"Even though my glory years of competitive spelling are long past, some things stay with a person. As I explore, I can't help but notice signs which contain spelling errors. I capture them for posterity with my handy digital camera and present them here for our collective education and entertainment." Thirty-two pages of misspelled signs in the New York metropolitan area -- each one lovingly annotated.
posted by milquetoast on Aug 11, 2009 - 50 comments

Roto-Spheres were dramatic animated neon signs, with 16 spikes projecting from a central ball; the left and right hemispheres rotated in opposite directions, and the whole thing rotated as well. Only 234 were made, and not many are still working, but despite their rarity, they are somehow instantly recognizable as the ultimate signs of the atomic age.
posted by adamrice on Feb 6, 2009 - 32 comments

Caught on Video: Stealing Obama Sign , and again, and again, and again, and this crazy lady, here, here, and here.! WTF . . . over.
posted by augustweed on Oct 19, 2008 - 121 comments

Society In Decline Project: Intrastate Commerce
posted by Dave Faris on Aug 18, 2008 - 15 comments

"My name is a combination of 'take photo' and the letter 'C' for Charlie. How on earth do you pronounce that, you might ask. Well the answer is you don't. You sign it."
posted by The corpse in the library on Jul 7, 2008 - 45 comments

The American Sign Museum is dedicated to collecting, preserving, and documenting historic and vintage signs from the American landscape.
posted by fandango_matt on Nov 29, 2007 - 13 comments

After the Flatbush Pavilion theater in Brooklyn closed down, people started rearranging the letters on the marquee to spell their own messages. [more inside]
posted by tepidmonkey on Oct 11, 2007 - 25 comments

The Aural Times - We Sing the News So You Don't Have To [from the talented mind of Josh Millard, a.k.a. cortex.]
posted by dios on Mar 6, 2006 - 16 comments

Blue Anus A small, mysterious neon sign in a window on the fourth floor.
posted by growabrain on Jan 13, 2005 - 64 comments

Experts Study New Sign Language System A new system of sign language developed by deaf children in Nicaragua may hold clues about the evolution of languages. When the country's first school for the deaf was established in 1977, children were not taught sign language but developed a system of signs to communicate. Childhood learning may determine linguistic rules ...They found that older students used hand signals resembling the gestures employed by hearing people, mimicking the entire event physically. But younger pupils - who had interacted with other deaf children from an early age - used a more complex series of signs. They split the scene into component parts and arranged these sequentially to convey the incident. The constructions resemble the way words and sentences are built in verbal languages, using segments structured in a linear fashion. This indicates that way the younger children learnt the sign language helped reshape it according to these linguistic rules.
............... Fascinating... /Mr. Spock
posted by y2karl on Sep 18, 2004 - 20 comments

"Before the invention of modern billboards, sign painters used to paint advertisements and company names directly onto building walls. These gradually fading painted signs are known as ghost signs."
posted by dobbs on Oct 8, 2003 - 28 comments

This Webcam features a live feed to a LED sign. You get to input the text it shows and then you can see it in real time via the webcam. This is one of the coolest things I have seen in a long time.
posted by thebwit on Aug 6, 2003 - 26 comments

Build your own safety sign. More available here. Create neat signs like this.
posted by internal on May 13, 2003 - 6 comments

The Big Book of Sign Language (from rotten.com). Have you ever wondered how to sign phrases such as "I shovel shit all day long", "I want to pull the shrieking voices from my head and smoosh them", and "Unlock my legs and get it over with"? The Big Book shows you how. Inappropriate? Yes. Hysterical? Yes. (Portions may not be safe for work. Link via Magnetbox. Thanks, ben.)
posted by moz on Jul 9, 2002 - 29 comments