The Peace Sign

For years I've known people who would refuse to wear the peace sign because they said it was an upside down or satanic cross in a circle with broken arms. I've always felt they were complete idiot's, no matter how much I loved the person...then I just came across this article about it...which proves to me that they really are idiots.

Where did the peace sign come from?

By Melissa Breyer
More from Care2 Green Living blog

It is instantly recognizable as a sign of peace, but what is the symbolism behind the peace sign?

The olive branch came from ancient Greece, the dove from the Bible … but where did that circle with the chicken-footprint come from?

Rewind back to 1958 when London textile designer, Gerald Holtom, wanted to create a symbol for marchers to carry on banners and signs at a "Ban the Bomb" march planned by the Direct Action Committee Against Nuclear War (DAC). The event was Britain’s first major demonstration against nuclear weapons -- a 52-mile march from London to the town of Aldermaston, home to an A-bomb research center.

Members of the DAC came to the march emblazoned with Holtom’s circle-with-lines symbol; but to bystanders, its meaning was a mystery.

Nowadays we all know what the symbol stands for, but what is the meaning behind the design? Holtom created the symbol by combining flag semaphore signals, an alphabet signalling system where flags are waved in a particular pattern to symbolize different letters. The system was used in the maritime world in the 1800s to convey information at a distance.

Holtom used the signals for the letters "N" for nuclear and "D" for disarmament and put them in a circle. The symbol is essentially a logo for the concept of nuclear disarmament! Such graphic elegance.

Later the symbol was adopted by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). In 1960, the peace sign was imported to the United States via a peace sign button brought from the U.K. to the U.S. by Philip Altbach, a freshman at the University of Chicago.

The symbol had shown up here and there in the U.S. prior to that, but when Altbach convinced the Student Peace Union to adopt the sign as its symbol, the popularity of the peace sign grew immensely. By the late 1960s, the peace sign had become an international symbol adopted by anti-war protesters, and it doesn't seem to be losing steam any time soon.

See, for those of you who think the peace sign is a satanic cross with broken arms...you are really f'd up in your heads. :)

Cuteness. :)

Ripped off by Office Depot

K, so I needed some papers scanned and saved into a single PDF file. Thing is, they were fragile carbon copy papers, rather than regular typing paper.

I had 9 of them and she told me that because she had to take the extra half a second per page to set them "on the glass" that it cost $2.99 per page to scan it.

If they were regular typing paper and able to be sucked in by the machine, they would cost $2.99 for the first and $.25 for each additional.

So to scan 9 pieces of paper it cost me $27.00 when it should have cost me, $4.99. THAT IS THE BIGGEST BIT OF BULL SHIT that I have come across in a long time.

It took her literally 45 seconds to scan them, and it cost me $27.00 because she had to "lay them on the glass." You would think in this economy they would pull their heads out of their asses and charge a fair price. It should be the same $.25 no matter if it is sucking or on the glass.

She had a really bad attitude about it too, and my number one pregnancy symptom so far? Pure bitchiness...I was not near as bad as I could have been though. My mom called, so I had to turn it down.

I am feeling super bitchy though, I want to take it out on someone and I try not to take it out on Chris. It's not his "fault"...well it is, but it's not. LOL. I have a hard time controlling it though, it just comes out that way. This little incident with a worthless place, that I am no longer going to shop at...just made me steamy.