Monday, June 29, 2009

Rainy Day Online Fun

-The Family CornerThe Family Time section has kid's crafts and recipes that you can check out each week. You will always find fresh ideas!

-ChildFun.com

Crafts, activities and fun for the entire family. GREAT holiday features!

-Crayola Activity Pages: Free registration to access coloring pages, crafts and activities. Great stuff!

Travel With Kids

An About.com site. Teresa has a newsletter, a board and links. Any kind of travel; short trips or long, you can find the information and tips here!

Family Education Network

Choose an age group then start checking out the activities, resources and boards. Theyhope to encourage parents to become more involved in their child's education. The age divisions are very helpful!

Amazing Kids

Contests and stories of kids doing amazing things!

Nancy Drew Mystery Site

A new mystery each month online, plus a game, discussion, lesson plans, articles and essays. For grown-up fans too!

Family of Nature Websites

This is a great group of sites! The butterfly, hummingbird, dragonfly and birds all have their own sites with everything you need to know. For big and little people!

Grimmway Farms Kids Page

The history of carrots, trivia, growing tips and a cookie recipe from a carrot farm!

Windows to the Universe

Earth and Space Sciences from the University of Michigan. Games, images, mission info., myths and culture and current news. You have to go here to see how neat this is. It is for kids a little older, but Mom and Dad could help the small ones take a peek!

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Who Designed the Peace Symbol?

The first peace symbol design was conceived by British graphic artist Gerald Holtom as a symbol for nuclear disarmament. The simple intersection of three lines inside a circle has endured as one of the most recognizable icons in the world and has been associated with a number of peace and social justice movements. Many people have speculated on just what the symbol represents; some religious zealots even claim it signifies Christ on the cross with arms broken, or a Teutonic rune representing death and despair. But the truth is not so mysterious.

In 1958 a group of peace activists, clergy, and Quakers in Great Britain were organizing a rally to draw attention to the growing worldwide stockpile of nuclear weapons. The rally, which would eventually draw more than 5,000 people to Trafalgar Square in London, was to be a peaceful walk to the town of Aldermaston, site of an atomic weapons research plant.

Holtom, a commercial artist and textile designer involved in the movement, suggested that the demonstrators carry flags and posters with a simple visual symbol he had created. A graduate of the Royal College of Arts, Holtom presented his design to the Peace News office in London and to the Direct Action Committee Against Nuclear War (one of the founding organizations of what would become the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, or CDC).

A conscientious objector during World War II, Holtom acknowledged two inspirations for his design. He combined the military semaphore (flag) symbols for the letters "N" and "D" to represent Nuclear Disarmament.

The semaphore symbols for the letter "D" and "N" (top) and then combined (bottom) to represent Nuclear Disarmament.

Later, in a letter, Holtom also admitted that the symbol reflected his mood at the time. "I was in despair," he wrote. "Deep despair. I drew myself: the representative of an individual in despair, with hands palm outstretched outwards and downwards in the manner of Goya's peasant before the firing squad. I formalized the drawing into a line and put a circle around it."

Two sketches for the 1958 protest march as drawn by Gerald Holtom, showing the first representations of the peace symbol.



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