Funny Texts or Situations, Poor Designs, etc.

1: 20050711-172222.jpg - July 11, 2005 @ 17:22:22
Arizona, between Lake Powell and Page, a probably very important sign. Later I've heard that the area containing the highway can be referred to as "highway right of way" [credit to Hans Jørgen Munkholm]. It still seems like a really weird name to me, but I guess the sign makes more sense then.

2: 20050910-183002.jpg - September 10, 2005 @ 18:30:02
Bjerringbro, "Pedestrian Street Zone - all traffic permitted"; interesting way to define a pedestrian area.

3: 20050913-165344.jpg - September 13, 2005 @ 16:53:44
Instructions for how to use a model speed boat - making everything crystal clear...

4: 20051227-093303.jpg - December 27, 2005 @ 9:33:03
Oven. Beautiful design, isn't it! See close-up below.

5: 20051227-093315.jpg - December 27, 2005 @ 9:33:03
Imagine somebody found the oven settings like this and wanted to turn it on to standard oven function and set it to 50 Celcius (about 120 Fahrenheit) just to keep some pancakes on a dish towel warm until serving. This person could conceivably conclude the following after glancing at the left knob. It is in the "off" position and to the right is the symbol everybody knows to means "hot air", i.e., regular heat, but a ventilator is going. Thus, the symbol to the left must be the regular setting (you may have to click on the pictures to enlargen it). The person chooses this setting. Next, the knob to the right is turned a little bit clockwise (about 45 degrees) to reach the desired temperature. The hypothetical person turned out to be rather (hypothecially) chocked when the dish towel started burning!

If you have not already figured it out, here is why the person was surprised: The knob to the left has multiple settings, going pretty much all the way around the knob! However, whereas the grayish symbols for these setting are sort of visible on the black background, they are a challenge to spot on the white background. Thus, the conclusion above was incorrect. The standard setting was somewhere on the white background and the setting to the left was broil ("grill")! Additionally, the person using the oven before had it on a temperature of 200 Celcius (almost 400 Fahrenheit). This turns out to be exactly half a turn of the temperature knob to the right. Thus, the knob to the right was not in the initial position (which a hypothetical person might conclude if he was in a hurry) just because it was in (one of the two) vertical settings. Of course, if one actually studies the knobs, they are marked to indicate this. However, in this hypothetical situation, the temperature was turned to 250 Celcius (about 480 Fahrenheit). The dish towel (and the pancakes) were of high quality, but this temperature - and broil - was a little too much...

6: 20060707-143733.jpg - July 7, 2006 @ 14:37:33
This sign was placed in a hotel in California where we stayed; and ate in their restaurant... Later I noticed this sign several places so it must be some weird Californian law.

7: 20060716-144610.jpg - July 16, 2006 @ 14:46:10
It's incredible how many streets in the US are named after this apparently memorable Chinese Mr. Xing. Well, actually I'm used to this sign now, but when I first came to the US, my first reaction was that I'd never heard "Ped" as a first name for a Chinese person...

8: 20070528-100307.jpg - May 28, 2007 @ 10:03:07
First of all... it's not my car! This is from an express way exit. How they got the car into that position is a mystery to me...

9: 20070703-175933.jpg - July 3, 2007 @ 17:59:33
Taken at a Chili's Restaurant: why just tow when there are so many other options...

10: 20070812-120325.jpg - August 12, 2007 @ 12:03:25
Taken on I-15 in California. Is this designed by a mathematician or by someone who wants to be listed last alphabetically? Actually Wikipedia has the (long) answer.

11: 20071118-100343.jpg - November 18, 2007 @ 10:03:43
Legoland, California: Yes, Volvo owners do have speciel privileges here.

12: 20071118-142120.jpg - November 18, 2007 @ 14:21:20
Legoland, California: an even clearer pictogram than the usual.

13: 20071118-142201.jpg - November 18, 2007 @ 14:22:01
Legoland, California: and the other sex...

14: 20071118-170633.jpg - November 18, 2007 @ 17:06:33
Legoland, California: distances in the relevant units. The distance to Tipperary is hidden, but it's of course "a long way"...

15: 20080719-155644.jpg - July 19, 2008 @ 15:56:44
Hawaii: serious problems clearly vary from location to location...

16: 20081011-185630.jpg - October 11, 2008 @ 18:56:30
A surprising ingredient, "spiritus", in this non-alcoholic chocolate from Kastrup Airport.

19: 20081014-165011.jpg - October 14, 2008 @ 16:50:11
Well... in Denmark, there are beer vending machines. This is from Rome...

17: 20081015-191018.jpg - October 15, 2008 @ 19:10:18
Very comforting with the adjective describing the mushrooms...

18: 20081018-180922.jpg - October 18, 2008 @ 18:09:22
Maybe we should do our best to avoid that the dinner gets into an argument with my shorts...

19: 20090723-103205.jpg - July 23, 2009 @ 10:32:05
This looks really amusing to a Dane, but - believe me - this instruction is necessary in North America, where everybody's used to pushing down on something...

20: 20090806-124506.jpg - August 6, 2009 @ 12:45:06
A fairly amusing collection of signs in connection with a dinasour exhibit at Brookfield Zoo in the Chicago area.

21: 20090806-124540.jpg - August 6, 2009 @ 12:45:40
Continued...

22: 20090806-124604.jpg - August 6, 2009 @ 12:46:04
Continued...

23: 20090806-125910.jpg - August 6, 2009 @ 12:59:10
Continued...

24: 20090806-130119.jpg - August 6, 2009 @ 13:01:19
Continued...

25: 20100720-161206.jpg - July 20, 2010 @ 16:12:06
I wouldn't naturally be alarmed, but maybe when you live in downtown Chicago... This was from the filming of Transformers 3.

26: 20180207-065735.jpg - February 7, 2018 @ 6:57:35
An impressively poorly designed sign. It's placed on the middle floor and the text pertaining to that floor is in the middle of the sign. However, the lower floor text is written on top and the top floor text at the bottom of the sign. Despite of the indicators, everybody gets confused. This is partly due to the fact that the multi-level arrangement throughout the university makes it hard to decide which floor is which, but still...

27: 20180306-131253.jpg - March 6, 2018 @ 13:12:53
The joy of being around young, funny people all day: The course on flow, meditation, and tranquility is canceled due to stress. :)

28: 20231020-190516.jpg - October 20, 2023 @ 19:05:16
Flying SAS, I was trying to decipher the message on the coffee cup. The way I read it, they explain that the cup should not be crumbled up and thrown away (red and a line across); instead, you should throw it into the ocean to the turtles. However, it's really too much trouble to make it to an ocean - not least one with turtles - so despite the carefully crafted instructions, I think I'll just crumble it up and throw it into the trash.