Where I worked in a very large plant we had equipment from all over the world. Reading instructions could be right interesting. What really bugged me was the different standards. US standard was red for off and green for on. Then we got in the imported stuff where red was power on and not safe and green was power off and safe to open the electrical cabinet door. That made us ignore all the color codes.
Some of my favourites come from translations on signs and products:
We apologize your activities disturbed due to construction of groin
DANGER A dangerous toy. This toy is being made for the extreme priority the good looks. The little part which suffocates when the sharp part which gets hurt is swallowed is contained generously. Only the person who can take responsibility by itself is to play
Do not use elevator when causing fire.
Because there is danger that it is involved in a dolphin , Please do not grow a hand in a fence.
Keep out of children.
My father had been an electrician in a shipyard for a while. That didn't translate well to residential color coding so I learned to be cautious. I was also an adult before I knew people have expectations about which side the hot water tap is on.
I was in LA after a winter storm blew though and briefly cleared the air. 'Hot s*it! I didn't know there were mountains!'
My favorite verse:
Pollution! Pollution! You can use the latest toothpaste, then rinse your mouth with Industrial waste.
Well, yes, but you're supposed to read the label on top of the tap. Everyone knows that C means hot.
Been there, done that in Quebec. And F means frigging cold.
A company I worked for had two taps in the washroom that were both labelled "C", my cow-orker pointed it out to me and told me which was which. I thanked him and pointed out that they we properly labelled as 'Cold' and 'Chaud'
I've used Google translate to several languages including Russian to speak to friends, and they've never found it that inaccurate.
Where I worked we hired Irish electricians (an oxymoron) to extend the building. So half the building had UK wiring and half had EU wiring. Different colours. In particular the black wire could either be neutral or one of the live phases. When one of the "electricians" connected two phases instead of a phase and neutral to a room of computers, interesting things happened. I ripped off their insurance company though, so it had a happy ending.
Sissy.
Doesn't work when the letter or colour is worn off, or you're in a hurry.
Are you in a time warp? I recognized my deathless prose but that post was from 2 July.
Due to changing newsreader or newsserver I had an incorrect setting for detecting replies to me. When I corrected it, 3 months of old stuff appeared it wasn't previously detecting.
If your prose is deathless, then it doesn't matter if I reply in 400 years.
Due to changing newsreader or newsserver I had an incorrect setting for detecting replies to me. When I corrected it, 3 months of old stuff appeared it wasn't previously detecting.
If your prose is deathless, then it doesn't matter if I reply in 400 years.
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