East Berlin's Ampelmännchen has inspired a new generation of pedestrian signals

When German traffic psychologist Karl Peglau designed an easytorecognise symbol for pedestrian street crossings in East Berlin he had no idea that it would eventually grow legs of its own The German Democratic Republicrsquos Ampelmaumlnnchen or ldquolittle street crossing manrdquo is not your typical tall sticklike figure Rather this stout and somewhat childlike silhouette with a flattop cap and a confident stride is as iconic as he is eyecatching Now at age 60 the little street crossing man is also the inspiration for a new generation of bespoke traffic symbols designed not only for pedestrian safety but also to attract tourism and devoted followers of their own atlasobscuracom reportedIn the Hessen towns of Bad Nauheim and Friedberg an Elvis Presley Ampelmannchen instructs foot traffic with his signature dance moves ldquoThe Kingrdquo lived in the former and was stationed in the latter during his years in the US Army In the Saxon cities of Zwickau Dresden and Leipzig female crossing signals with long braids and skirts known as Ampelfrau preside over pedestrian crossings Whether itrsquos because of the Pied Piper Ampelmaumlnnchen in Hamelin a silhouette of the cherished German cartoon character Det in Mainz or the newly installed Brothers Grimm signals in Hanau the birthplace of the famous fairy tale publishers crossing the street in Germany has become a much more fun endeavourKarl Marxrsquos likeness directs pedestrian traffic in Trier Germany Pic CourtesyTrier City AdministrationTake the riverside city of Trier in southwest Germanyrsquos Moselle wine region where crossing guard duty falls to social philosopher and revolutionary Karl Marx When the city was looking for ways to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of its most famous son an Ampelmannchen seemed like the obvious answer City administrators already knew it could be done all they needed was a pair of designs that complied with a couple of road safety standards One rule explains Nicole Lauer the head of Trierrsquos Public Relations and Marketing department is that the figures must clearly convey whether theyrsquore ldquostandingrdquo or ldquowalkingrsquordquo ldquoThe standingsymbol must also have a large red areardquo Lauer says ldquoso it was to our advantage that Marx wasnrsquot a skinny manrdquoLove MonkeyA Belgian woman has been issued a ban by the Antwerp ZooPicZANUNSPLASHAdie Timmermans has been visiting Chita a 38yearold male chimpanzee for at least four years and claims that theyrsquove developed a very powerful bond that can be described as a ldquorelationshiprdquo However the animal caretakers at Antwerp Zoo believe this relationship has been causing social problems for Chita within his group of chimps Because he is so close to Adie Chita is ignored by the other primates and is not considered part of the pack To improve his relationship with his own kind the zoo recently issued a contact ban forbidding Timmermans from getting too close to Chitarsquos enclosure and instructing her to avoid making eye contact with the animalShould I attend my own funeralA man has been getting a lot of attention after he spoke about being diagnosed with a genetic condition which will eventually kill him However what has left the Internet amused is a bizarre invite ldquoMy family very badly wants me to participate in a thing called a lsquoliving funeralrsquo where you gather as though it is the actual funeralrdquoAs good as realJapanese artist Keito has been drawing a lot of attention on social media with his incredibly realistic threedimensional coloured pencil drawings which are almost impossible to tell apart from actual objects Keito posts under the moniker Yassun0222K on social mediaBaby shark born in a femaleonly tankIn what scientists are calling a worldfirst for the species a ldquomiraclerdquo baby shark was born in a tank full of female smoothhound sharks in Sardinia Italy Parthenogenesis or ldquovirgin birthsrdquo have previously been observed in nature but never in smoothhound sharks12yearold boy lives off white bread fruit yoghurtAshton Fisher a 12yearold boy from the UK spent over a decade living only on a specific brand of white bread and fruit yoghurt before being diagnosed with food phobia Ever since he was two he would get scared and begin to cry if his parents tried to feed him anything but Warburtons sliced white bread and yoghurtSomeone just paid nearly 13mn for a cartoon rockAn anonymous buyer purchased a computerbased illustration of a rock with 400 Ethereum ETH a cryptocurrency with the current equivalent value of over 13 million The geologic doodle supplied from the free clipart website is one of a series of 100 such images