English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

This fractal looked like a recursive stop sign to me, but when I asked my friend what this looks like, he said "a ninja".

12:30 AM

Fractal sign?

Not a stop, a "no entry" sign.

Aw right; I keep mixing them up.

Do you drive?

Yes, I have the "1st kind" license.

I don't drive nowadays tho.

In case you're wondering: IIRC, Korean driving license comes in various kinds, including "2nd kind", "1st kind", "1st kind for big", and "1st kind for special".

@DannyuNDos Well, don't confuse Stop and No Entry signs when you drive, that might be dangerous or at least costly.

@DannyuNDos Yes, I googled that. That's a Permis B here.

"2nd kind" allows you to drive only a sedan. "1st kind" allows you to drive a truck. "1st kind for big" allows you drive a bus. "1st kind for special" allows you to drive everything, including an excavator and a bulldozer.

12:39 AM

@DannyuNDos I know which people would count as big, but how do you decide if someone is special enough?

Those refer to vehicles, not people.

@jlliagre For your relief, Korean stop signs are written "정지" and Korean no entry signs are written "출입금지". So I won't confuse them here.

Weird. That sign isn't "do not enter", but "no going forward".

Yeah, that's correct.

Any differences from your country's standards?

12:50 AM

@DannyuNDos You're kidding, right?

????

I mean, any small difference?

@DannyuNDos Very similar. Most are identical. What is the one with a skyline or something?

Like China, Canada, and Australia, the United States is not a signatory to the UN's Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals.

So there is an international standard anyways and South Korea follows it.

ISO FTW!!

@DannyuNDos Why would we care? Most people stay mostly in their own state, which has its own signs and laws, and mostly nobody ever leaves the country much if at all.

12:54 AM

@jlliagre That... I've never seen that, so no idea. Maybe something to do with noises from an airport nearby?

Some of our signs lack words, though. I believe that makes them "international".

I know that doesn't help if you're used to base-7 arithmetic on speed limits. Sorry.

@DannyuNDos Maybe indeed, and what is the 30 km/h speed limit underscored?

So like that one hasn't got any words, so that should work internationally, right?

@tchrist Don't worry; Koreans use decimals. The real problem is, US uses miles, but South Korea uses kilometers.

Why would you want a speed limit in something your car doesn't tell you? That would be useless here.

And distances to other places are only in miles, too.

So everything has to be that way.

12:59 AM

@jlliagre That's a speed limit below. Like, "You must drive at 30 km/h or faster." That is commonly used on highways.

@tchrist Here, cars tell your speed in km/h. So no problem there either.

That would be bad.

:(

What's Korea's sign for that one?

Mooses don't live here. So we don't have a sign for that.

Though, vampire deer would be an equivalent.

@DannyuNDos Ah, that's confusing and possibly a misinterpretation of the standard. The sign should be blue, not circled by red.

That one.

1:02 AM

You have eagles, right?

No, we have vultures.

Nobody cares about vultures.

Yeah, because vultures don't appear in highways.

They do if there's roadkill. I promise you. That's why the eagles are there, too.

Here, it's vampire deer that are roadkilled on highways. Or cats on normal streets.

1:07 AM

Which sign is that?

Ahah! You use words, too!

I am satisfied now.

We have dozens and dozens of runaways every year. It keeps going up, too.

> Colorado’s runaway truck ramps were used 13 times in 2019, though CDOT suspects that some uses may have gone unrecorded, resulting in what appears to be a statistical outlier in comparison to subsequent years. In 2020, 30 uses were recorded, while 2021 had 32 and 2022 spiked to 44. So far this year, 31 trucks have taken advantage of them.

I don't think it's because the mountains are getting higher.

@tchrist As far as I remember, it's a "Purina Dog Chow Next Exit" ;-)

That's here on I-70 in Glenwood Canyon. It's really called that. They couldn't think of a name, and it stuck.

It's very important to remember who has priority, or unfortunate accidents may occur.

1:19 AM

똥섬 lit. Poo Island

Vail is so confusing.

You feel like you're playing Wheel of Fortune.

A cake of signs.

@jlliagre That was taken at the West Pole!

1:27 AM

Precisely!

By derechistas.

We had to put these up because of deadly accidents involving gigantic trucks.

I hate those kind.

See How an Insane 7-Circle Roundabout Actually Works | WIRED

We love roundabouts in France but the British are the champions.

►

That's crazy stuff.

I remember having to cross a similar although less complex roundabout in England several decades ago and that was a nightmare, especially as we have to drive left so you can't trust your reflexes.

We have lots of roundabouts in Colorado but nothing like that.

@jlliagre Yes, that was always my main fear doing that there.