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Oops! The Silly Mistakes Thread

Mistake of the day.

A few days ago I ordered a new battery for my Blackberry.

Today, a package arrived. I do remember thinking it was rather heavy for the little battery.

And on opening it I find (Ta Daa) a Blackberry cell phone.

'Odd' thinks I.

On the back of the phone was a label that said, in essence, as the battery may have to travel by air as part of the delivery, it has been sent in a 'container' to ensure compliance with regulations.

The 'container', was, of course, the old phone.

So, I wondered if the phone worked, and plugged it in to charge.

After half an hour I checked it and found that it was showing no sign of charge (I use a charge Doctor that shows the current and voltage) .

Ah, well, no worries. So I opened up the phone and found......

The battery, installed, still in it's little polythene bag.

Needless to say, removing it from the bag resulted in a great improvement.

The phone appears to work on all it's off-air functions.

Time I was put out to graze.
 
Cadbury pull ad campaign which "advocates looting"

The Treasure Island ads encouraged children to “grab your metal detector and go hunting for Roman riches”, but failed to warn that digging without permission is illegal. It suggested a number of sites across the UK and Ireland where “treasure’s fair game”.

The confectioner took the online ad site down on Monday after being inundated with messages from archaeologists who described the campaign as “irresponsible” – a view endorsed by the government. The arts minister, Michael Ellis, said the ad risked undermining rules to protect heritage.
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Maybe that is what happened to most of the missing planes

Didnt the pilot realise they were going the wrong way?
 
But usually an announcement is made before take off along the lines of " welcome to ... flight 123 to somewhere, our flight time... etc"
 
But usually an announcement is made before take off along the lines of " welcome to ... flight 123 to somewhere, our flight time... etc"
I just heard a passenger interviewed on the radio and she said that yes, there usually is but for some reason there wasn't on that flight.

I like to think the stewards were a bit puzzled by how many Germans were flying to Edinburgh though. :)
 
At least it wasn't a ghost chilli.

A colleague of mine used to pride himself on his home-cooked-from-scratch curries. One day he was at home, preparing one using some thermonuclear-level chilis, when his missus came home from work feeling...frisky. They repaired upstairs and “started the Whoopee! Machine”.

Very shortly thereafter, “Mrs. Scoville” was in the bath, seated in 4” of cold water, streaming at both ends.

maximus otter
 
Accidentally locking myself in the back of a van while searching it!!!!!Had to phone a workmate to get the driver to open it.Workmate laughed his bloody socks off. Had visions of being driven off somewhere on the airport.

Same happened to a young woman who'd stopped her work van in a layby. She'd climbed in the back to get something and the door slammed.

As I remember she had no phone on her and was stuck for hours. Can't remember how she escaped, possibly a colleague was sent to look for her.

This was in a magazine a couple of years ago.
 
A colleague of mine used to pride himself on his home-cooked-from-scratch curries. One day he was at home, preparing one using some thermonuclear-level chilis, when his missus came home from work feeling...frisky. They repaired upstairs and “started the Whoopee! Machine”.

Very shortly thereafter, “Mrs. Scoville” was in the bath, seated in 4” of cold water, streaming at both ends.

maximus otter
I shouldn't really have laughed at that
 
At least it wasn't a ghost chilli.

You can get ghost chili-infused confectionery. I recently sent off for a packet of chili chocolate limes for Techy. He was impressed.
 
I bet the kids were left mostly in tears of laughter.

Excited children were left in tears and parents outraged after a trailer for a horror film was shown before a screening of a Peppa Pig film.

Adverts for psychological horror Ma and frightening superhero movie Brightburn were shown at the Empire Cinema in Ipswich. Trailers of the movies, which do not yet have an age rating, appear to show dead bodies, suggestions of violence and a violent child in a scary mask. The planned showing of Peppa Pig: Festival of Fun was then screened as advertised.

A spokesman for the cinema chain apologised and said it was investigating how the "inappropriate" trailers were screened.

https://news.sky.com/story/children...GwrYqMgJDtvU6QmiNIVEy0VTFQ60K0tbs50GlApwAwh4w
 
Bet they nag their parents to go see the other films, be like 'Feck Peppa Pig, gimme Ma and Brightburn'
 
This happens more often than you'd think (or want). The effects of projectionists being phased out to be replaced by an unthinking machine (or a teenager to press a button and hope for the best).
 
Don't know if it counts as a "mistake" but I heard on the news that Joan Collins' recent flat fire was caused by her husband's shaving mirror. It focused the sunlight on her window blind and it caught fire. Sounds like something that needs a 1970s-style public information film to warn us about. Nevertheless, watch where your mirrors are pointed.
 
I bet the kids were left mostly in tears of laughter.

Excited children were left in tears and parents outraged after a trailer for a horror film was shown before a screening of a Peppa Pig film.

Adverts for psychological horror Ma and frightening superhero movie Brightburn were shown at the Empire Cinema in Ipswich. Trailers of the movies, which do not yet have an age rating, appear to show dead bodies, suggestions of violence and a violent child in a scary mask. The planned showing of Peppa Pig: Festival of Fun was then screened as advertised.

A spokesman for the cinema chain apologised and said it was investigating how the "inappropriate" trailers were screened.

https://news.sky.com/story/children...GwrYqMgJDtvU6QmiNIVEy0VTFQ60K0tbs50GlApwAwh4w
Peppa Pig: Festival of Fun

it does sound pretty horrific.

oh wait. that wasn't the horror film?
 
Don't know if it counts as a "mistake" but I heard on the news that Joan Collins' recent flat fire was caused by her husband's shaving mirror. It focused the sunlight on her window blind and it caught fire. Sounds like something that needs a 1970s-style public information film to warn us about. Nevertheless, watch where your mirrors are pointed.

We had a magnifying mirror near a window which focused heat on a plastic planter and melted a bit of it.

No great damage but we were reminded of how dangerous it might be!

There was a story a few years ago about a crystal ball on a windowsill which caused a fire.
Cue cries of 'I bet she didn't see THAT coming!'
 
Lessons in Command and Control from the Los Angeles Riots
CHRISTOPHER M. SCHNAUBELT

"Police officers responded to a domestic dispute, accompanied by marines. They had just gone up to the door when two shotgun birdshot rounds were fired through the door, hitting the officers. One yelled `cover me!' to the marines, who then laid down a heavy base of fire. . . . The police officer had not meant `shoot' when he yelled `cover me' to the marines. [He] meant . . . point your weapons and be prepared to respond if necessary. However, the marines responded instantly in the precise way they had been trained, where `cover me' means provide me with cover using firepower. . . . over two hundred bullets [were] fired into that house."​
Source:
 
Lessons in Command and Control from the Los Angeles Riots

This sort of misunderstanding based on differences in training and doctrinal terminology is an actual risk. Some years ago I was in a group where someone cited the old military joke illustrated in the following example:

How to Tell the Difference Between the Branches of the US Armed Forces!

If you give the command "SECURE THE BUILDING", here is what the different services would do:

The NAVY would turn out the lights and lock the doors.
The ARMY would surround the building with defensive fortifications, tanks and concertina wire.
The MARINE CORPS would assault the building, using overlapping fields of fire from all appropriate points on the perimeter.
The AIR FORCE would take out a three-year lease with an option to buy the building.

A listener questioned whether there was any sort of factual basis for the different meanings cited in the joke. We researched this, and it turned out:

- all the variants are defined as such in one or more services' formal vocabularies, and
- none of the variants was defined as such across all services.

It's not true that each service (overall) recognizes one and only one of the variant definitions, but it's true that an order to 'secure the building' could well lead to drastically different outcomes, some of which were specific to one or another branch of the military.
 
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