Friday, November 28, 2008

Beware - I Have Gas


Sometimes something silly enters into my brain that resonates within my cerebral humoritoral lobe (that portion of the brain that controls hilarity). The result is a good chuckle. I wanted to share one item that I really enjoyed. Here at the laboratory where I work, we often use bottles of compressed gas, i.e. cylinders containing gas at incredible pressures. You can think of them as bombs in a convenient package adorned with pretty stickers, but of course there are other dangers present too. One of which is that in a confined space, if the bottles leak, they can quickly displace the available oxygen, which could kill you in a couple of minutes (and maybe, if you are lucky, cause you to foam at the mouth). Anyway, safety is a big deal at the lab, and we have safety personnel "up the wazoo" (which means, as far as I can tell, up the butt or with great abundance -- I will let you choose your preference) who are charged with making at least one new safety regulation per hour per person or armed goons with kill their house pets in a most extreme manner. Anyway, I digress. The safety folks have posted signage in all elevators on site that states emphatically: "Personnel are not to accompany gas cylinders on the elevators". I came across a handwritten note in one elevator that was meant as a reply (or challenge) that said "How will they know which button to push for their floor?". I liked this. Silly, inane, and with a touch of anarchy (due to the graffiti element).