For some, yes. It’s the index finger itself that’s considered rude (consider how it would look to us if someone used their middle finger exclusively to point ), Hence thumb pointing or whole-hand pointing.
I recall some debate about the origin of that. A fundamentalist christian once told me it was evil because it represented the cross of jesus with the arms broken off and fallen down, about which I was somewhat skeptical. Someone else told me that it was semaphore: a vertical line for the letter D (“disarmament”) and the two lower lines for the letter N (“now”), which seemed more likely. Or maybe it is just the footprint of the dove of peace?
There is no need to remember most Pole jokes, because they become reincarnated periodically with a different subject type. If you know any blonde jokes, there is a good chance that many of them were once Pole jokes, and probably previously were aimed at different butts before that, rinse/repeat. (Of course, that one about the polish remover is a little too specific for reuse.)
Found a picture. The triangle is indeed male, the circle is female.
I just read searching for that that in Lithuania they use two triangles, one upside down, the other not. Makes me wonder what they were thinking of.
A triangle has a right side up and an upside down?
Yes indeed. An equilateral triangle in this example, to be precise. The one rests on its side (you can choose which one you like best). The other rests precariously in an unstable balance on one of its corners (you can choose again which one you like best).
If it’s being rested on, is it a side or a bottom?
An image of a triangle on a sign experiences unstable balance?
The discussion is about triangles: θ[sub]1[/sub] + θ[sub]2[/sub] + θ[sub]3[/sub] = 180° – so please fail to be, um, obtuse.
In this particular case it is θ[sub]1[/sub] = θ[sub]2[/sub] = θ[sub]3[/sub] = 60°, which is just neither acute nor obstuse. 
Just as I was saying. Ot trying to.
But I think I will let it rest at that before being accused of hijacking :dubious:
This is about Universal Symbols:trade_mark:, so I offer a smiley 
and wave goodbye for tonight. 
60° is indeed acute. Equilateral triangles *are *acute triangles.
This unstable equilibrium stuff brings to mind the taijitu and bagua, but I left that out because while I think many educated people recognize yin and yang, I’m not sure they are quite universal.
You just quoted part of the OP without attibution. Did you mean to add something to that?
I’m thinking musical notes are pretty universally recognized at this point. ♬
That’s a good one. Though even they aren’t truly universal - in Germany they use similar symbols but for different meanings, which is annoying if you’ve just started learning an instrument in England and then move to Germany.
It was designed specifically for the organisation CND, so I don’t see how there can be any debate about why it’s designed like it is. The actual designer says:
He goes on to say that he considered using a Christian cross but decided against it.
It wasn’t copyrighted due to the principle that everyone should be in favour of peace, but, still it had one original designer who has explicitly explained what the design is.
I thought I’d pounce on this early. I’ll read through the other responses later.
The sign stuck on a pole next to the road is actually not universal.
In Japan, it’s a triangle with the point down and the kanji for <stop> on it.
In the USA, it’s a red octagon with the word STOP on it.
–G!
In the United States and almost all of Europe, that is.
Like the *floppy disk = save icon *problem, I suspect the *handset = telephone number *association will be gone soon as well. Even in the 1980’s and 1990’s the abundance of land line phones meant people would recognize the handset symbol as somehow associated with their phone – even the newfangled variations of telephones tended to have something resembling a handset just because the average human head has the ears and mouth located in a way that makes it best for some kind of talk & listen device to be in that kind of a shape.
Now, though, with the super-sensitive microphones on relatively flat cell-phones, there’s no need for a handset and the icon will be less and less familiar.
–G!
On the subject of obsolete symbols, here’s a traffic sign that you might see while driving in the UK. It’s at least two or three generations out of date by now, but still in use: What’s this sign?
It’s a camera. The sign is used to warn motorists that speed cameras are in use in the area.
Danger - Annie Leibovitz ahead!
Speaking of road signs, I always thought it was interesting that a UK sign warning of an upcoming railway crossing shows the train (or at least the locomotive*), but a Canadian sign shows the track.
At the crossing itself is the traditional crossbuck, which in Canada is white with a red border and no words.
*The locomotive symbol is for an uncontrolled crossing. A sign warning of a controlled crossing has a symbol of a gate, which looks like a picket fence.
And in the “guess the sign” category, there was one of these signs, with an accompanying arrow, on the main street of the town where I grew up. What does it mean?
[spoiler]The blue sign with a white question mark means “tourist information centre ahead”. You would think it would have some variant of the letter “i”, but no… ETA: here’s another version of the ? sign flagging the way to the tourist information centre just off Highway 420, the Rainbow Bridge Approach*, as it becomes a surface street upon entering the city of Niagara Falls. Newer versions like this have the word “information” underneath the question mark.
*…and if that doesn’t sound like some kind of elaborate pot-related double entendre…[/spoiler]