A friend just told me that the peace sign came from the flag semaphore signals for "N" and "D". I was skeptical, but she was right! https://en.wikipedia.org/wi

A friend just told me that the peace sign came from the flag semaphore signals for "N" and "D". I was skeptical, but she was right! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_symbols https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_symbols What intrigues me about the flag semaphore system isn't just the character encoding, but the protocol: > The sender uses the "Attention" signal to request permission to begin a transmission. The receiver uses a "Ready to receive" signal not shown above to grant permission to begin the transmission. The receiver raises both flags vertical overhead and then drops them to the rest position, once only, to grant permission to send. The sender ends the transmission with the "Ready to receive" signal. The receiver can reply with the "Attention" signal. At this point, sender and receiver change places.