Anyone else think this headline is waiting for disaster?
 

What the fuck were they thinking? "why is antifreeze so delicious?" on the msn homepage?!?

here's the article: http://slate.msn.com/id/2103821/?GT1=4244


Maybe they still haven't realized that there are too many asshats that will actually try it out. Oh well, maybe they'll get a good lawsuit over this.

I'm sorry but I don't see the problem. Who doesn't know that antifreeze tastes sweet? It's supposed to be common knowledge. At the very least, we are supposed to be aware of this to prevent poisoning of children and animals.

It's not a headline advocating the drinking of anti-freeze - it'sin "The Explainer" portion -- it's a question being posed?

Why is antifreeze delicious? It's not saying - -Go out and drink it

It's an interesting question, one I didn't know the answer too (I must have missed that episode of the Simpsons)

How are they going to be sued? They just stated a scientific fact, certainly not against the law.

It does sound pretty tasty though...

[Scrooge]I rather like it. Anyone stupid enough to drink it will just decrease the surplus population.[/Scrooge]

Ok I guess I'm the only one that thinks it's not the smartest thing to write, since no kid out there would ever be curious to check it out for themselves.

It's not that they're stating a scientific fact, it's the headline that's not appropriate.

Why don't we start anti-aids campaigns with "why does fucking without a rubber feel so damn good?"

I doubt any kid will go out and drink anti-freeze because of this article.

It's an attention grabbing headline. Plain and simple. Anyone that goes out and does something because of a headline has a few issues anyway.

This is dangerous thinking. Who here has thought, "I should tell my 5 year old kid not to drink antifreeze tonight." Some people just don't think to say some things. These are the same people who think that leaving their kids in a locked car in the middle of a parking lot in the summer while they go shopping is a sound plan of action.

I agree with Rococo, it's a dangerous headline. Some stupid 6 year old who's parents don't even know what antifreeze is is probably searching the house for some right now to try out.

Edit:
As Jimmy4 and wonderwench said, if you are stupid enough to drink car fluids, then cheers to you, and bottoms up to the bar. Filtering the gene pool is a good thing.

Edit part duex:
did anybody read the article?
kids lap up puddles of antifreeze.......4,000 ingest per year. Case closed.

Thus, with your thinking we should filter out all news that has any remote chance of causing harm? The desire to censure can cause more harm than that article.

No, but we edit the article headline to something that will not entice the less intelligent run out and try some.

--OR(!)--

//start silly, pointless rant
we could round up all the stupids' IP addresses and then filter them so they only get one news site: hxxp://newsforstupids.com
//end silly, pointless rant

On both counts I agree with you.
The article headline is more like something you'd see in the National Enquirer. I was more stuck on the premise of the article (content) than the title.
As for the ip addresses: that would take most of our IP addresses out of commision. :) That and I would like to see the server that site would need to be hosted on. Yikes!

I think that headline writers are trying to come up with cute, humourous headlines, without thinking. They are trying to get you to read the article.

What they fail to realize and probably don't feel responsible for, is that people often don't read the article. All they see is the headline.

People see headlines out of the corner of their eyes as they are busy doing something else, like walking down the street, or buying lunch. Children read headlines only, as newspapers are boring adult things.

The headline should be better written to stand on it's own. And not as some kind of cutesy joke. Newspapers should be a little more responsible for their actions.

I think people with young children should not leave dangerous substances in places where children can access them.

Yes. Put your newspapers in the recycling where they belong!

I also don't think young children would even read that article, let alone be looking at news on the internet. Although I agree that it's a dumb headline, I think it's in a decently safe environment where the vast majority of people know what antifreeze is. Now if this was an ad in a children's magazine or something...different story.

So... antifreeze is pretty tasty, huh? I'll have to give it a try sometime. http://bluehole.clarkworx.com/chrome.../icon_yumy.gif

By the way, polyethylene glycol is also found in Dr. Pepper, for those of you who are really concerned about it. ;)

I don't think that a 6 year old that would be inclined to drink anti-freeze is going to be browsing MSN's news sites. Maybe that's just me.

And also, as was said above, it is a chemical. Keep it away from the kiddies.