The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round...

At what point does �the obvious� logically transcend �the inherently assumed?�

We live in a very user-friendly society. Our jobs have �job descriptions.� Our shampoo comes with instructions. If your car is broke down, hundreds of people and perhaps several law enforcement officers will pass you by while you�re stuck on the side of the road, but you�re only one phone call away from a complete stranger coming and charging you for a �free tow�...

At what point do we become so obstructed by legal disclaimers, appropriate uses and �minimal hindrances� for superior services? We all know the frustrations of trying to read those poorly translated instructions. At a certain point, we just throw them away and start playing the role of the artist...

Is it our innate desire to relive our childhood that keeps us surrounded by these childish reminders and self-gratification that there�s always going to be the right person for the right job? But it�s not going to be me, so I�ll let someone else do it...

EDIT: Added comic - please visit www.userfriendly.org... for more laughs...

[edit on 9/23/2004 by EnronOutrunHomerun]

So....no comments at all from fellow ATS members on American consumerism and the ignorance it breeds? Or why we all seem to be happy being treated as though we had the brains of a two year old when we buy coffee from McDonald's with a little warning on the side that it will be a little hot before we take a sip?

Originally posted by EnronOutrunHomerun
So....no comments at all from fellow ATS members on American consumerism and the ignorance it breeds? Or why we all seem to be happy being treated as though we had the brains of a two year old when we buy coffee from McDonald's with a little warning on the side that it will be a little hot before we take a sip?

Ummm...just saw this, missed it in the shuffle.

I think I understand your point.

I agree that consumerist society caters to ignorance. The reason is the need to reach the lowest common denominator in order to capture the largest market.

But. Many of the product warnings you see today like "don't put this plastic bag over your face" or "coffee is hot and can burn you" etc are not actually there for the consumer and they are certainly not demanded by them.

They're put there by and for the lawyers. The ones that work for the companies who are trying to keep the ones that don't at bay.

It's the litigious nature of our society that is responsible.

PS: the shrimp were yummy. Thanks.

The reason McDonalds put a warning on there coffee was a result of a law suit filed by a lady customer who burnt herself whilst drinking the coffee.She successfully claimed l belief was around $500,000.00.Since then they have had to issue the warning to prevent further claims.Greed and a good lawyer are to blame for these types of acts.

Originally posted by Gools
PS: the shrimp were yummy. Thanks.

Awesome

Yeah - I know why those legal dislcaimers are there and most of the law suits that brought them about...and I agree with what you've said about trying to reach your entire target market...but at some point is there not a boundary b/w what is common sense and what is required by law for clarification?

It seems that f everything is not spelled out in today's society then it's either grounds for a law suit or explanations for the 1% of the population who are too thick to get it...

Why should we allow a man to sue Nabesco b/c he got fat from eating Oreoes?

Is a line ever going to be drawn or are we just all going to have to waddle into this muk together, hand in hand, singing "the wheels on the bus..."

[edit on 9/23/2004 by EnronOutrunHomerun]

[edit on 9/23/2004 by EnronOutrunHomerun]

Funny...

Where I work "Tim Hortons" there is a little label on the side of our coffee. It says "Caution: Contents may be HOT!"

No s**t buddy!

You'd think that they want their coffee/tea/other hot beverages to be hot.

Lawsuits aside, I am all in favor or removing all of the stupid warnings from products. If someone is stupid enough to iron their clothes while wearing them or tries to blow dry their hair while taking a bath, they deserve to die.

The gene pool could use more chlorine if you ask me...

The lawyer-speak is only part of it.

We also have such a variety of cultures living together (or being the targets of our exports) that there is no more "common frame of reference."

Read on a bottle of antibiotics: "Take one pill BY MOUTH three times daily." Where did you think I was gonna put it? Um, well . . . it was for diahrea, right?

But my doctor says that in Africa, most medications, even over the counter, are dispensed as suppositories. There ya go.

Another is the number of idiots in a population of 290 million. Too stupid to live, but not too stupid to reproduce.

about 6 years ago, I just loved watching the floodwaters, washing trees across the road, and the cops come up and set up a roadblock. Here comes the first dufus, who drives AROUND the squadcars and OVER the burning flares, and into the water. I and a group of homo sapiens applauded as the cops on the other side arrested him. "But I thought I could make it . . ." was his defense.

Talk to an ER nurse, and ask how many teenage girls come in, with the remnants of a rubber band and a ziploc(tm) baggie up their privates. They were 'improvizing a condom' for safe sex. A level I trauma center clears at least one of those cases a month. seriously.

Then there was the immagrant family that suffocated. The flood waters cut off the electricity, so they decided to cook dinner over their charcoal grill. It was pouring rain outside, so they set it up in the garage . . and asphyxiated themselves.

The list goes on and on, people.

A thousand years ago, when I was a junior level management trainee, I got reprimanded at a company meeting. Manager asks "can someone tell me what to do if there's a fire in this waste-basket?" I immediately said, "Put it Out." Wrong. Survey says that employees are not authorised to handled the situation. Call 9-1-1 immediately.

I was considered a smart aleck for suggesting that someone shout "fire!" to co-workers and mgt before picking up a telephone.


Enron, that is why I now live in the country. people actually stop to help each other change flats. They wave. and if smoke is pouring out of your garage, they come running (of course, some of them are probably hoping it's a barbeque!)

Folks in the sticks still think for themselves, which is why I love redneck america.

Rant did a thread a month or so ago on that very topic. The folks who still try to run their own businesses that have signs in their yards saying "Guns Smithed" or "Home-grown Tomatoes" or "We deal beanie-babies".

I am in agreement with Gardenia to a certain extent.

I have made a detailed post about this subject before (see link below). My point was the possibility of ulterior motives behind the political/legal systems accommodation for such asinine behaviour insofar as any claimant being legally compensated for such idiotic actions.

Is the perception that the general public are unable to come to the most basic of conclusions regarding their own safety a calculated and desired outcome of such behaviour?

If so, is the greed and stupidity of such people being relied upon to hasten a desired result, and are those who bring such actions damaging our society? I believe so.

Rather that fill this thread with what is already posted, if desired you can read my opinions here .

Jack

You have to admit, some of the instructions do provide a good chuckle in otherwise dull and boring days (will prob get into trouble for the language on this sign...oh well, it's worth it hehe

At my POE, there is a shredder with three "no-no" symbols on it. You know, the circle with the bar from upper right to lower left.

The first is a staple. Fine no staples it is.

The next picture is a hand. Gee, so much for getting a manicure there.

The third one though, is a picture of a necktie with the "no-no" line through it.

So, were they just being funny, or do people really not pay attention to their neckties and shredders, or is this sort of an office prank that goes horribly wrong? I think one of the safety engineers has had too many steak dinners at Trail Dust.

+++++++++

Farm work is the second most dangerous US occupation, after mining. I farmed on and off for people since I was in junior high.

I used to work on ranches, and I'm trying to google some of the quite graphic safety symbols on farm machinery. There were days on the tractor where you'd be bailing hay and just kept staring at those signs, freaking yourself out. at first I thought it was me, but other workers and even the landowner commented on it.

The two that stick in my head are as follows.

On the cowling over the drive shaft for a hay bailer: not a "no-no" symbol, just a symbol of an arm and hand, wrapped around the drive-shaft like a corkscrew.

The other one was of a hand too close to two intermeshing gears. The fingers are just stumps, and what are obviously fingertips are flying out the other side of the gear, in the same order they would have come off the hand.

It was a John Deere machine, but I can't find the decals on their sites. Too bad, it'd freak y'all out, too.

"Warning - cape does not enable wearer to fly."

Maybe all the labels and stuff do some help. Apparently Pakistan just had a big kite celebration thing where everyone in the country flies kites. Twelve people were killed by kites or kite-related accidents in one day.

love the sign LordGoofus

Originally posted by dr_strangecraft
Enron, that is why I now live in the country. people actually stop to help each other change flats. They wave. and if smoke is pouring out of your garage, they come running (of course, some of them are probably hoping it's a barbeque!)

Rant did a thread a month or so ago on that very topic. The folks who still try to run their own businesses that have signs in their yards saying "Guns Smithed" or "Home-grown Tomatoes" or "We deal beanie-babies".

You made a lot of excellent points - and I do understand that many of these warnings and precautions are there for our own safety...a blatant example of what happens when you ignore those are in your story about the idiot who was in a rush and tried to avoid the road block...but the other examples I think are of ones where pure ignorance comes into play...the guy in the car new better, but the other people just had no friggin clue.

It makes you wonder whether or not a label on this or that truly makes that much of a difference to this ilk of our species...can they read? would they read it even if they could?

I don't know a descent American who wouldn't help a stranger when they're in need, but I do know plenty of the same people who will ignore this need with the assumption that there will be another person behind me that will help...and everyone behind him has the same thing in their mind...it's only those select few with nerves of steal and a geniune desire to help that make a difference...

But that's looking at this from a more morbid perspective...with real-life risks and threats that occur every day to people who are simply not "in the know", or caught in something they can't get out of alone...a tragedy...but on the flip side there are those, like the lady who sued McDonald's, who demand these warnings out of greed and a special reserved kind of ignorance that no doubt ages like wine...

Can there not be a law imposed on these people pre-law suit....an official document we can hand them that says "hey, you're an idiot for thinking you can do this and get away with, and here's the proof" Sure it's easy to ignore the signs and the labels...but it's not as easy to ignore the childish implications of our intelligence or the stir it creates in the media...

If nothing else...can we not at least resort to the gut-busting humor of Japanese Engrish...



[edit on 9/24/2004 by EnronOutrunHomerun]

Ya gotta love this one...never read a book while you should be tending to your crispy and well-done steaks...

Or how about this one...

It means, if your caretaker lets go of your wheelchair in attempt to secure your inheritance he left for his only "true friend," forget it buddy, b/c his family will sue your ass off for their rightful money after they can properly ID him from the reminents of the gator's bowls...

[edit on 9/24/2004 by EnronOutrunHomerun]

One of the best I've seen was at Dulles Airport outside of Washington DC. I shound have snapped a picture of it, and now I can't get into the airport far enough to snap a pic without a ticket...

It was in the women's restroom on the sanitary pad machine, and depicted a hand reaching up into the machine to steal pads without paying, and the fingers were all severed and bleeding and starting to tumble back out of the machine. It was more graphic than I expected a warning sign to be - don't usually see bloody stump fingers on those things.

Another classic was at Fatima in Portugal - there was about 12 different "do not" symbols, and one with a woman dressed rather whorish with her boobs and cleavage showing and a super miniskirt on.

Let's not overlook the silica gel pellets that come in clothes pockets, shoes, electronics.. DO NOT EAT! As if I was thinking there was free candy in the toe of my new shoes.

Originally posted by RedBalloon
Let's not overlook the silica gel pellets that come in clothes pockets, shoes, electronics.. DO NOT EAT! As if I was thinking there was free candy in the toe of my new shoes.

I've heard that a good practical joke to pull with those things is to put the packet in a bag of chips or cookies and let them dry out - lol....yeah, I guess it's not funny though when you have to go buy a new bag...lol

I remember I saw these spoofs not too long after the DHS opened on the new anti-terror signs they created...the last few ones are especially hilarious...where in the hell are these signs now? Are they even being used? Who in the hell would take time out of their busy terrorist attack escape to read a sign and make sure their doing things the official way?!
www.uspoliticsforum.com...


[edit on 9/24/2004 by EnronOutrunHomerun]

HAHA! They're at it again!

[url=http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/09/29/burger.lawyer/index.html]http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/09/29/burger.lawyer/index.html[/ url]

The restaurant at the five-star Marriott West India Quay in London's Docklands required diners to complete a form which said it waived the hotel chain's responsibilities should they suffer food poisoning.

Here's my favoitr line which stands for everything I started this thread for in the first place:

Nick Scade, chairman of the Restaurant Association, said: "It strikes me that some corporate person has got their knickers in a twist.

"You've got to have a bit of common sense somewhere in life and if a customer wants to order raw meat, they have to accept some responsibility for the risk they are taking."

Of course, being in the culinary industry myself, I know this is not some "rare" or new case of a restaurant covering their ass...but still...ya gotta love it...


EDIT: For some reason I can't get that link to work...I know it looks like there's a space in there on the end code, but it's not there when I try to edit it...anyways...if you're interested, you can C&P it...

[edit on 9/29/2004 by EnronOutrunHomerun]