h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I am surprised that no one has mentioned the warnings on McDonalds food packaging. Specifically the contents hot warning on their plastic coffee/tea cups and the utterly amazing similar warning on their "Hot Apple Pie".

I honestly thought the Apple pies were in it, but you're right.

But is this corporate stupidity, user stupidity or an example of the over litigious nature of USA citizens and ther desire to always find someone else to blame for their own stupidity?

It'll go in soonish

CH

I understand that McD's were sued, resulting in both warnings.

A lady who purchased a cup of coffee at a drive through and rested the cup on the seat between her thighs, only to spill it when forced to brake suddenly.

The apple pie incident occurred in a McD's restaurant, when obviously someone bit into the pie and burned their mouth.

Clearly blatant stupidity on the part of both injured parties was not a factor in either court case, which McD's lost. Surprising really as one would have thought they had the resources to hire a decent lawyer...

Oh, you can be sure that they had decent lawyers alright, but American juries in such trials are always up for finding for the plaintiff and awarding ridiculous sums to ordinary people from the coffers of huge corporations, no doubt figuring that they may also one day sue someone up the wazoo.

I haven't eaten McDonalds ever since I was old enough to know better, but I do recall that the filling in those apple pies used to be unneccessarily, in fact, *scaldingly* hot . I burnt the inside of my mouth more than once on one of those. Yeah I know, I should have sued

And you're also right about the reason for so many of those "stupid" warnings. The people who put them on there are just covering their own arses from people who either won't take responsibility for their own stupidity, or are just out to screw someone for a lot of money, ultimately putting up prices for everyone else. One of the USA's largest insurance companies just reported a $4 billion loss for the last year. Just look at that figure again - $4,000,000,000. The reason? Spiralling claims. Everyone's premiums are going to skyrocket. Go figure.

I remember a thread from the original ICARUS entry when I added the Dual Shock controller from the Playstation (Do not attach to any part of the bod) and speculated if there is a special legal discipline that thinks of all the possible mis-uses of an item and then lists them.

Or to come up with the catch all one "Only use as a beverage"

I bet there is mega$ in it somewhere.

CH

Funny you should mention the dual shock controller.

A child was recently admitted to hospital suffering from an industrial disease known as "vibration white finger". This is caused by high levels of exposure to vibration in the hands and arms and is more commonly associated with pneumatic drills & hand tools. The vibration causes a break down of the capilliary blood vessels in the fingers, limiting blood flow and resulting in painful swelling.

The cause? You got it his Playstation.

I would expect to see health warnings appearing almost instantly.