In the case of the rock above, the purpose of the humorous sign isn't to actually tell the weather (though it can help), but it is to serve as a sarcastic method that actually prevents people from asking an employee of the lodge what the weather is like.
Broken Things in the Real World
In an effort to meet congressional mandates for safer train control methods, Norfolk Southern Railway is testing an automatic routing system, nicknamed "Otto" by railfans and railroad employees. This system has been frequently seen routing trains on a different track when no other train or obstruction is present. This causes two 45-mile per hour slow-downs for each crossover move, thereby decreasing efficiency.
"Otto" at his finest. See, there is no obstruction on the main track
between Junction City and South Danville.
That is broken because it's not someone's job to re-program the auto-router to work more efficiently.
Broken Things in My Life
At my mentorship, I produce Computer-Aided Drawings for construction projects (better known as blueprints). On these, special notes are written that point out particular situations with an arrow. In many cases, the symbol for "Double Angle" is written before the words "Double Angle." To me, this seems entirely pointless and extremely redundant, but to the construction worker who is specialized to know what "Double Angle" means, he can simply look at the symbol and know what to do.
That is purposely broken to ease the construction worker's job.
Broken Things at School
One of the most important parts of a school day is the announcements, where original notes are read-off over the intercom to inform everyone what's going on. In the mornings, the people who read the announcements read from individual pieces of paper and often stutter, lose track of what they've said, or read notes from already-finished events.
How hard is it to write a script with changeable sections for different announcements, read the script, and get the day going?
That is just plain broken.
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