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hasenj

> someone unfamiliar with the symbol probably wouldn’t guess that it means “Danger! These rocks shoot death rays!”

Funny, I never realized that's what the symbol denotes.

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Neither did I, so I looked it up:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation_symbol#Radioactive_si...

In fact, the symbol is so completely unintuitive that ISO came up with a new version:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/10/New_radiation_...

... which to me certainly does connote "these rocks shoot death rays!" as well as the sage advice "RUN!"

The new version could also be interpreted as saying 'the breeze from ceiling fans can reanimate the dead'...

Agreed. It would make much more sense rearranged like this http://oi51.tinypic.com/15hzdcj.jpg

You know, that makes me think - arrows seem totally obvious to us, but would they be obvious to someone from a completely different culture? <- could be 'go this way'; it could also mean 'avoid as if it's the mouth of a crocodile'.

Well as they said above, to dig that deep the civilization needs a non trivial technology, so I would think any human with an index finger would get it (but the problem remains for those who don't have fingers).

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