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Saturday, November 16, 2019

Norristown Borough Seal, Montgomery County Pennsylvania


The basic political building block of the United States is the municipality.  Unfortunately this area of social studies is rarely studied in classrooms across the US.  Most Americans are aware of the state, nation, and county.  But when it comes to sub-county division it gets really messy.  It does not help that some towns have to divisions like Doylestown Borough vs Doylestown Township, which have different local governments.  Also Doylestown Township has other non-incorporated cities within it.  All confusion aside, the smallest government in Pennsylvania is either a Township or a Borough.  But there are a few exceptions.

The County Seat of Montgomery County Pennsylvania in Norristown Borough.  At the County Seat you'll see the deep red Montgomery County Flag.  But at the Norristown Borough Hall you see a blue flag with a beehive upon it.  Not all municipalities fly a flag, but most simply put the seal on a background.  Which is good, since the quaintness keeps it low key.  A bold abstract like flag would be overkill.


On the flag of Norristown you can see grass, a wooden table, three bees, and the bee hive.  In latin you can see municipality motto, "Fervet Opus."  This can be directly translated as 'The Work Glows.'  According to one website, that motto comes from Virgil's Georgics IV.169, where he is describing the art of bee-keeping: Fervet opus, redolentque thymo fragrantia mella. "The work glows, and the honeys smell of fragrant Thyme." Interesting because Virgil is deliberately conflating the effort to gather the honey--opus--with the product of that work--the mella.(http://latindiscussion.com/forum/latin/school-mottoes.1403/)  Further out, you can see the a standard words in a circle "The Municipality of Norristown" on the upper arc and on the lower arc "Incorp. Mar. 31, 1812.  Note the beehive of Norristown is much older than the hive of Utah.  In 1812 Utah was still a part of Spain, yet to be independent of Mexico.



Here is a close of the two flags flying at Norristown Borough Hall.  Note that the beehive is black and white, but the words on the outer seal are blue.   One sub-county flag is flying by itself, while the other is flying next to the US and Pennsylvania state flag.


https://www.norristown.org/



Thursday, November 14, 2019

Ellesmere Island Flag


Ellesmere Island is an overlooked isle that sort of looks like Great Britain.  It was as if the cold climate made this isle shrink up next to Ireland to keep warm.  Basically its an upside down version of the UK in Europe.  Axel Heiberg Island is the Ireland of the arctic.

The flag of a would be Ellesmere Island is a special type of flag with altered UK colours and Canadian Leaf as the charge on the field. 


Everything balances out! Take a look at the coloured map.  East Anglia is the red zone.  Wales is the yellow zone.  Even Isle of Mann has partner, that being Stor Island.  Isle of Wight is paired up with Isle of Ward.  Graham Island in Canada matches to the Outer Hebrides.  Even the Orkney Islands has a counterpart, Coburg Island.  Just remember Coburg Island is more southerly while the Isle of Ward is northerly.   Finally Axel Heiberg is the Ireland of
Canada.

There are places in the world called New Scotland, New Ireland, and New England.  But Canada's far north arctic isles of Axel Heiberg and Ellesmere take the cake as winners!  After all this part of the North American remained loyal to the crown.








  

Fun Argon Element 18 Flag - Ar


Argon and Arkansas have the same two letters in their abbreviations: 'A' & 'R.'  Subsequently a fun elemental flag to make learning the periodic table and knowledge about element 18 is united under this flag dedicated to AR and Ar.

The Ar flag has 16 atoms in the blue framing diamond.  The are two blue atoms in the white diamont area which represent the innermost shell of electrons.  Also, in the middle area is the number 18, then the word ARGON, then the year of discovery in 1894, and finally its two letter symbol, Ar.  Arkansas already has a cool flag, know this state has a cool elemental learning flag for AR and Ar.






Fun Flag for Element 42: Mo


Missouri and Molybdenum have the same initials: an 'M' and an 'O.'  Acordingly, it a fun Mo flag can be made in the honor of MO.  Element 41, also known as Mo, a metal that any girl named Molly should appreciate. The Molly B. Denum flag maintains the horizontal tribar of Missouri, but the seal is modified.  Instead of 24 stars in a circle, we have 24 atoms in a circle.  Likewise, large test tubes replace the supporter bears.  The knight's helmet is now an elermeyer flask with blue some kind of blue chemical in it.  The circular yellow belt has not been modified.  On the compartment ribbon the name 'MOLYBDENUM' can be seen.  Finally in the inner circle, the atomic number is in blue, the standard atomic weight is in red, and the official IUPAC symbol is on the white area.

Here is the official Missouri flag for comparison.  Missouri's flag says a lot.  Missouri is a kind of jack of all trades of America.  It has a crescent to represent the south, a the bears to represent the west, the helmet to represent the East and stars to represent the north.







Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Fun Pa, Protactinium Flag - Element 91

What do you get when you put tin into an active pro-league category of elements?  Protactinium!  What a mouthful.  Strange thing about this element is that it uses the same letters for its abbreviation as does Pennsylvania, 'P' and an 'A.'  The flag has the year 1913 in the lower green field of the shield since this element was discovered in 1913.  In the middle is a flag of Germany to honor one of its fathers Oswald Helmuth Göhring while the other father was from Poland, Kasimir Fajans, who gets an double honor on the lower red ribbon in the compartment.  Also on the lower ribbon is the name of the element—Proctactinium.  In the upper part of the shield is the atomic number 91 and the two letter symbol Pa.  Instead of the North American Bald Eagle in the crest position, a white atom has taken its place.



Fun Element 27 Cobalt Flag - Co


Both the state of Colorado and element 27 share the letters in their abbreviations: 'C' & 'O.'  Consequently, the fun Cobalt flag is necessary.  Co or CO can refer to Cobalt or Colorado respectively.  The Co flag is based upon the CO flag but the colours are different.  Co is famous for being blue, thus three shades of blue make up the Co flag.  The letter C within the flag is dark blue, the middle bar is cyan, and the upper and lower bars are medium blue.




Fun Flag for Praseodymium - Element 59, Pr


Did you know when you write to someone in Puerto Rico the abbreviation has the same letters as element 59, Parseodymium.  Yes, both use a letter 'P' and a letter 'R.'  Consequently this opens up the Puerto Rico to a fun elemental 59 flag for Praseodymium.   Try to say that three times really fast! The only difference between the Pr flag and PR is, instead of single star, we have a single atom.