There Are Several Other Flags Hiding Within Norway's Flag

iStock
iStock

Norway’s red, white, and blue flag isn’t entirely unique—lots of countries use the same color scheme—but the Scandinavian country’s standard contains multitudes. If you look closely, you can find the patterns from six other countries’ flags hidden within it, as the tweet below from Melbourne-based demographics researcher Simon Kuestenmacher illustrates.

If you divide it into smaller segments, Norway’s blue and white Nordic cross on a red background also contains the designs of France’s flag (blue, white, and red vertical stripes), Indonesia’s flag (a red horizontal stripe over a white horizontal stripe), Poland’s flag (a white horizontal stripe over a red horizontal stripe), the Dutch flag (red, white, and blue horizontal stripes), the Thai flag (a large blue horizontal stripe in the middle, surrounded by smaller red and white horizontal stripes above and below), and the Finnish flag (a blue Nordic cross on a white background).

Norwegian Air cleverly worked this subtle feature into a 2015 ad that highlighted each of the flags hidden in Norway’s standard and labeled them with prices for airline fares to those locations.

Much like you can never unsee the white arrow in the FedEx logo, you’ll never be able to look at the Norwegian flag the same way again.

Fascinated by flags? Dive into this history of 25 flags that show up at the Olympics.

Book Your Flight: Canada’s International Hair Freezing Competition Is Here

If you're looking to instantly transform your hairstyle, head to Takhini Hot Pools in Canada's Yukon Territory. The natural hot springs there make it possible to bathe outdoors in extreme freezing weather, resulting in some impressive 'dos when people get their hair wet and let it harden. As Smithsonian reports, the practice has become so popular that there's now an annual event to see who can freeze their hair into the most impressive shapes. Photos of 2020's contestants have already started pouring into HairFreezingContest.com, and the competition looks fierce.

The first International Hair Freezing Contest took place in February 2011 as a spin-off of the local Yukon Sourdough Rendezvous. After competing in winter sporting events all day, athletes from the rendezvous would head to Takhini to take a mineral bath in one of the pools fed by the area's natural hot spring. The manager at the time turned the relaxation session into another competition when he asked bathers to sculpt their wet hair into frozen works of art. Whoever ended up with the best selfie won the contest.

What began as a fun activity among a small group of people has grown into a major competition. Each winter, people from around the world visit the hot pools hoping to take part. The Hair Freezing Contest is unique in that it doesn't take place over a set stretch of dates. Rather, guests compete whenever it's cold enough outside to achieve the desired hairstyling effects, e.g. when it's -4°F or colder. Throughout winter, competitors can sign a form proving they were really there, and if it's cold enough to shape their hair in the pools, they can snap a selfie and submit their work to Takhini. Categories include Best Male Photo, Best Female Photo, Most Creative Photo, and Best Group Photo. Contestants are eligible to win $2000, complimentary soaks, and free passes to Takhini's new facility when it opens in autumn.

For those worried about their hair falling out, the business promises that hair freezing isn't harmful, and dipping your head into the pool quickly thaws it back to normal.

Selfies will be accepted through March 8, 2020, with official voting on the winners taking place on March 15. To see some hairstyles in the running to win this year's contest, check out the photos below.

New Food Emojis Are Coming in 2020—Plus a Toothbrush

Emojipedia
Emojipedia

The emoji keyboard on your phone makes it possible to talk about vampires, dinosaurs, and yoga without typing a word. But if you want to use emojis to invite a friend to grab bubble tea, you're out of luck. That's about to change—as The Takeout reports, several food-themed emojis have made it into Unicode's new additions for 2020, including boba, blueberries, and tamale.

Emoji 13.0 comprises 117 emojis that will be made available to iOS and Android users in the second half of the year. New pictographs have been added to the animal, smiley, and random object categories, but texters who primarily use emojis to describe their meals also have plenty to be excited about.

In addition to the emojis listed above, Unicode is adding green bell pepper, green olive, flatbread, and fondue to its library. The fondue emoji features a flame under a pot decorated to look like the flag of Switzerland, the cheesy delight's country of origin.

The list of foodstuff emojis ends there, but some other new entries could pass for food-adjacent. After texting a feast's worth of food symbols, you'll soon be able to punctuate your conversation with a toothbrush.

You can see Unicode's preview of all 117 emojis for 2020 in the video below.

[h/t The Takeout]

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