Other common issues - crosswalks and fire hydrants are common questions too, and crosswalks are not called that in most of the world and fire hydrants look pretty different depending on country.

Even as someone who lived a long time in the US, I've failed a bunch of these on unclear definitions.

When you say "stoplights", is that just the lights themselves, or also the poles that support them? Is a tile that contains 1/3 of a bike wheel "bicycle" or "not bicycle"? Is a coach also considered a bus?

It's just forcing US culture on everyone in the world. Also see Meta deleting IG posts and banning people based on US politics / morals.

It proves that you are familiar enough with American culture, which could be a problem for some, theoretically, I guess. I don't get upset about that just like I don't get upset about the fact that we all have to know English.

But that's not the real issue with CAPTCHAs or with a lot of other checks that companies do.

E.g., Apple does ID checks when you create a developer account. I would love to see the statistics, but anecdotally the overwhelming share of failed checks followed by "piss off we're not talking to you any longer" occurs with non-US IDs or types of IDs that are less common in the US.

Access to global infrastructures is very biased, I believe, and getting more biased. It's not always the US's fault though. The world is fracturing.

At this point I assume the captcha puzzle isn’t the actual check, just a distraction while they fingerprint your browser and behaviour to try to identify if you are more likely a human or not. Just my thoughts, I have absolutely no proof that’s the case, but I don’t believe labeling traffic light is still valuable, we are way, way past that

> if something costs a half-a-crown, and you pay with a florin, how many tanners will you get in your change?

I'm fairly certain you'll be asked to throw one in instead of getting any change.

Those do appear to be San Francisco taxis and I agree with the overall sentiment, but the US is not the only country with yellow taxis.

Taiwan, Colombia, Ecuador, Australia, and many European countries all have (not exclusively, but they do have) yellow taxis.

Maybe "Prove you're not English" is really their intention.

Correction: they only prove exposure to American media/culture... I could solve captcha and understand most of it from having seen a dozen or so American shows and movies over my teenage years... Even before I ever travelled to America.

Interesting I very often get captchas to find motorcycles, crosswalks, and red lights that are definitely not from the US.

Some sites take this to a ridiculous extreme. Just try Haathi trust and it asks for a proof at EVERY refresh.

Yes. Making meaning often requires context. The study of this is often referred to as pragmatics.

(2017)

where do i collect my passport?

-Post removed as rate limiting on HN does not allow me to comment and keep the discussion going-