Sexy Obscure Flags of the World

The Cocos Islands:

I love it!  Way to go, Australia.  The palm reminds me of the James Bond intro, for no reason.  But from a graphic design perspective, this is a disaster.  It’s cluttered and it looks like Islam is coming to eat the Southern Cross.  Great color scheme, though.

St. Pierre and Miquleon:

Talk about clutter.  For a tiny French dependency off the coast of Nova Scotia with a population smaller than my 1-square mile hometown, this is cuckoo bananas.  It looks like it’s from a deck of cards, and the manticores or whatever are waving hi.

Mayotte:

Seahorses!  The trannies of the briny deep, and one of the best motifs ever.  More overseas dependencies need to keep the pride alive by screaming their name on their flags and coats of arms. “Ra Hachiri” means “We Are Vigilant.”  Rad!

Chicago:

It’s not really that great–nor especially obscure–but it looks like Argentina and Syria moved to the Midwest and had a baby, as a friend of mine once said.

Seychelles:

Totally amazing.  Not only are the Seychellois a matriarchal people, but their asymmetrical flag is a fantastic intersection of gaudy and minimalist.  It doesn’t look like any other.  I think this is my all-time fave, after Brazil’s and Lapland’s.

And now, some really terrific incorporations of the Union Jack.  Hawaii:

Hawaii was never actually part of the UK as far as I can tell, but it’s like what might have happened if the US has stuck around within the British Empire the way Canada or Australia did.  Something like this might have been the American flag.

Niue:

I don’t really know why I like this so much, but I do.  The stars are wonderfully excessive.  It’s like they bedazzled the House of Windsor.

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands:

“Our Lion Protects His Land”?  I don’t speak Latin.  However, there is clearly no lion depicted in the menagerie.

This flag has a penguin on an ice floe, a seal on driftwood, a caribou with no face standing on four mountains that morph into a knight’s head, and in the center of the shield, a fire-breathing dragon.  That’s some major imperial pomp for a territory with only twenty residents.  Hilaire!

Gmail Briefs Jam

I like the Gmail’s new options. I never thought about it before, but this was long overdue. Most of them are totally gross and stupid, but I think I chose the best one (sampled here with an appropriate email from Stuff White People Like):

I picked it because it looks like a pair of underwears that I own which has drawn attention at fun gay bars in the past.