February 12, 2004

Microsoft takes on the Nazis

Well, not exactly, but a recent update to Office 2003 purged certain "unacceptable" symbols from the available font sets -- the swastika, but also (to maintain some bizarre sort of "balance"?) the Star of David.

Posted by David on February 12, 2004 5:32 PM

Comments

As in successive generations of certain software, annoying bits of code just keep popping up no matter how hard they try to get rid of them:

The Swastika:

The swastika is a very old ideogram. The first such signs preserved to our days were found in the Euphrates-Tigris valley, and in some areas of the Indus valley. They seem to be more than 3,000 years old. Yet it was not until around the year 1000 B.C. that the swastika became a commonly used sign, first maybe in ancient Troy in the north west of today's Turkey.

The Star of David:

The second-third century C.E. synagogue of Capernaum contained a stone frieze in which was carved hexagrams, pentagrams and even a swastika.

The Swastika: Constructing The Symbol:

The swastika had myriad other benign uses: The author Rudyard Kipling appropriated it as his personal logo; in World War I the U.S. 15th Infantry adopted it as their emblem; and even the Girls Club of America named their monthly magazine The Swastika (and awarded its members a diamond studded swastika pin).

While they're in symbol editing mode, perhaps Microsoft should take another squint at one or more generations of the corporate logos too...

Posted by: Peter Shriner on February 14, 2004 1:57 AM

But http://?.com/ displays perfectly well in the new IE 7 for Longhorn.

Posted by: Swa on February 17, 2006 10:02 AM
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