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Previous: Speedway tower ad | Main | Next: Arby's sign
June 20, 2006 12:03 AM
Broken: Hotel fire alarm
Hans Hinrichsen submits a picture taken at a hotel in Iowa:
This sign was on the door at a hotel in downtown Des Moines, Iowa where I recently stayed.
Couldn’t they think of something better to describe the fire alarm than “Whoop, whoop?”
Neat. This is the kind of thing that makes stuff seem more human, so we can understand better and feel better.
BROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOGA!!!
AWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOGA!!!
XD
I'd say not broken. A little ham-fisted maybe, but the point is plenty clear. I wonder, though, how it might be for a non-native speaker...
Some fire alarms apparently speak diff languages too.
When I was at a church in Los Angeles, I saw a fire alarm thingy whose label described the sound in English as Whoop Whoop Whoop, in Español, it was Whup Whup Whup.
So, when it's activated, does it sound in English or in Español?
Not really broken, just silly.
Wonder if the the voice that follows says something like:
"Whoop Whoop! Emergency, Emerency! There's an emergency going on! This is not a drill! This is a drill: (sound of drill)!"
(bows to "Red Dwarf")
Not broken, but that's probably the second or third most ridiculous thing I've seen written in English. Whoop Whoop indeed.
not broken; just trying to get the party started in case it gets hot in theeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrreeeee!
Not broken, just a bit odd-looking. The message the sign conveys is clear and concise. Trying to describe the sound in any other fashion would likely be less concise and more difficult to comprehend.
My question is why anyone would read a little information paper posted on a door. To everybody in the world not "bugged" by broken stuff it is a decoration.
reminds me of a newspaper article where a woman was on a walk and told the police that some guys "woo-hoos" were sticking out. LOL
If the fire alarm says "whoop whoop" then I wonder what the voice that follows it says....hmmmm, a conundrum indeed, I'm sure. (Look it up if you want to know what it means, you know, in a book. Remember those? Books?)
This isn't broken at all! It's informal, but it gets its point made very efficiently. What would be better, "The sound of the alarm is a quickly rising pitch which repeats itself, then a voice."
Admittedly, the grammar could be better.
I agree with Jonathan. The informality may seem out of place, but the sign EFFECTIVELY communicates what a fire alarm will sound like.
Hey given how creative that we are getting any more with phone rings and other alarms such as alarm clock signals information about what the fire alarm sounds like would be a lot better idea than people seem to realize.
Odd phrasing but not "broken".
If the fire alarm went off it looks as if it would be freaking obvious what was going on.
Re. question about what deaf hotel guests do... some hotels have rooms that are specifically fitted out for the deaf - when the alarm goes off, the bed vibrates, lights flash, and a REALLY REALLY LOUD alarm sounds (it's not a "whoop whoop" sound - it's rather more like having a chainsaw cutting your head in half).
The description of a sound is largely subjective. The danger is that, when the alarm does sound, someone may think "well, that sounds like 'merp merp', not 'whoop whoop.' It must not be the fire alarm."
Actually it's not really an alarm. When there is a fire a guy named Earl runs down the hallway yelling, "Whoop,Whoop,Whoop."
Must be the alarm for a disco inferno (Whoop, whoop is my disco call...)! (groans... Sorry, I had to.) =D
on·o·mat·o·poe·ia
n.
The formation or use of words such as "buzz" or "murmur" that imitate the sounds associated with the objects or actions they refer to.
it is a savory hotel? last I checked hotels did not taste good. maybe the food served, but not the hotel.
It'd only broken if it doesn't sound like that. Not having heard it, it would be hard to judge how accurate a description it is. It may sound exactly like "whoop whoop" for all we know. Right?
Fire alarm at my last school sounded like: ERRT! ERRT! ERRT! (pause) ERRT! ERRT! ERRT!... My new school:BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRING!
I install fire alarm systems. In the documentation they list the different messages the systme can play. And it does describe the sound as "whoop". Blame the manufacturers for this one!
You all don't get it. The alarms don't SAY whoop whoop. They make a sound. Think of a police siren, but only the part where it's rising in pitch, then it pauses, then repeats. Go to
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6497954475665904422&q=Fire+Alarm
to see for yourself what this sounds like, and if you have any more questions, go to
http://community.schuminweb.com/cgi-bin/forum/nph-YaBB.pl?board=firealarms
. This is a voice-enabled system, or EVAC (Emergency Voice Alarm Communications). It will make that sound or sometimes a chime,buzzer, emulated bell or other sound, then a message (either recorded or live) will be broadcast over the speakers, dedicated for the fire alarm system. As for Eric, the school alarm that went ERRT! ERRT! ERRT! pause is known as the Code-3 Temporal pattern, consisting of ½-second alarm, ½-second pause, ½-second alarm, ½-second pause, ½-second alarm, then 1½-second pause, repeat. This is required for any evacuation signal as of 1998. And as for Alex, most alarms today have bright strobe lights on them or nearby(again, reference video) as visual backup for the alarms. This came about due to the ADA, Americans with Disabilities Act. A strobe must be at least 15 cd (candela - a unit of measuring the light's intensity at a ceartain point) at 10' directly in front of the strobe to meet ADA requirements, 110cd-177cd in any sleeping area. 15/75cd is the norm for ADA compliant strobe installs.
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Previous: Speedway tower ad | Main | Next: Arby's sign
wow, an excuse to use the word onomatopoeia in a post.
Posted by: gmangw at June 20, 2006 12:09 AM