune system" but rather to reduce the immune response when it is excessive, or even suppress it to treat autoimmune diseases.

Please don't assume that off-label anabolic steroid usage is somehow safe and healthy only because modern medicine uses completely different compounds which happen to share a portion of their chemical structure for treating specific medical issues.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steroid

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anabolic_steroid

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corticosteroid

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