World Of Signs - Newsletter

3/9/09

We just added 13 new signs from 12 countries. Five of these countries are new to our site: Bolivia, with a street sign from Sucre, the capital, dedicated to the greatest of all libertadores in Latin America: Simón Bolivar; Guatemala, with a cute road sign warning for coatimundis, a very peculiar type of raccoon that lives in this region; Bangladesh, with a rather direct sign against lazy people; Pakistan, that contributes 2 signs, one from a place in Islamabad and the other reminding us to drive on our left; and Malawi, with a quite old-fashioned level crossing warning sign.

India welcomes us with a wordy sign in 3 languages reminding us that it's the largest democracy on Earth. From Brunei we picked up a quite unique sign: its clearly religious content hides a traffic warning. The Polish sign we bring is more graphic, as it is the Taiwanese sign pointing to "breastfeeding room".

Streets covered with cobblestones can be lovely, but pay attention to them, as this Danish sign tells us. Finally, we included a road marker indicating the way to Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, in Hebrew, Arabic & English.

We hope you enjoy them!

19/5/09

We have added two series of highway overhead markers with main cities from two of the largest state members of the Commonwealth: Canada and Australia. 21 signs in total. From Canada you'll find Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Quebec City, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Halifax, Calgary, Hamilton and the capital, Ottawa. Australia contributes Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Darwin, Hobart, Newcastle, Wollongong, Gold Coast and the capital, Canberra.

While Australia presents a more unified road network at national level, in Canada, provinces have a more prominent role when it comes to road labeling. You'll also see that both French & English are used on the signs, depending on the province in question.

If you are unsure about where the country of origin of any sign lies, now you can also click the flag on the main page of that sign. A new tab will open to show you the location of the country in Google Maps. Easy, isn't it?

One more quiz has landed on our site. It's called "Where in Europe?". There you'll have to guess the European cities displayed to the right. French, British, German, Spanish and Swedish cities are represented at the moment. We remind you that you still can win a t-shirt on two of our quizzes: Animal World and Sports. Go to Quiz Central to know more about them or take a look at other quizzes.

7/5/09

Much news in our site! As you might have noticed, we have inaugurated a new front page with 4 new themes. The first one is under the warning “Parent Advisory” as we focus on signs with (unintentional) offensive and rude content, that is, swearwords and other terms that could be considered as of bad taste. We had a lot of fun working on them and we hope that you too like them.

Our second theme is highway overhead signs for mayor U.S. cities. As you can see if you click on them, they are exact reproductions of real ones. We have at the moment 68 cities, more to come in the future. The third main subject revolves around “English-mistreating” signs. This is a whole (and wonderful) genre and we are conscious that our sample is quite limited, but take it just as a start. You’ll see they also can be extremely funny. We finish this time with a page dedicated to one of the most beautiful cities in the world: Paris, with its elegant and legendary boulevards, streets, squares and alleys.

We also have our brand first winner of our new quiz contest: Shyam Krish, from Chennai (former Madras) in India. Congratulations! Shyam was the best contestant at the Animal World quiz in April. He has chosen as a prize this t-shirt. We feel very happy with the success of our quiz system. Only in May more than 10,000 questions (!) were asked from our quizzes to folk in all continents on earth. So in May we have not one but two quizzes with prizes: Animal World (again) and Sports. Everybody from anywhere in the world can win a t-shirt from us.

On the left column we have put in 4 new boxes with sign themes so you can access them faster. And that’s all for now. Back again soon!

12/04/09

This week we have added 39 new signs and 3 new quizzes. We welcome also 4 new countries: Cape Verde (with an info sign from San Vicente), Rwanda (with a crossing children sign), Papua New Guinea (with a conclusive warning sign) and Peru (with a toilet sign in Spanish and dubious English).

The main country contributor in this new batch though is the United Kingdom. We bring in 14 peculiar British signs, from 11 villages & towns (Upper Dicker, Ugley, Twatt, Thong, Shitterton, Sandy Balls, Wetwang, Rimswell, Penistone, Nasty and Lickfold) and 3 streets (Titty Ho, Shooting Balls Road and Minge Lane). Abounding on the theme of suspicious place names we added Brest from France, "To Fuk Road" from Hong Kong, Shiting Lu from China, Butt Road from Canada and Big Beaver Road (Exit 69) from Michigan.

Also from the States we present you a well-known sign from Virginia Beach (forbidding public swearing) and other three very funny signs: Lazy Lane/Police Dept. from Texas, George Bush Center For Intelligence from CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia and Paradise End from the beautiful city of San Francisco, California.

The second main contributor to this lot is Namibia, the African country, with 8 signs, all of them road signs warning about wild animals: giraffe, hyena (single & combined), oryx, vulture (single & combined), wild horse and zebra.

To complete this new series we have included a road sign from Mexico City wishing all drivers a nice trip, an attractive level crossing sign from Ireland, a quite humorous (and at the same time cruel) Brazilian road sign advising caution on the road and a sign from a German beach declaring that nudism is allowed there.

And, finally, we have aggregated three very exciting quizzes: about Sports, American cities and U.S. states. Each of them packed with plenty of interesting questions. We hope you learn a lot about those subjects and, of course, that you enjoy yourself wildly... And, don't forget it: you still can win a t-shirt from our site with the thrilling animal quiz!

31/03/09

After one month of hard job we are very excited to present you now our brand new quiz system. And we do it with two awesome quizzes: one about animals of all sorts and from all over the world and the other one where we test your knowledge of languages –or should we rather say your capacity to recognize them– on our international signs. We are giving away a t-shirt to the brightest of our contestants on the Animal World quiz during the month of April. Anybody from any country in the planet where Cafepress operates (most of them) can participate.

These are just the two first of what we hope will be a long list of entertaining, amusing and instructing quizzes on all kind of subjects. As we suspect you are going to like the quizzes, we have stuffed them with plenty of interesting and fun questions so you can play them over and over again without getting bored. Every time you play, it will be different as questions are randomly drawn from a large pool of questions.

Quiz Central is the "home page" of quizzes. There you will be able to access these according to your taste. You can also see how difficult, popular and recent each and every quiz is. All data is fed live so you will always have fresh information about them. On top of that, you'll be also able to see who is leading every quiz at any given moment.

We also inaugurate a redesigned top menu bar. In addition to the new section “Quiz Me!” you’ll find a “cart” symbol to the right, which gives you direct access to your shopping cart so you can check its content when you wish.

Any comments or feedback? We'll be happy to hear your thoughts about our new quiz system or anything else on our site. Please, use the Contact form to do that. And don't forget to have fun!

24/2/2009

We just introduced a new and very mixed batch of 33 signs from 17 countries, 11 of them new to our site (mostly from Africa and Asia). We’re graphically reminded of the power of weapons and military force in 6 of these new signs: from Afghanistan, a sign cautioning us to keep off from a military area; from Brunei, another one warning against the cruel fate that awaits eventual trespassers (do they really mean it?); from Central African Republic, a “no guns allowed” sign; from Bosnia, a road sign prohibiting armored vehicles to pass that point; and two quite similar (in spite of the distance) “danger mines” signs from two war-stricken African countries: Angola and Burundi. Another sign that reminds us of past tragedies and divisions is this German sign showing the location of the Berlin Wall during more than four decades.

But not everything is misery and violence. We reserved also space for two cute road signs reproducing children (one from Austria and one from Bahrain) and a jolly sign alerting people about golf cars (from Tennessee). On a more scatological register we’ve brought in two –rather cubist– restroom signs from Azerbaijan (men & women) and another sign from Benin cautioning against relieving yourself in the open air.

Abounding in our theme on signs with equivocal (and amusing) sexual and rude connotations we focused this time on England, with 10 new incorporations: six place signs (Hole of Horcum, Cocks, Dummer, Lickey End, Fingringhoe and Bell End) and four street signs (Happy Bottom, Dumb Woman’s Lane, Butt Hole Road and Back Passage). Besides, we have added three other signs from curiously named places: Kill in Ireland, Nowthen in Minnesota and Chicken in Alaska.

By the way, we’ve done something a bit special this time: we’ve put together two signs from two distant points on Earth (USA and Japan) to tell a real story: the rise of Barack Obama as president of the United States. If you prefer to “limit” yourself to what probably is the most famous address on the planet, you’ll find it here: 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the location of the White House in Washington DC.

Completing this series of signs are a bilingual (English/Tswana) “danger high tension” sign from Botswana, a curious and amusing (in a double sense) temporary road sign from Bahrain, two street signs from Maputo, the capital of Mozambique, dedicated to notorious communist leaders (China’s Mao Zedong and North Korea’s Kim II Sung) and a road marker from Mexico City, showing the way to two different museums, dedicated to a prominent communist and a fantastic paintress: Leon Trotsky and Frida Kahlo.

We have also updated accordingly the following theme pages: Signs by Language, Berlin East-Berlin West, Children Everywhere and Atypical places in the USA.

12/2/2009

We've been quite industrious since the beginning of this year so we present you today 29 new signs. Five new countries from three continents come now in our site: Burkina Fasso, with a road warning against (typical African) cows; Zimbabwe, also with an animal warning sign, in this case featuring a wild dog; Saudi Arabia, with a monkey warning, quite unusual for this part of the world; and Albania and Belgium, both in the form of a road marker from a town with a peculiar name in English: Puke (single & combined) and Silly, respectively.

Those above are not the only animal signs we added in this batch. We also have incorporated a kiwi sign from New Zealand, an elephant crossing sign from Malaysia, a funny manga-style Japanese cow warning sign, a British sign warning about police dogs (single & combined), an American sign cautioning for wild horses (single & combined), a very cute cat crossing sign from Israel, an Australian road sign informing about the presence of possums (single & combined) and a more general sign with a bird advising drivers to slow down in a wildlife crossing spot, also from Australia.

Talking about curious names, we threw in some new funny signs with sexual connotations. From the States, two street signs (Felch Avenue in Jacksonville and Dick Street in Jersey City) and one park sign (Big Bone Lick State Park, in Kentucky). From Ireland, two road signs from the towns of Muff and Nobber. And from Hong Kong two signs from streets with dubious names: Wan King Path and Fuk Man Road. We also included a curiosity in this "sex section": a road marker from the Russian city of Shapki, which name, written in Cyrillic, results in... hmm... a surprise in English.

And finally, four more signs: a Russian stop sign, also with Cyrillic characters, an Israeli beach sign prohibiting children under 8 to bathe there, a Dutch sign asking bikers to press a button to cross the street and a hilarious and at the same time weird Japanese sign, featuring an old man with a pacifier, asking people to be careful with the stairs.

We have also updated both Animals by the road and Signs by language with the new signs.

5/2/2009

This week we have added 21 new signs. We welcome a new country, Romania, and two new languages, Romanian and Gujarati. As you can see, many of the new signs have a purported high sexual content, even though involuntarily. You never cease to be amazed and amused with the signs you can find around the world.

15 signs in the new batch are European. From France we brought in three road markers from actual villages with names, we guess, familiar to anyone: Condom, Bitche and Pussy. Romania contributes with its own Clit, Germany with Wank and Petting and Austria with the renown Fucking (both the entrance sign and the exit sign, that is, end of Fucking), whose inhabitants are so fed up with the frequent sign steals that they recently even voted to change the name of their beloved village in order to have some peace in their lives (happily, it didn't go through!). On top of that, we have included signs from Moron in Spain, Middelfart in Denmark and Bastardo in Italy. From Germany we've also added a "terrific" road sign, from Frankenstein, a town near Kaiserslautern. The European lot is completed with three graphic signs: one cool Swedish toilet sign, a colorful highway sign from Finland and a pedestrian crossing sign from Russia.

From the other side of the Atlantic Ocean we bring you three new Canadian signs: a road marker from the beautiful town of Dildo, an unusual street sign from Toronto (isn't it Strange?) and a bilingual road sign warning against moose at night. And from the States, a couple of very cute restroom signs from California, for both men and women. Finally, we have put in a welcoming road sign from Gujarat, the Indian state where Mahatma Gandhi was born, both in English and in Gujarati, the local language.

28/1/2009

21 signs from 15 countries in 5 continents have been added to our stock. We welcome a new country to our site, Tunisia, with a sign in Arabic, English and French warning about a camel crossing, and a new language, Estonian, in a "Beware of the dog" sign. We have introduced 7 signs from the American continent. Among them, 5 US signs: two circle tour signs from the Great Lakes (Lake Superior and Lake Michigan), a carpool call sign from Oregon, an inspiring sign from the renown Lewis and Clark Trail in Idaho, and a warning sign for panthers from the Everglades, in Florida. This last sign has also been linked to our popular series of Animals by the road. A Canadian sign announcing a "high collision location" and a Mexican sign warning off a cliff complete our American lot.

Other that the named Estonian sign, our European stock has been increased with a multilingual sign from Ireland cautioning against car thieves, a Danish sign denying the access to a military fire range (in two versions: combined and single), and a "No dogs allowed" sign from France.

From Asia we bring in a Baghdad highway marker, a sign from Angkor Wat in Cambodia, a quite unusual female pedestrian crossing from Laos, an evacuation site sign to escape to in case of tsunami, from Thailand, an elephant warning sign from Malaysia and a "No rickshaws allowed" sign from Vietnam. Finally, we have put in two Australian signs, both related to animals: a striking "Beware of cows" while driving sign and another one advising you to look under the car not to crush eventual animals.

If you haven't done it yet, take a look at our page Signs by language, that we have also updated with this new set of signs.

22/1/2009

We just added a new series of highway signs representing 68 of United States main cities. As you can see by yourself if you click in them and observe the accompanying picture, they are not recreations but actual highway signs. We'll be enlarging this series with new additions in the future so we cover America's 150 most populated cities.

We have also lately been adding new content to existing signs. In this case, we have filled with short comments all non-state 2-digit interstate signs in the US, so you can, among other things, know how long the interstate in question is, the states it crosses as well as some of the most important cities and towns it runs by.

What's next? Well, we are working right now in embracing the whole world. And what does it mean? It means that we want to have signs from all countries on Earth (at least one!). Right now our collection encompasses 72 countries of all continents, which is not bad at all, but we pretend to be what we call us for: a whole world of signs!

9/1/2009

With the new year we introduce a front page with four new exciting subjects: in the first one we focus on signs related to children. It's interesting to see how children are looked at and depicted in different countries in the world. Burmese children, for example, look almost like adults while Japanese children tend to be "manganized". The general trend is though quite schematic, but you'll find many exceptions to that rule.

In the beginning of 2009 we want to wish everybody a peaceful year through real signs. That's what our second topic is about: road and street signs inspired by peace. From Spain to Egypt, from the US to Israel, from Germany, France and Italy to China and Japan, etc., peace ambitions shine on road and street signs of every continent. Road markers with the main cities in the British archipelago and signs from New York's foremost streets complete our front page topics.

We have also added four new boxes to our left column so you can quickly access your favourite subjects.

We wish you a continued happy and peaceful new year!

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