Only one test method I’ve learned required signing legal documentation.  The mixture for this particular method is the colonic equivalent of the recipe for Coke syrup and the entire time I’ve done this mixture I’ve treated it with a deference bordering on the sacred.  Today I was running through the blending process when I found what appeared to be an error in mixing.  I approached the creator:

Me: What the tolerance on the mixing of the 3rd ingredient set, I think your calculation is off by 2%?
Him: I don’t know.  Anything within a factor of two should be fine.
Me: A factor of two?  Like 200%?
Him: Yeah, this isn’t a precise thing.
Me: Your shitting me, I’ve been trying to squeeze measurements out to thousandths of a gram.
Him: Why?
Me: Because that’s what the method said.  Didn’t you write this?
Him: No, a technician did a while ago.
Me: What happened to him?
Him: I fired him; he was way too uptight.

Hm…