AP: Warnings best left unspoken

[question everything]

Warnings best left unspoken

ASSOCIATED PRESS

January 7, 2006

DETROIT – A warning that consumers shouldn't use a heat gun that produces temperatures of 1,000 degrees as a hair dryer has won a group's award for the wackiest label of the year. The Wacky Warning Label Contest is conducted by Michigan Lawsuit Abuse Watch to show the effects of lawsuits on warning labels.

Second prize was awarded for a label on a kitchen knife that warns: "Never try to catch a falling knife."

Third prize went to a warning on a cocktail napkin with a map of the waterways around Hilton Head Island, S.C.: "Not to be used for navigation."

A warning on a bottle of dried bobcat urine used to keep pests away from garden plants that said "Not for human consumption" won an honorable mention.



Find this article at:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060107/news_1n7wacky.html

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Warning for freepers who file frivolous lawsuits otherwise called

strict products liability actions.

[Flabbergasted]

2. I predict Never Try to Catch a Falling Knife

will be a new saying for the Right.

[unblock]

3. funny, but sadly, most such warnings ARE appropriate

the fact of the matter is that there are some amazingly stupid people out there, and also plenty of people who are amazingly stupid when drunk or whatever.

i don't know if anyone has ever tried to do a study on the effectiveness of silly warnings like this, but i bet they do, in fact, save lives.

of course, then there's the darwin argument....

[havocmom]

7. Problem with warnings for idiots is more idiots live to breeding age

which does seem to be bringing down the general intelligence of our species.

Tough call: at what point do we stop taking care of others, thereby making the world safe for dip-shits? We want to look out for the less functional, but are we subverting natural selection when we do too much in that effort? :evilgrin:

In my old age, thinking there is getting to be a bit too much algae in the gene pool ;)

[unblock]

8. the thing is, a lot of this is not indicative of the person

a lot of people who die from these things are not necessarily the kind of stupid that you would want removed from the gene pool, even if you were to subscribe to that kind of thinking.

much of it is someone else's stupidity (note how many non-drunks are killed by drunk drivers, e.g.) and also momentary lapses of reason in otherwise normal people (e.g. drunk, again).

[giant_robot]

4. My favorite is an oldie but a goodie.

On a Batman costume: Cape does not give wearer the ability to fly.

[question everything]

9. LOL. Hard to believe that such is necessary (nt)

[catnhatnh]

5. My favorite ever.....

....on a slider type window I put in an addition...the window was large enough to be a legal "second exit" for emergency egress...and as the warning label clearly stated-"in case of fire open window, then exit....".

[lumpy]

6. 'not to be used for navigation'

I was actually on board a boat (Puget Sound) who's owner used a chart printed on a placemat. Scariest boating weekend ever. Could write a book.

[question everything]

10. Got this email about the "Stella Award" don't know how much of it,

if at all, is true.

Stupid people: In life and on Juries!

It's time once again to review the winners of the Annual "Stella Awards." The Stella Awards are named after 81 year-old Stella Liebeck who spilled hot coffee on herself and successfully sued McDonald's (in NM).

That case inspired the Stella awards for the most frivolous, ridiculous, successful lawsuits in the United States. Here are this year's winners:

5th Place (tie):
Kathleen Robertson of Austin, Texas, was awarded $80,000 by a jury of her peers after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler who was running inside a furniture store. The owners of the store were understandably surprised at the verdict, considering the misbehaving little toddler was Ms. Robertson's son.

5th Place (tie)
:
19-year-old Carl Truman of Los Angeles won $74,000 and medical expenses when his neighbor ran over his hand with a Honda Accord. Mr. Truman apparently didn't notice there was someone at the wheel of the car when he was trying to steal his neighbor's hubcaps.

5th Place (tie):
Terrence Dickson of Bristol, Pennsylvania, was leaving a house he had just finished robbing by way of the garage. He was not able to get the garage door to go up since the automatic door opener was malfunctioning. He couldn't re-enter the house because the door connecting the house and garage locked when he pulled it shut. The family was on vacation, and Mr. Dickson found himself locked in the garage for eight days. He subsisted on a case of Pepsi he found, and a large bag of dry dog food. He sued the homeowner's insurance claiming the situation caused him undue mental anguish. The jury agreed to the tune of $500,000.

4th Place:
Jerry Williams of Little Rock, Arkansas, was awarded $14,500 and medical expenses after being bitten on the buttocks by his next door neighbor's beagle. The beagle was on a chain in its owner's fenced yard. The! award was less than sought because the jury felt the dog might have been just a little provoked at the time by Mr. Williams who had climbed over the fence into the yard and was shooting it repeatedly with a pellet gun.

3rd Place:
A Philadelphia restaurant was ordered to pay Amber Carson of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, $113,500 after she slipped on a soft drink and broke her coccyx (tail bone). The beverage was on the floor because Ms. Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier during an argument.

2nd Place:
Kara Walton of Claymont, Delaware, successfully sued the owner of a night club in a neighboring city when she fell from the bathroom window to the floor and knocked out her two front teeth. This occurred while Ms.Walton was trying to sneak through the window in the ladies room to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge. She was awarded $12,000 and dental expenses.

1st Place:
This year's run away winner was Mrs. Merv Grazinski of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Mrs. Grazinski purchased a brand new 32-foot Winnebago motor home. On her first trip home, (from an OU football game), having driven onto the freeway, she set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the driver's seat to go into the back & make herself a sandwich. Not surprisingly, the RV left the freeway, crashed and overturned. Mrs.Grazinski sued Winnebago for not advising her in the owner's manual that she couldn't actually do this. The jury awarded her $1,750,000 plus a new motor home. The company actually changed their manuals on the basis of this suit, just in case there were any other complete morons!

[Yollam]

11. I don't see the heat gun one as wacky at all.

Looks an awful lot like an old-timey hair dyer to me. I wouldn't be surprised if people had been burned by these. If it prevents one burn, I'm all for the label.

[Yollam]

12. I just want to kick this one more time, for a reason.

I do think it's important that we as progressives cast a more critical eye on reports like this, whether it be "silly" warning labels, or stories about "frivolous" lawsuits. On the surface, they may seem innocuous and funny, but for the most part, these reports are coming from organizations with an agenda aimed at destroying the American citizenry's avenues of legal recourse against irresponsible corporations. They cherry-pick the rare "frivolous" lawsuit to strengthen the false notion that these lawsuits are common and are wrecking the capitalist system or jacking up healthcare costs, when the truth is that frivolous lawsuits by definition are to be thrown out of court by the judge, and only a miniscule fraction of health care costs has anything to do with legal costs.

Remember the story about how McDonald's had to "pay some dumb woman $10 mil" because she got burned with some coffee?

Her settlement was reduced to $480K, and she endured 3rd degree burns on her thighs and groin because McD's kept it's coffee at least 20 degrees hotter than other restaurants. You may still disagree with the outcome, but this case was not typical, and the conventional wisdom about the facts surrounding it is incorrect.

http://lawandhelp.com/q298-2.htm

So when you laugh about the heat gun, please keep in mind that there probably is some 7 year old kid out there who got a third degree burn from one of these things, thinking it was a blow dryer. A warning label is inexpensive and may save someone from needless suffering.