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The peace sign is a familiar symbol -- and finding theories about its origin proved easy. However, finding a definitive answer was more difficult. Choosing the broadest concept, we searched Yahoo! using the term "symbols." Lo and behold, we found about 20 categories that included the word "symbols." Down at the bottom of the search results we found exactly what we were looking for: Symbols.com. We headed straight to the word index and found our way to the peace sign entry. Turns out there is some debate on the symbol's beginnings. According to some sources, it consists of the Nordic Tyr rune lengthened upward, while resembling the moose rune turned upside down. In Germany
and Austria it is often called the Todesrune, the rune of death -- an inverted life rune. Not exactly peaceful. Other sources claim the symbol was conceived by placing the international flag symbols for N and D (Nuclear Disarmament) on top of each other, and circumscribing the combination with a circle. This explanation led us to try another Yahoo! search, this one on "signal flags." Results included a perfect site called International Signal Flags. There we checked out the Semaphore Flags and sure enough, when placed on top of each, N and D look just like the peace symbol. Symbols.com mentions that some people believe the peace sign was invented by Lord Bertrand Russell. Not knowing Bertrand
Russell from Barney Rubble, we simply typed Lord Bertrand Russell into Yahoo! and discovered an entire category dedicated to the good Lord. We checked out several of the sites, and although he is credited with being one of the most important logicians of the 20th century and a "renowned peace advocate," we couldn't find anything about his contribution to the peace symbol.
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