[blackhole]

This was posted outside a food court in a zoo.

[Colonol Dekker]

Joo are in Bristol? Nice town.


Wish London ZXoo had a sense of humour instead of a bloody money vaccuum.

[Enigmatic Entity]

That last sentence may not be true for long...
I'll bet someone makes a complaint at that .

[Stormkeeper]

Nice find.

[High Max]

;-)

[Flipside]

It is, to be honest. The plaque is kind of like a Zoologist joke, there's genuine facts in there, but there's also a lot of light-heartedness. It's sort of like Monty Pythons' song 'Oliver Cromwell', which, whilst being sarcastic and slightly silly, as John Cleese would put it, actually ground that period of history more firmly into my mind than any amount of history lessons did.

[Stormkeeper]

I think that after reading, you should've realised its meant mostly as a joke. They did put it outside a food court.

[High Max]

;-)

[Flipside]

It's an English kind of humour to be honest, America doesn't seem to get on too well with self-satire, whereas English comedy tends to revolve around it.

Edit: Basically, that kind of sarcasm in the UK is almost taken as a term of endearment, it's kind of hard to describe to a non-brit, it's like when women raise their eyes to the sky and jokingly go 'Men!' when their partner does something sweet, but dumb

[High Max]

;-)

[da1edwin]

It's an English kind of humour to be honest, America doesn't seem to get on too well with self-satire, whereas English comedy tends to revolve around it.

I'm going to disagree with that, I'm an American and got the joke instantly. Then again, I'm the kind of guy who understood the DHMO warnings back before I'd taken any sort of actual chemistry class.

[High Max]

;-)

[BloodEagle]

It's an English kind of humour to be honest, America doesn't seem to get on too well with self-satire, whereas English comedy tends to revolve around it.

I got it. 

Then again, I also got the dihydrogen monoxide joke as well.

::Pre-emptive edit::

Ninja'd whilst reading. 

[StarSlayer]

I laughed at the plaque then read the thread and cringed.

[Stormkeeper]

... I didn't get the DHMO joke.

[Scotty]

Dihydrogen Monoxide:  an odorless, colorless chemical that is commonly found in households across the world that causes death if inhaled.

Dihydrogen = 2 hydrogen, Monoxide = 1 oxygen.  H₂O

[da1edwin]

Dihydrogen Monoxide:  an odorless, colorless chemical that is commonly found in households across the world that causes death if inhaled.

Dihydrogen = 2 hydrogen, Monoxide = 1 oxygen.  H₂O

I've actually never seen the "causes death if inhaled" phrase in any versions of the gag. (Probably because it's blatantly untrue; we inhale it all the time in the course of breathing normal atmospheric air.) A seemingly similar statement that I have seen is that most DHMO-related deaths are caused by accidental inhalation (which, unlike the previous statement, is quite true), such as in this one: http://www.snopes.com/science/dhmo.asp

[Stormkeeper]

... Lol wut.

I think the 'death if inhaled' clause refers to drowning.

[High Max]

;-)

[da1edwin]

... Lol wut.

I think the 'death if inhaled' clause refers to drowning.

*ding* We have a winner!

No, seriously, with jokes like these the propositions have to be accurate. Hence why it's correct to say that accidental DHMO inhalation can lead to death, but incorrect to say that inhalation of DHMO causes death.

The IUPAC rules of chemical nomenclature don't actually allow "dihydrogen monoxide"; if one were hell-bent on using an inorganic systematic name, he would have to settle for "hydrogen oxide" or perhaps "hydrogen monoxide". But since IUPAC specifies that water is the only acceptable name for H₂0, this is kind of a moot point.