Northwest Dive Club

I bought a very complicated and sensitive piece of diving equipment last week and when I opened the package it came with the following (paraphrased only a little bit) message affixed: "Warning! After each dive completely disassemble and rinse in fresh water."



And what is this delicate and essential piece of diving equipment?




A STAINLESS WEIGHT BELT BUCKEL. Specifically, according to the manufacturer I should remove the buckle from the webbing prior to rinsing. This has got to be attorney driven right? Either that or its really bad quality stainless and then I'll be really mad. I'll inspect it now and then for surface corrosion but it ain't coming off the belt unless Mike Nelson cuts it off after cutting my right air hose. Geesh!

I've been a working carpenter since 1984. I've witnessed the rise of the nanny state first hand. I've seen so many stupid, non-sensical warnings on stuff, I've become kind of numb to it. "Do not point nail gun at eyes", and so forth. I bought a new chalk box a while back- For those of you who don't know, it's a small container full of marking chalk and a string on a reel:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chalk_line

You stretch it out across whatever you're trying to put a staight line on, snap the string by pulling it away from the surface a little bit, and let go of it. The string leaves a nice, straight chalk mark on whatever you're working with. Carpentry 101. It's also about as benign and harmless a tool as you could hope for. It's a freaking piece of string. With (non-toxic) chalk.

Anyway, I recently noticed that the lawyers had put some warnings on the packaging: "Wear ear and eye protection at all times when using this tool."

Thank god. I've lost track of the number of senseless ear and eye injuries I've seen inflicted by these little devils over the years.

I bought a pair of dive rite trauma shears Titanium coated none the less that had the same warning as your buckle including a warning to oil them after every use. A few dives later I took them out of the pocket and they were rusted shut. Pi** poor steel and this from a brand name not a cheap knock off. I cleaned them up, oiled them and a couple of days later I went to trim a piece of 2" webbing and the blade broke. :angry: :angry:

Figure out how to injure yourself with a Cotton Ball and they'll write a warning label for that too.....

Warning! This cotton ball is not for human consumption.

I think my favorite is the big sticker on the side of every bucket, warning you that if you put water in it, your small children may drown. Especially the ones on the cat litter buckets, which are full of . . . CAT LITTER. Something you're unlikely to put water in, if you're smart.

The purified water we buy for our lab has a warning label that demands one to wear eye protection.
OH NO--WATCH OUT FOR THAT WATER!

Some years back I had a friend from Germany staying at my home. He noticed my Stihl chainsaw and commented that he had one just like it at home. Then he noticed the operator manual. Flipping through the 100+ page manual he commented that the one he had at home was only 18 pages ... "It doesn't come with all these silly warnings".

I guess the folks who make all these products really do believe that stupid is contagious ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Reminds me of a book I read umpteen years ago about an asteroid miner, yep it was SF. He was very thankful that after that nonsense of the "Troubled Times" the government abandoned all warning signs AND all limits on liability for actions that damaged others. It made life and fortune a lot easier.

Seems that once all the nanny warnings went away Darwin took over and people became very cautious and responsible for their own safey. Once there was no limit on liability all the gaming of the law and economics ceased because people who did nasties to others or who put out deceptive and defective products were put out of business.

It was SF but I've often thought the author was on to something.

Pez7378 wrote:Figure out how to injure yourself with a Cotton Ball and they'll write a warning label for that too.....

Warning! This cotton ball is not for human consumption.

Hold on here.....You're not supposed to eat those?

ORDiver wrote:

Pez7378 wrote:Figure out how to injure yourself with a Cotton Ball and they'll write a warning label for that too.....
Warning! This cotton ball is not for human consumption.

Hold on here.....You're not supposed to eat those?

There. This should cover it:

Heck, where Pez works they have signs over the urinals that say "Please do not eat the big white mints".....

John Rawlings wrote:Heck, where Pez works they have signs over the urinals that say "Please do not eat the big white mints".....

Urinals?

Guy next to me in the men's room at a REI in another state....texting as he does his business....drops phone while trying to readjust his clothing....catches it just as it impacts the porcelain....comments: "They ought to warn a guy that could happen".

ArcticDiver wrote:Urinals?

Guy next to me in the men's room at a REI in another state....texting as he does his business....drops phone while trying to readjust his clothing....catches it just as it impacts the porcelain....comments: "They ought to warn a guy that could happen".

"Caution: if you are a total retard do not try to use your phone and play with yourself here at the same time."

Just saw a commercial for some insurance company. Would you believe they had a guy drop a phone into a urinal?

What an intersection.

I think the warning label on a Re-breather is the best.
Kind of Funny and Scary at the same time.

In the theme of warnings I wonder what kind of warnings would be issued today about one of my early jobs. I flew checkouts on airplanes that had just come out of major maintenance and ferryed airplanes that had been in some type of accident but were still flyable to a repair facility. In today's world I'll bet the warnings and the associated paperwork would double the thing's gross weight.

It will all end when people stop ordering HOT coffee and spilling it on themselves and then complaining the coffee was HOT.
A responsible person wouldn't sue Mcdonald's, they'd take the life lesson that HOT coffee is HOT and be more careful in the future.

One word: Lawyers

Two words: Tort Reform

Last word (for me, anyway): Please.

Tom Nic wrote:One word: Lawyers

Two words: Tort Reform

Last word (for me, anyway): Please.

One word: agreed

Two alternate words: shoot lawyers

The lawyers are a symptom, though; the cause are all the stupid people without any shame or sense. I can't believe the stupid shit that people 1)admit to doing and 2)try to blame someone else for. When I do something stupid, I try to cover that shit up, not scream it from the rooftops and point to someone else!

This culture needs to have more shame in relation to stupidity, less in many other areas.

BASSMAN wrote:I think the warning label on a Re-breather is the best.
Kind of Funny and Scary at the same time.

Hey! What are you doing posting pictures of my rebreather????? I'm gonna sue!!!! :angry:

I am both amused and disgusted. I can't even think of a story to "one-up" anyone right now.

The lack of personal responsibility and the increased sense entitlement can be completely blamed on the apathy of Darwin.

early 90's, I think it was one of the blue collar commedians ; I heard part of a bit about warning labels

it is a warning because someone HAS already done it. He then sugessted a shirt for these people to wear to remind themselves that they should think BEFORE they do anything