Flag Friday XXXIV

Flag Friday is a periodic discussion of the world's national flags; the project is explained and indexed here.

These discussions are about graphic design, and perhaps about nationalism and national symbolism in general. They should not be taken as critical of the countries, ideals, cultures, or people that the flags represent.

South Africa

Parsons: "Colours a little eye-jarring, but overall very nice design." Parsons gives it an "A", 85/100.

Michael5000: I've never been partial to the "new" South African flag, especially, and now that I'm looking at it I'm wondering if it's not the mixed yellow and white stripelets that bug me.  Very possibly.  It is, however, one of many flags that looks much better on the pole than it does in diagram.  And more importantly, it must be considered in the context of the South African flag it replaced:

Wow.  This was never a good idea, either graphically or symbolically.  I remember even as a child thinking that this was an exceptionally lame flag concept; from a grown-up perspective, apartheid-era posturing aside, it really trumpets "our state has no coherent national identity!" ...which is not really what you want from your patriotic symbolism.

So: South African flag = huge, HUGE improvement, but I do wish they'd gone for all white on the stripelets.

Grade (for the current flag): B


South Korea

Parsons: "Looks good on a T-shirt, not on a flag." It's rated "Too busy," and gets a "C+", 60/100.

Michael5000: The South Korean flag is one of the most visually distinctive and identifiable flags on the planet.  It takes the overflagged colors of red, white, and blue and does something really new with them, and it is one of only a small handful of banners that successfully marries non-Western symbolism with the European flag tradition.  I can't speak for how it would look on a T-shirt, but it sure looks great on a flag.

Grade: A

South Sudan

Parsons: Parsons didn't have anything to say about the flag of South Sudan, as the country of South Sudan was still several years in the future.

Michael5000: The L&TM5K welcomes South Sudan, two days shy of three months old, to the family of nations!  And complements it on a nice flag!  It is similar to the South African flag in palette and overall shape, but with a somewhat more traditional construction.  And see how nice those white stripelets are?  I'd like to do a side-by-side taste test of the actual flag vs. the same design with a white star, but I suppose the world's newest state has more important things to do than endure my second guessing.  Good luck, guys!

Grade: A-

Spain

Parsons: "Spain had a civil war over whether to keep this flag," says Parsons. "The wrong side won." With "graven images," it gets a "B-", 65/100.

Michael5000: Spain, much like many of the countries of Latin America -- coincidence? -- has both a state flag and a civil flag in circulation, the state flag being the civil flag overlain with some old-school heraldic frimframery.  But!  As far as I can tell from the photographic evidence abundant on these here internets (and from a short paper, "Spain," that I wrote in my youth at the encouragement of my sixth-grade teacher) it is the more complex state flag that is by far the dominant choice.

The colors are very distinctive and visible, and the horizontal stripes have a simple but unusual 1:2:1 width ratio that I like.  There's no getting around the fussiness of the pillars 'n' shield 'n' crown device, but I will waffle a little on my principles and not that the flag of Spain shares a certain very old school Iberian je ne sais quoi with the flag of Portugal; both countries profit by getting the action poleward of dead center.  Yeah, I can't help but like the flag of Spain.

Grade (for the state flag): B+


Sri Lanka

Parsons: "They probably thought it looked 'hip' in the 70s." Disliking "weapons," "bad colours," "graven images," and that it's "too busy," he gives it a "D", 41/100.

Michael5000:  It's entirely possible that they thought it looked 'hip' in the 1970s, as the colors it employs were indeed fashionable in that decade.  The remark is rather off the point, however, as this flag was adopted in essentially its modern form in 1950.

As a 1:2 flag it's a bit long for my taste, but that prejudice has faded a little over the course of our long journey through the flags.  Sri Lanka's is a highly distinctive and immediately recognizable flag and, like South Korea, Sri Lanka brings some serious local symbolism to its banner.  That lion is 2500 years old, y'all.  And, for all that he is not a simple geometric graphic element, he is on the other hand just a single-color silkscreen or applique.  It's not like we've got the state seal of New York on there.

The flag of Sri Lanka: I like it.

Grade: A-


Sudan

Parsons: Without comment, it gets a "B", 70/100.

Michael5000: Rump Sudan has a perfectly serviceable flag, but it's a bit on the drab side next to the new southern neighbor's.

Grade: B-

Quarterly Report to the Shareholders, Summer 2011, part II

(the exercise and fitness part, mostly)

Running

During July, August, and September, I ran 218.29 miles.  I've passed all of my running goals for the year except for the 600-mile mark, which I'll pass this weekend.  I ran in four events, 2 10Ks, a 4-Mile, and an 8K in Nampa, Idaho.  I'm running about as well as I have since high school, which is to say I'm still at the back of the pack but more assertively so.  And I'm enjoying it.  And I registered for a half-marathon in December.

Here's the street grid:

Orange represents the months just past; Red represents a long run made in the new and possibly final color on October 1.  Not that I expect to sweep the map by December 31; we're moving into mopping-up operations now, but mopping up is going to take quite some time.  You can see from the red line that I have to do a lot of running on already-colored streets to get to fresh ones.  The amount of new color that will be going onto the map from here on out is so modest that I'm not sure another change of hue would even be noticeable.  Besides which, I'm out of spectrum.

Just for fun, I made a similar map of my hometown, which is fairly wee and can be picked off over the course of a few visits.  As a joke with myself, I went on to make similar maps of Lakeview and Baker City, Oregon, two towns I had occasion to run in; in neither case, however, is there any particular reason to think I'll ever put a second line on the map.

Bicycling

Only164.94 miles for the quarter.  I'm maybe just not a cycling guy at this point in my life.

Biking goals:

(1) Ride 1000 miles this year.  Without radical and unforeseen life changes, this will not happen.

(2) Have "all-time" minima of at least 10 miles for every day of the month.  In the prime biking season just ended, I pushed exactly one of the ten remaining months over this goal.  It's exceedingly unlikely that I will achieve anything more on this one.

(3) Set new records for monthly mileage for at least nine months this year.  I would have to set new records for each of the three remaining months.  This is very doable.

Gardening

I've been very bad about the garden.  It has fallen victim not only to the time I spend on this blog, but to my increasing time spent running.

Caffeine and Cola

I remain fully addicted; it is not a lifestyle change I am focused on.


Weight

I remain plateaued, as I have been for quite some time, at just barely under 200 pounds.  I have only barely, barely, barely just started attending the new gym I joined back in late spring.  My upper body is grossly underdeveloped relative to my lower body, and whereas I can run 10 miles without too much trouble now, a tour of the gym machines leaves me hobbled for two days.  Some focus there, as well as erratic but improving attention to nutrition and portion control, might help me get back to trimming down a bit.

Tomatoes

I continue to successfully avoid the consumption of tomatoes.

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Any questions from the floor may be posed at this time.

The Wednesday Quiz comes between Habakkuk and Haggai

It's:

The Wednesday Quiz, in its third incarnation, is basically the same old weekly game of knowledge, intuition, inductive reasoning, and willingness to risk public embarrassment in a friendly and moderately supportive environment!!  With a minor twist that will probably make it rather difficult at first!  


Traditionally, it is a closed-book quiz.

It is very possible that answers will come out over the weekend.

1. Fans often lament that this writer only published five novels, although a sixth, Maurice, was published posthumously in 1971. Who is this famous Britith author?

2. The reputation of Belgiam's most famous painter suffers because he painted less, and less inovatively, as he aged. On the other hand, he seems to have spent his later years enjoying his life, which should count for something. Who painted "The Entry of Christ into Brussels" and this one, "Dangerous Cooks"?

3. It seems to account for about a quarter of all that exists in the universe (whereas the ordinary matter that seems so important to you and me is only represents about 5% of the universe). We first suspected its existence in 1934, and we still have only the vaguest idea of its nature. But it seems like it might be important. What is it?

4. He said "Do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself." In about 500 B.C., he was the Justice Minister of the State of Lu. And ever since, people have differed over whether his legacy is religious or philosophical in nature. Who was this influential thinker?

5. The 8th most populous country in the world is also one of the most densely populated. It has more people than either Russia or Japan, and packs them into an area roughly the size of Louisiana. What is this crowded place?

6. So, this concept is nebulous and argued over in musicological circles, but let's say it refers to music that does not have a key (e.g. C minor) -- that, unlike most music that we're familiar with, it is not constructed around a single pitch or set of pitches.

7. It comes between Habakkuk and Haggai.

8. When he saw the Wasach Front, he said "This is the place."

9. What is the Greek name for this letter? [Note: this question subverts Quiz conventions.]

10. This is not one of the best known pieces of its 20th Century American artist, but it is fairly typical of his approach. Who's the artist?

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Put your answers, and your five novels, in the comments.  

Element of the Month: Neptunium!

September's* Element of the Month:
Neptunium!
Np
93

Atomic Mass: 237.0482 amu
Melting Point: 637 °C
Boiling Point: 4000 °C

Neptunium, Element 93, is the first “transuranic” element, which just means that it is the next in line – in the sense of having one more neutron proton, which is pretty much where the elemental action is – after Uranium (Element 92). See how that works? So no doubt you are guessing based on recent experience that Neptunium is another of the fakey elements. But it’s not! Despite being transuranic, Neptunium is a totally sincere element.

Interestingly, though, clever humans with expensive equipment were able to synthesize fake Neptunium in 1940, a dozen years before it was isolated in natural ores in 1952. Apparently the hunt for Element 93 was thrown off because for a long time the Periodic Table didn’t take the actinides into account. At some point in our tour of the elements, I will probably learn what an actinide is and that last sentence will become more clear. For the time being let’s just understand that our Element of the Month proved a shy little substance, and was falsely discovered any number of times (including by Enrico Fermi, who was an awfully smart dude) before the University of California Golden Bears produced some by throwing neutrons at Uranium.

The Centerfold!

Six kilograms of Neptunium, apparently.

There is enough Neptunium around that, unlike recent Elements of the Month like Lawrencium and Einsteinium, it is actually possible to say what it looks like, to wit: it’s a silvery metal like everything else. Indeed, there is likely to be rather too much Neptunium around in the long game, as several of the other transuranic elements decay into Neptunium fairly rapidly, but Neptunium itself has a half-life (in its most common form) of 2.14 million years, which is a long time to have fissionable material lying about.

The main source of Neptunium is extraction from recovered nuclear waste, for instance at that massive nuclear cleanup/mining operation upriver from the City of Roses. The main uses of Neptunium are in specialized scientific equipment and as part of the recipe for an isotope of Plutonium that is used as a power source in spacecraft. There is apparently also research ongoing into how Neptunium could be used to produce a new type of “nuclear weapons,” which are bombs capable of destroying entire cities or, if used in a carefully coordinated fashion, entire civilizations or indeed all of human life. In theory, the threat such destructive potential being held by a limited number of key global powers could entirely eliminate the phenomenon of war!


* Neptunium apologizes for running late.

The Infinite Art Tournament, Round 1: Algardi v. Allston

Alessandro Algardi
1595-1654
Italian

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Washington Allston
1779-1843
American

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Vote for the artist of your choice!  Votes go in the comments.  Commentary and links to additional work are welcome.  Polls open for one month past posting.

So...

...how about we call it a September holiday, and we'll kick off again this weekend for the first of October.  Life in the biospace has been rich, is all.  Hope you're having fun too.

The Absence of the Wednesday Quiz as Explained in the Mythic Tradition

Night-dark Caliban the HouseCat knew that man-Michael was gone.  He saw Sue, fair-haired book-crafting Sue without Michael, and watched her meet her friends who had other lifestyles, who had different priorities and different values than those of the house of Caliban, and Michael, and Sue.   He knew too that there were many places in the city, places like pool halls and wine bars and all manner of gathering places, that would welcome Sue’s custom in Michael’s absence.  But Sue seemed untempted by these other possibilities, and returned every night to her studio to pursue her craft.

Caliban the HouseCat, loud-yowling, looked where he could for far-roaming Michael, but did not find him in the back garden, nor in the neighbor’s (in back and diagonal) yard through the gap in the fence, nor in front of the house by the great glossy-green rhododendron.  Therefore went he to ever-patient Sue to ask her where he might find the absent wayfarer of the macadam.  “Mrao?” he asked.  “Good boy,” said Sue.

Michael, road-weary, white-truck-driving, wandered through the lands of the east in strange patterns.  He had gone to make contest with the swift-limbed people of Idaho on racing fields, but after that, pursued himself by odd fancies, had found it difficult to return.  For many hours he wandered through the Saw-Toothed Mountains of Idaho, on roads that seemed direct on maps but in fact proved indirect and meandering, a maze for the sun-weary traveler.  Weary and hungry from travel, he was told by the woman at the inn that there was no room for him there, that there had been “overbooking,” but that she could arrange other lodgings for him.  In calculating spirit, innkeeper, she made to send him to inns of great price, in locations yet farther from his home, but crafty Michael, road-cunning, eluded her trickeries and found a cheap place by the freeway.

Auguries and strange adventures continually lured home-faring Michael from his true course.  In the county of Malheur, a man of Denmark blocked his way through the hills.  In the county of Grant three old women, eyes hidden behind smoke-dark glass, bade him render a picture of them.  In the county of Crook, he was startled by the deer and the owl and a strange maiden of the deep forest, dog-walking.  Truth: One night he was drawn from his inn by a strange desire, and found himself in a silent, ink-black forest, utterly alone.  On the day following, his journey home was blocked by a strange but powerful river across the desert, which to swim or ford would be certain peril.  In a strange land roamed Michael of many roads.

Yet after seven days of wandering, the Goddess of Wisdom guided Michael home to his house and lands in the county of Multnomah, in Portland, in Oregon, the City of Roses, where he was master of the heart and hearth, or at least wise co-signatee to the mortgage thereto.  And there he met, with surging heart, ebon Caliban, faithful feline, and picked him up, and told him he was a Good Boy.  And there too he saw Sue, working at her studio, and they embraced, and Michael said to her “Is not our lifestyle a good one?  Better, for us, than those of your friends?  Better than those available, at a price, from the merchants of the city?”  And far-walking, plan-drafting Sue, artisan of books, agreed that it was a lifestyle of much merit, and she welcomed the homecoming of road-dusty Michael, enthusiast of exploration.