Saturday, July 19, 2008

How Dumb Can it Get?

If you have ever managed to come across a few books by Bill Bryson, the renowned travel writer, you will be quite familiar with the jibes he takes on product warnings which are commonsense and should be widely known. Alas, common sense is not quite so common, or so the companies of certain products believe. And since, they love to undermine the intelligence of their average consumer, they put up warnings and cautions which are plain dumb.

Hopefully, the Dumb Warnings website should enlighten them a little. This website is part of the Dumb Network which generally collects and categorises all things dumb which can be quite easily spotted in the world, offline and online. Dumb Warnings is one of their websites, and can be the pick of the day especially when you are feeling a little blue.

The best place to start would be the top 25 warnings. This section lists down the most hilarious, and obviously, the top dumbest cautions that come printed in black and white with various products. Some of these highly useful instructions tell one to avoid dropping air conditioners out of windows; not use blow dryers while sleeping, refrain from ironing clothes while wearing them and the most enlightening one – remember that the content of a coffee may be hot.

In case you have forgotten already, “Contents (of 7-up are) under pressure. Cap may blow off causing eye or other serious injury. Point away from face and people, especially when opening.” As one can imagine, these warnings are quite pointless, and a very big laugh. On the website, you cannot only just read them, but you can rate them as well.

Of course, if you have some time on your hands and you are in the mood to delve more deeply into this website, then you can access dumb warnings by category. These are mainly categories of products and include warnings on appliances, drinks, clothes, electronics, medicine, toys and lots, lots more. Within each category, you will find loads of warnings on various products. Again, you can pore through them, laugh at them, and rate them.

For instance, the Food category will inform you that Mark and Spencer’s Bread Pudding will be hot after you heat it; Sainsbury Peanuts contains nuts; and in order to enjoy American Airlines Peanuts, you have to open the packet and eat the nuts.

At the end of it, if you are in the mood for some more ‘dumb’ stuff, you can check out other websites in the Dumb Network. There are dumb quotes where you can read some pretty mind-boggling and funny statements uttered by various people. There are dumb facts where you can find totally pointless and irrelevant information on almost anything from sciences and travelling to government and history. The website on dumb bumper stickers has a collection featuring the same from all over cyberspace.

In short, whether you are having a tough day at work, or are bored at home, this is one website which will definitely enable you to while away your time, while having fun simultaneously.

To discover how uncommon is commonsense log on to: http://www.dumbwarnings.com/

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