Lost in Translation?

[Woody Elmore]

rogertra - I am not criticizing the dual spelling on CN cars. Also, as kids, we thought that "retire quickly" was hilarious.  Did they need to tell you that?

[rogertra]

I didn't mean to imply that you were criticizing the dual spelling on CN cars. I just wondered why you'd mentioned it.

As for "retire to safe distance", why do they need to tell you?  : -

"Contents hot" when you buy coffee or apple strudels from MacBloats?

"Do not use in shower." -- On a hair dryer.

"This product not intended for use as a dental drill." -- On an electric rotary tool.

"Caution: Do not spray in eyes." -- On a container of underarm deodorant.

"Caution! Contents hot!" -- On a Domino's Pizza box.

Etc., etc... 

Because some people are stupid and if they don't put these unneeded warnings on products, the manufacturer gets sued by the stupid people's lawyers.    :-)

[railsider]

Yo answer Roger T.'s question, "Why do they have to tell you?" ... two reasons:

1]  Some people are dumb enough not to realize that you need to be somewhere else when a firecracker goes "boom"  ... and similar stupidities. If you don't believe it, just ask an emergency room doctor sometime.

3]  And some of those people ... or their surviving heirs ... are selfish enough to decide to sue the maker, seller or anyone else connected to a product that does what it's designed to do, and causes stupid people who don't have common sense to get hurt.

For those two reasons, the lawyers for the companies that make, sell, or have anything to do with potentially dangerous (if misused) products insist on leaving no stone of stupidity unturned in protecting themselves from lawsuits (I won't go into the motivations for the lawyers who file those damage suits ... they, too, are just doing what they were designed to do, regardless of stupid users).

It would be a better world if we did not have those dumb things all around us, but we do, so we have to do what we can to protect ourselves. In a perfect world, nonsense like this would not be outlawed -- that's impractical -- but would be unnecessary and even unthinkable.

And the idiotic instructions "clawed back into English" to use Mark Twain's memorable phrase, would be a thing of the past if we had a single, universal  auxiliary language that everyone used for all intercultural and international communication, with the same vocabulary, spelling and grammar everywhere. Just like the metric system of measurements and the law of gravity.

To keep this train-related: it's analogous to the concept of standard track gauge, which meant that cars can go anywhere in the country without having to unload.

Happy rails to you..............................................................

[Johnson Bar Jeff]

Because some people are stupid and if they don't put these unneeded warnings on products, the manufacturer gets sued by the stupid people's lawyers.    :-)

Of course, you know why sharks never attack lawyers, don't you? Professional courtesy. ...

[Stephen D. Richards]

Jim,     exactly!

Jeff,     the Sharks just use the excuse of "Professional Courtesy."  Frankly, lawyers taste too bad.      Stephen