‘
As someone who loves Steve Martin’s "L.A. Story", "The Day the Earth Stood Still", and, of course, UFOs, I must admit to laughing myself silly over the antics of this clever person.
I can think of lots of fun things to do with this knowledge.
P.S. I am at an astronomy meeting today and tomorrow, and I have intermittent internet access. I was hoping to write some blog entries based on the meeting, and I probably will, but posting will be a bit lighter for a day or two.‘
If you went to BadAstronomy.com and found yourself here, never fear: the BA Blog has moved to its new home at Discover Blogs. The original BA site (with the Moon Hoax debunking and all that) is still online, too.
Phil Plait, the creator of Bad Astronomy, is an astronomer, lecturer, and author. After ten years working on Hubble Space Telescope and six more working on astronomy education, he struck out on his own as a writer. He has written two books, dozens of magazine articles, and 12 bazillion blog articles. He is a skeptic, and fights misuses of science as well as praising the wonder of real science.
Contact me: The Bad Astronomer "at" gmail "dot" com
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October 4th, 2006 at 11:57 pm
Holy Bruce Campbell, BAtman!
Without a doubt that’s the best thing I’ve seen this week.
October 5th, 2006 at 12:22 am
“Klaatu Barada Nikto” – is on my license plate frame. Folk in the know on SciFi enjoy it. (My car is very alien looking.)
October 5th, 2006 at 12:23 am
I thought that was Klingon (Instead it is a robot halt command). Cute story.
October 5th, 2006 at 1:05 am
[...] Highway sign of the timesPS I am at an astronomy meeting today and tomorrow, and I have intermittent internet access. I was hoping to write some blog entries based on the meeting, and I probably will, but posting will be a bit lighter for a day or two. [...]
October 5th, 2006 at 5:23 am
Reminds me of the time I was waiting in a fast food joint when the register went into its standby mode and started flashing advertisements. The first was for $.99 for 3 tacos. The second line was, ‘Good Morning, Dave, My name is HAL’.
Somebody had some fun that morning.
October 5th, 2006 at 6:27 am
I remember one night when we discovered the construction signs on Massachusetts Avenue had password “ABCDE”. Oh, there were merry antics after that. . . .
October 5th, 2006 at 6:55 am
In heavy traffic and thus at a time I could not stop to get a picture, I passed a highway sign my passenger swore to me said, “Slow to impulse power.”
Since this was early evening, I’m betting it remained at least until the next morning.
October 5th, 2006 at 7:12 am
If it were Bruce Campbell, I would have to be “Klaatu Barada … Necktie!”
October 5th, 2006 at 7:50 am
The sign is funny. And I note the perpetrator states that he only did it because the signs were still up and flashing after the road construction was complete, so it wasn’t causing any danger by eliminating an important message (say, WATCH OUT FOR THAT GIANT HOLE!).
Still, I’m worried that showing something like this will inspire some other, less responsible folks to tinker with their road signs, and thereby put people in danger. YMMV.
You may be expecting people to have sense enough not to do so. You must not know many people, like cell-phone drivers, drunk college students, teen-agers, those folks that cut across three lanes on the Interstate to make the off-ramp they “almost” missed, etc.
October 5th, 2006 at 7:54 am
uh oh, there goes my passwords…..
October 5th, 2006 at 9:01 am
That’s a funny story, my first thought was ‘Army of Darkness’ when I the picture. I’m not sure how many people would be put in danger if signage was tinkered with in an active construction zone. My experience is that people tend to ignore them and try to rearend me on the freeway.
October 5th, 2006 at 9:47 am
“Insert 25 cents for important message.”
“Hang up and drive.”
“Look at the road, not at this sign.”
I could have endless fun with this.
October 5th, 2006 at 10:34 am
I laughed so hard my eyes are still watering. Thanks for the heads-up on this one!
October 5th, 2006 at 10:38 am
I remember the Boston Globe running a picture of a street sign in Mass Ave in Cambridge that ran right past MIT. The students had taken out the rivets and rearranged the letters to say “Boston/Back Bay monster eats MIT”.
October 5th, 2006 at 12:37 pm
When I went down to New Orleans with the PA National Guard to help out the Katrina folks, we ran a food/water/ice line for a few weeks. At one location, there was a road sign advertising the fact we were there for any passers-by. When they drove through the line, there was a big cardboard sign made up by the other troop present that advertised who they were. Since we actually had more people from our troop working that line, we added our troop letter as well. Someone from the other troop took offense to that, and used an exacto knife to cut our letter out. Later, it was asked by a lieutenant from the other troop if anyone knew how to change those signs. Nobody did, but I volenteered to try. I won’t say how I did it, but the system is password protected that I managed to get through via a minor miracle. A half hour later, I learned the system well enough to change what it displayed. That made the Lieutenant happy, and it made the guys in my troop happy when they learned that it had two changes…
I remember saying to him, “Try cutting THAT out with an Exacto knife. Sir!”
From an hour before we were there to two hours after, it advertised food, water, and ice and our hours… and the rest of the time it loudly advertised “Bravo Troop, 2nd of the 104th CAV”, and on the next frame “Salutes your resolve” and for the next “Food, Water, Ice” and the frame after that the hours we were there.
One night everything ran late, the sign changed, and the Lieutenant saw
October 5th, 2006 at 3:51 pm
We had a scrolling one line sign in our high school cafeteria that I was responsible for programming. A friend and I had been teaching ourselves to juggle (using beanbags colored and shaped like penguins) in the cafeteria during our “aide” period our senior year, and surprisingly never got in trouble for it. I programmed the sign to say “Please do not toss penguins in the cafeteria.” I never got in trouble for that either. I’m pretty sure no one really noticed. I hated high school.
October 5th, 2006 at 5:01 pm
Priceless
October 6th, 2006 at 12:35 am
“Gort! Meringa!” Gosh, I wish I had my flashlight in hand! Enjoyed the post.
October 6th, 2006 at 12:45 am
Troy Says: I thought that was Klingon (Instead it is a robot halt command). Cute story.
Not exactly “halt”, Troy, you must be younger than the movie. It was the command for the robot to retrieve and revive (Mr.) Klaatu, though it did stop the Robot from killing the girl. (Always had to be a girl rescue scene even if the hero rescued her by proxy. It’s a wonder I don’t have a complex.)
October 7th, 2006 at 7:12 am
So — I like most of the same movies. I will watch some of the ones on the BA movie list I have never seen. Here’s one of my favorites that was not mentioned.
Altho the science is impossible, time travel, I have enjoyed watching Frequency with Dennis Quaid over and over and over again, and recommend that it has to be watched from BEFORE the opening credits start rolling.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0186151/
October 7th, 2006 at 2:35 pm
Still it’s nice to know that Helen Benson, the sensible skeptic played by actress, later best actress (’Hud’ 1963) and real life heroine Patricia Neal, had the courage to stand her ground against world opinion (even though she and feminine dignity once again have to lose some of it to Gort -read male- via the obligatory faint and being carried away captive by the strong man scene. Why couldn’t Gort just extend his hand?).
Notwithstanding, Helen’s willingness to put herself in harm’s way literally saves the world, making me, among other things, one very grateful, nearly “burnt out cinder”.
I know, it’s only a film. “Neemray Klaatu netherwah…”
October 8th, 2006 at 12:23 pm
I forgot there was the obligatory girl fainting with fear in that scene. And of course she must remain unconscious until just the right moment, rather than when one becomes horizontal and increases venous return as in a real vaso-vagal fainting incident.
I wonder if females had really evolved an unfortunate unnaturally selected universal fainting reflex with fear rather than fight or flight if the human species would have survived.
Men on the other hand, have the ability to be knocked unconscious for convenient lengths of movie time. It would be nice if such injuries really didn’t result in brain swelling and subsequently longer periods of recovery time, but it would be very unfortunate if it were really that easy to render a man unconscious with a single blow.