Ok, I'm used to the usual warnings that you come across in the USA...you know, the ones that say, "Plastic bags can be dangerous. To avoid suffocation, keep this bag away from babies and small children." (That's taken off a bag that I have here - slightly misleading, though, since I assume that the real way to avoid suffocation is by not putting the bag on your head - it has nothing to do with the proximity of babies and small children...but I digress). Or the usual warnings that cigarettes are dangerous and known to cancer (over here there's a simple warning: "Cigarettes kill.") I can accept those sorts of warnings, although they do sometimes make you wonder. But lately, I've seen a few signs that have really made me question the future of the human race...
There was one in Italy, right up by a big public fountain in San Marcos Square (we're not talking a drinking fountain, folks, we're talking the kind of fountain you throw pennies into, and that aren't the cleanest things around). It said, "DO NOT wash your face or feet in this fountain." Um, wouldn't that be a foregone conclusion? But no, it wasn't - since I counted at least three people washing their hands/faces in the fountain water (tourist people, not homeless people), and saw two different tourists filling up their drinking water bottles in the fountain water.
And then there was a sign today, in a large and well-traveled area of the London Underground (the tube). It said, in big letters: This area is under video surveillance. ANYONE who urinates in this area will be dealt with by the police. Ok, how many people have urinated in that area? And why aren't there any signs telling people not to let their little kids pee in water bottles on the tube? I mean, where do we draw the line?
And finally, their was the one that said, "Beware of kerb" with a picture of a person tripping over a curb (oh, excuse me - kerb). That one, though, I didn't notice until AFTER I had tripped over the curb... 
One more cool sign: in Pompeii, there were signs on the front of peoples' houses that said "Cave Canem". In Latin, that means "Beware of dog". Pretty cool that they had that sign all the way back then, huh?