Hygiene factors

In the UK, restaurants are inspected for hygiene and given a sticker which, according the Food Standards Agency, they are 'encouraged to display on their door'.

You never, ever, see one of these displayed.

But you see quite a lot of these.

There doesn't seem much point in the scheme if the outcomes aren't public - or do we conclude that no sticker means they are too embarrassed to tell us their rating?

Ghost website

Clicking on a link in an old document, I accidentally discovered that our old website from around 2001 is still there, sitting on a server somewhere - not sure where exactly.
http://www.idu-enterpriseig.com

Still doing the same kind of stuff - consistent or just unimaginative? Don't answer that.

Really? That's what you think?

Heard in a meeting where we were discussing local authority forms:
"The trouble is that you keeping thinking about the users and their problems, and not about us".

Good sign writer

Thanks to Cheryl Stephens for the link to this story in the Vancouver Sun. Cheryl runs the very active and useful Plain Language Advocates LinkedIn group.

No reply

I just made a donation online to Macmillan Cancer Care in memory of an old friend who died recently. The small print says that they'll put me on a mailing list and send me stuff, unless I write to ask them not to.

Thinking that I get enough charity mail already, I emailed them to ask them not to communicate. So I did enjoy their reply, from one of those 'no reply@' email addresses:

"Thank you very much for contacting Macmillan.  A member of the Supporter Donations team will be in touch with you within 2 working days."

Défense de Tintin

I've heard Tintin is a little out of style these days, and not politically correct. He's definitely not welcome in this park in Paris.

Direction of travel

Some trains on the Hong Kong metro have diagrams like this: the remaining stations on your journey light up (in this case, Mong Kok, Prince Edward and Sham Shui Po) and one set of directional arrows ripple round to show you the direction of travel. There is also a light (not in this photo) to tell you which side the doors will open at the next station. Nice one. 

iPhoto's new goddess recognition feature

iPhoto likes to spot faces, and put a name to them. So I need to tell it this is the Goddess of Mercy from the temple at Repulse Bay, Hong Kong.

Step forward

You see this sign quite a lot in China, but it's nothing to do with the 5 year plan. At least you see it a lot if you are male, because it's found on urinals.

Showing and saying

On our recent visit to China, I kept noticing Chinese characters that seem to depict what they say. I think I'm right in saying that 'entrance' is written using characters that both look like and mean 'person' and 'gate' (literally, 'mouth', I was told).

But apparently it's just coincidence that the first character below looks like a toilet...

Here's the corresponding icon for Exit. Almost a new ideogram in itself.

You know where you are on the Great Wall of China

And some things you can't do in Beijing

More things you can't do in Hong Kong

Things you can't do in Hong Kong

Signs of New York

Just back from a great trip to New York, with a few signs to share.

 Nice and direct.

 Strangely specific icons on the way in the 9/11 memorial. Is that a flick knife? Are other kinds OK?

 I like their thinking - putting the 'No Dogs' sign on a lamp post. But it's a little high up for them to read.

 OK! OK! OK!

Not sure why I find this funny, but I do.