You can't make this stuff up!

Chateau Razed by mistake! How could this happen?

Has anyone called Inspector Clouseau? Was the term "raze" or 'rise' in best Clouseau accent.

It was only 140,000 square feet compared to a much smaller out building that was to come down. Wonder if the construction firm will issue a change order for an increased demolition fee.

Best,

Dave


Residents of a sleepy French village in Bordeaux have been left dumbfounded after discovering their local 18th-century chateau was completely bulldozed "by mistake."

The mayor's office in Yvrac said Wednesday that workers who were hired to renovate the grand 13,000-square-meter (140,000-square-foot) manor and raze a small building on the same estate in southwest France mixed them up.

"The Chateau de Bellevue was Yvrac's pride and joy," said former owner Juliette Marmie. "The whole village is in shock. How can this construction firm make such a mistake?"

Read more: http://host.madison.com/news/weird-news/...l#ixzz2EHn6zAhY



http://tinyurl.com/b4ubkju
 
Let's see, drinking beer and watching boxing while ironing: what could go wrong?

Best,

Dave
============================================================================
Husband makes a bad call with the iron
Matthew Day in Warsaw
A Polish man has burnt the side of his head while doing housework after mistaking the iron for a phone.

Tomasz Paczkowski, from the northern Polish town of Elblag, is now swathed in bandages after his wife asked him to help with the housework while he enjoyed a few days off work.

"My wife had gone to work," the 32-year old told the Polish newspaper Fakt. "After breakfast I started to work. I turned on the boxing channel on the TV, opened a beer and started ironing.

"I was really getting involved in the boxing and was not really thinking about what I was doing.
Advertisement

"Suddenly the phone rang and I mucked things up.

"Instead of grabbing the receiver I picked up the iron and put it to my ear." Mr Paczkowski said a burning sensation on his ear soon made him realise his mistake.

To compound his misfortune, he hit his head on a door frame while dashing to the bathroom to cool his burn with water. He suffered an injury just above the left eye.

Mr Paczkowski said he would give up watching boxing on the television but would continue to iron.


http://www.smh.com.au/world/strangebutt ... 2bb15.html
 
Montreal ordinance may require dogs to be multi-lingual (g)

Best,

Dave
==============================================
Earlier this week, Montreal city councilor Benoit LaDouce proposed a bylaw that would require all dogs in public parks to be bi-lingual. According to Mr. LaDouce, "Dogs parks in our city are chaotic and communication is at the heart of the conflict." In his mind, K9/citizen relations would be more harmonious if dogs in public spaces understood commands in both English and French. Earlier today Pat Kelly spoke with Mr. LaDouce to find out more. Download Flash Player to view this content. We want to know what you think: Should dogs in Montreal be required to learn both official languages? Post your thoughts in the comments below or tweet us @CBCThisIsThat. Should dogs in Montreal be required to learn both official languages in order to be in public parks? http://tinyurl.com/bd27ycf
 
Dave Siciliano said:
Montreal ordinance may require dogs to be multi-lingual (g)

Best,

Dave
==============================================
Earlier this week, Montreal city councilor Benoit LaDouce proposed a bylaw that would require all dogs in public parks to be bi-lingual. According to Mr. LaDouce, "Dogs parks in our city are chaotic and communication is at the heart of the conflict." In his mind, K9/citizen relations would be more harmonious if dogs in public spaces understood commands in both English and French. Earlier today Pat Kelly spoke with Mr. LaDouce to find out more. Download Flash Player to view this content. We want to know what you think: Should dogs in Montreal be required to learn both official languages? Post your thoughts in the comments below or tweet us @CBCThisIsThat. Should dogs in Montreal be required to learn both official languages in order to be in public parks? http://tinyurl.com/bd27ycf
Click to expand...

I've done a lot of business in Quebec, does not surprise me at all. Everything is bilingual. Why should dogs be any different
 
Dave Siciliano said:
Montreal ordinance may require dogs to be multi-lingual (g)

Best,

Dave
==============================================
Earlier this week, Montreal city councilor Benoit LaDouce proposed a bylaw that would require all dogs in public parks to be bi-lingual. According to Mr. LaDouce, "Dogs parks in our city are chaotic and communication is at the heart of the conflict." In his mind, K9/citizen relations would be more harmonious if dogs in public spaces understood commands in both English and French. Earlier today Pat Kelly spoke with Mr. LaDouce to find out more. Download Flash Player to view this content. We want to know what you think: Should dogs in Montreal be required to learn both official languages? Post your thoughts in the comments below or tweet us @CBCThisIsThat. Should dogs in Montreal be required to learn both official languages in order to be in public parks? http://tinyurl.com/bd27ycf
Click to expand...

will they try that with cats?
 
Marauder said:
I've done a lot of business in Quebec, does not surprise me at all. Everything is bilingual. Why should dogs be any different
Click to expand...
Not everything is bilingual, some things are entirely in French. I remember going to a casino and being confused how to get my money out of a video blackjack machine. Luckily the woman next to me saw that I was confused and helped me out. :redface:
 
Here, we have a city issuing a speeding ticket to a parked (stopped) car. Oh, the humanity of it! The perfect storm of errs! But, the city's revenue seems to be higher.

Best,

Dave
==================================================================

By Scott Calvert, The Baltimore Sun

9:54 p.m. EST, December 12, 2012

The Baltimore City speed camera ticket alleged that the four-door Mazda wagon was going 38 miles per hour in a 25-mph zone — and that owner Daniel Doty owed $40 for the infraction.
But the Mazda wasn't speeding.
It wasn't even moving.
'Perfect storm' of errors caused speeding ticket to stopped car, police say 'Perfect storm' of errors caused speeding ticket to stopped car, police say
Speed camera violation case is dismissed Speed camera violation case is dismissed
Md. State Highway speed camera tickets spike overnight Md. State Highway speed camera tickets spike overnight.

The two photos printed on the citation as evidence of speeding show the car was idling at a red light with its brake lights illuminated. A three-second video clip also offered as evidence shows the car motionless, as traffic flows by on a cross street.

The camera that wrongly ticketed Doty on April 24 is in Northeast Baltimore in the 1700 block of E. Cold Spring Lane, at the intersection with Hillen Road. It is the seventh city speed camera that The Baltimore Sun has shown to have produced inaccurate citations bearing erroneous speed readings.

http://tinyurl.com/cpfx6y2
 
I don't really post these to take a position on any issue. I'm sure folks that do these things think they are perfectly reasonable. It's kind of a testimony to humanity. Sometimes, it's very interesting to see what we think is important, reasonable and desirable. I've certainly done things I thought were pretty dumb looking back, but at the time felt strongly about it. The diversity of what we see as a priority is interesting.

Dallas City Council listened to a proponent of doggie DNA testing to police doggy poop in the city. If an owner didn't pick it up, all dogs would be registered with the city and their DNA on record so we could track their poop and fine that dastardly, negligent owner. I'm sure that's very important to that gentlemen. I nominate him to be the head of doggy poop control in the city (g). Council didn't spend much time on it, but it's a matter of public record.

Best,

Dave
 
When asked by reporters how the other ear was burned, Mr. Paczkowski replied, "The fellow called back."

Dave Siciliano said:
Let's see, drinking beer and watching boxing while ironing: what could go wrong?

Best,

Dave
============================================================================
Husband makes a bad call with the iron
Matthew Day in Warsaw
A Polish man has burnt the side of his head while doing housework after mistaking the iron for a phone.

Tomasz Paczkowski, from the northern Polish town of Elblag, is now swathed in bandages after his wife asked him to help with the housework while he enjoyed a few days off work.

"My wife had gone to work," the 32-year old told the Polish newspaper Fakt. "After breakfast I started to work. I turned on the boxing channel on the TV, opened a beer and started ironing.

"I was really getting involved in the boxing and was not really thinking about what I was doing.
Advertisement

"Suddenly the phone rang and I mucked things up.

"Instead of grabbing the receiver I picked up the iron and put it to my ear." Mr Paczkowski said a burning sensation on his ear soon made him realise his mistake.

To compound his misfortune, he hit his head on a door frame while dashing to the bathroom to cool his burn with water. He suffered an injury just above the left eye.

Mr Paczkowski said he would give up watching boxing on the television but would continue to iron.


http://www.smh.com.au/world/strangebutt ... 2bb15.html
Click to expand...
 
Dave Siciliano said:
I don't really post these to take a position on any issue. I'm sure folks that do these things think they are perfectly reasonable. It's kind of a testimony to humanity. Sometimes, it's very interesting to see what we think is important, reasonable and desirable. I've certainly done things I thought were pretty dumb looking back, but at the time felt strongly about it. The diversity of what we see as a priority is interesting.

Dallas City Council listened to a proponent of doggie DNA testing to police doggy poop in the city. If an owner didn't pick it up, all dogs would be registered with the city and their DNA on record so we could track their poop and fine that dastardly, negligent owner. I'm sure that's very important to that gentlemen. I nominate him to be the head of doggy poop control in the city (g). Council didn't spend much time on it, but it's a matter of public record.

Best,

Dave
Click to expand...

Is DNA matching that cheap and easy now? I'd be impressed.
 
Dave Siciliano said:
Dallas City Council listened to a proponent of doggie DNA testing to police doggy poop in the city. If an owner didn't pick it up, all dogs would be registered with the city and their DNA on record so we could track their poop and fine that dastardly, negligent owner.
Click to expand...

What a load of crap...literally also.

Do you have coyote's around there? If so, you could plug up the system for decades with non registered dog type poo. I wonder how they can get all the coyote's registered.
 
Frank: Folks on our HOA board actually asked me about this (I'm a former board member and developer.) Lots of complaints in higher density areas about dog poop. Cats aren't controlled. I live with apartments a couple blocks down, then condos before SF detached. The apartment folks walk in the neighborhood and just let their dogs poop all over and the condos only have small common areas that one can't walk through and have clean feet.
So, I asked the HOA board members how they would enforce when non-owners walked over and didn't clean up afterwards. Of course, they couldn't.
They have signs out. Like almost everything in life, 5% of the folks are a problem and all the rest pay for it.

Best,

Dave
 
Dave Siciliano said:
Frank: Folks on our HOA board actually asked me about this (I'm a former board member and developer.) Lots of complaints in higher density areas about dog poop. Cats aren't controlled. I live with apartments a couple blocks down, then condos before SF detached. The apartment folks walk in the neighborhood and just let their dogs poop all over and the condos only have small common areas that one can't walk through and have clean feet.
So, I asked the HOA board members how they would enforce when non-owners walked over and didn't clean up afterwards. Of course, they couldn't.
They have signs out. Like almost everything in life, 5% of the folks are a problem and all the rest pay for it.

Best,

Dave
Click to expand...


I'm sure there are laws and fines applied in regards to picking up your dogs poo right? It's just a matter of enforcement. The answer is a neighborhood CCTV surveillance system.
 
fgcason said:
I've never seen a cat that can ignore terrier...well, not for long.
Click to expand...
I don't know what language my cat's listen to because as near as I can tell they never pay much attention to what I say in any language but WRT communicating with dogs they generally speak "Claws". I has one cat that would chase any dog out of our yard regardless of it's size. I'm sure there are some dogs who would join the dialog with "teeth" but fortunately none were ever encountered.
 
Henning said:
I'm sure there are laws and fines applied in regards to picking up your dogs poo right? It's just a matter of enforcement. The answer is a neighborhood CCTV surveillance system.
Click to expand...

Back in the 1970's NYC sidewalks were so filled with dog poop that it was difficult to walk anywhere without soiling your shoes or (in a head down mode) walking into telephone booths, etc. Solution: Invent the cell phone, remove the phone booths!

Yes, that happened but as Henning points out, the solution is enforcement. The City passed a city-wide pick-up-after-your-dog law, and the cops actually enforced it. There is surprising compliance!!!

There is the ubiquitous plastic deli-bag, which when put over your hand, allows picking up the poop and then throwing the bag into the trash. It works, and it is a hilarious but common site to see Mrs. GotRocks grabbing the poop from little Fifi while in her mink coat!

-Skip
 
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Skip Miller said:
Back in the 1970's NYC sidewalks were so filled with dog poop that it eas difficult to walk anywhere without soiling your shoes or (in a head down mode) walking into telephone booths, etc. Solution: Invent the cell phone, remove the phone booths!

Yes, that happened but as Henning points out, the solution is enforcement. The City passed a city-wide pick-up-after-your-dog law, and the cops actually enforced it. There is surprising compliance!!!

There is the ubiquitous plastic deli-bag, which when put over your hand, allows picking up the poop and then throwing the bag into the trash. It works, and it is a hilarious but common site to see Mrs. GotRocks grabbing the poop from little Fifi while in her mink coat!

-Skip
Click to expand...

Yep, just make the fines and punishment more miserable than the cleanup. NYC has a lot of beat cops and ladies in windows watching. Less densely surveiled by people, the more you do with web cams so people can monitor from wherever.
 
I remember those days in NYC when you had to be careful where you stepped. Funny because I don't remember there being many dogs around. Nowadays I spend quite a bit of time in San Francisco where there are plenty of dogs but no dog poo. I think part of it is driven by the laws but another part is peer pressure.
 
I like the part where her mate didn't remember if they bumped the light at all. Seems they were reaching climb max (g).

Best,

Dave
 
Dave Siciliano said:
New airline seat to function as toilet (g). I think they did make this one up and a radio commentator fell for it (pun intended)!

Best,

Dave
=========================================================

http://www.kfiam640.com/pages/stevengregory.html
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Uggg!!! Could you imagine?!? What if you were in the window seat with the obese person from the other thread in the middle wiping their ass?:yikes:
 
Well, of course, I'd of never used it, but wonder if some of the younger fellas might print the article and carry it around....you know, in case they need scientific proof at a critical time (g).

Best,

Dave
 
Another intersting one from "The Reader Over Your Shoulder" by Robert
Graves and Alan Hodge, better known from Nagel's essay rendering it in
symbolic logic notation in volume 3 of Newman's "The World of Mathematics".

From the Minutes of a Borough Council Meeting:

Councilor Trafford took exception to the proposed notice at the entrance of
South Park: No dogs must be brought to this Park except on a lead. He pointed
out that this order would not prevent an owner from releasing his pets, or
pet, from a lead when once safely inside the Park.

The Chairman (Colonel Vine): What alternative wording would you propose,
Councilor?

Councilor Trafford: Dogs are not allowed in this Park without leads.

Councilor Hogg: Mr. Chairman, I object. The order should be addressed to the
owners, not to the dogs.

Councilor Trafford: That is a nice point. Very well then: Owners of dogs are
not allowed in this Park unless they keep them on leads.

Councilor Hogg: Mr. Chairman, I object. Strictly speaking, this would prevent
me as a dog-owner from leaving my dog in the back-garden at home and walking
with Mrs. Hogg across the Park.

Councilor Trafford: Mr. Chairman, I suggest that our legalistic friend be
asked to redraft the notice himself.

Councilor Hogg: Mr. Chairman, since Councilor Trafford finds it so difficult
to improve on my original wording, I accept. Nobody without his dog on a lead
is allowed in this Park.

Councilor Trafford: Mr. Chairman, I object. Strictly speaking, this notice
would prevent me, as a citizen, who owns no dog, from walking in the Park
without first acquiring one.

Councilor Hogg (with some warmth): Very simply, then: Dogs must be led in
this Park.

Councilor Trafford: Mr. Chairman, I object: this reads as if it were a
general injunction to the Borough to lead their dogs into the Park.

Councilor Hogg interposed a remark for which he was called to order; upon his
withdrawing it, it was directed to be expunged from the Minutes.

The Chairman: Councilor Trafford, Councilor Hogg has had three tries; you
have had only two . . . .

Councilor Trafford: All dogs must be kept on leads in this Park.

The Chairman: I see Councilor Hogg rising quite rightly to raise another
objection. May I anticipate him with another amendment: All dogs in this
Park must be kept on the lead.

This draft was put to the vote and carried unanimously, with two abstentions.
 
Jay Honeck said:
What's so funny is that, as with all stupid touchy-feely laws, the unintended consequence is that everyone ignores ALL of them, even the important ones.
Click to expand...

This led to a bit of an argument when our small company launched our first industrial product. It is an electrically powered machine tool accessory that operates in an environment flush with high pressure coolant. There are some very important safety and performance issues. These are simple and obvious things to anyone who has been around machine tools and included the basics such as make sure tool holder is grounded, check the ground with included ground tester, make sure high pressure line is swaged correctly if you replace the line that is supplied, replacement line must meet original specifications provided below or it can rupture due to excessive pressure and mist can result in significant fire hazard, etc. Simple yes, but ours was an entirely new technology using unique materials and powered differently than traditional tools. Thus, we had a list of the critical, get it right or you'll have a performance or genuine safety issue, stuff.

So we had a half page of REALLY important stuff. When the lawyer got done with the disclaimer it was 5 pages of mostly meaningless crap. The problem, as Jay mentions, is that the important stuff was lost in all the crap. No machinist worth his salt would read through the legalese and our tool looked like any other (except it cost $30,000 instead of $300).

We finally settled on "hiding" all the legal disclosure crap in with the manual and warranty paperwork and had it buried in the bottom of the box. On the TOP of the controller where you couldn't possible miss it (yes, you could still ignore it), we had in large print a statement that the following 6 items where critical to efficient and safe operation of the device. Interestingly enough, our lawyer said it wasn't necessary from a legal perspective. We did it to try and help our customers use the new technology properly.

Not sure how much it really helped. We regularly got calls "it doesn't work, it just breaks drills".

"Did you check the ground like it says in big print on the controller?"
"It's grounded."
"Okay, so it is grounded, did you CHECK the ground?"
"It's grounded to the machine controller 3 prong plug."
"Okay, but we include a ground test, did you actually, physically CHECK the ground yourself to make sure you have a good ground?"
"You mean I need to check the ground?"
"Yup, we include an earth ground tester, it is in the box, plug it in and it will light up if you have a good ground."
"Oh, okay, let me check." ... 5 minutes later "Yeah, the light didn't light up."
"That means you don't have a good ground. You need to check the inverter and make sure you plug is grounded or you can drag over a GROUNDED extension cord."
"Really?"
"Yup, that why we say you need to check the ground, why we provide the earth ground tester, and why it is in BIG PRINT on the top of the controller to check the ground."
"Uhhh, okay."

And this was from skilled, highly paid machinist or engineers. Imagine you favorite local village idiot buying a coffee at McDondald's.
 
Interesting!
I purchased several batteries yesterday. Was thinking about putting a disclosure in the Christmas package that toys weren't included (g).

Best,

Dave
 
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