Economist, Dec 10, 2016

choi

(1) Calm Before the Storm? The shortcomings in the president-elect backing of an admirable but neglected country.  
http://www.economist.com/news/ch ... admirable-neglected
("Almost the entire Republican establishment of seasoned Asia experts has refused to serve under him. So those handling policy towards Asia are notable for their inexperience or for their ideological inclination to favour Taiwan over those once disparaged as 'ChiComs' ")

My comment:
(a) The "country" in the title is Taiwan.
(b) There is no need to read the rest of the article.

(2) Flags down l Obituary: Whitney Smith, Vexillologist, Died on November 17th; The world's greatest expert on flags was 76.
http://www.economist.com/news/ob ... -vexillologist-died

Quote:

"PEOPLE die for flags and kill for them. But until Whitney Smith, nobody studied them properly. He coined (aged 17) the name for the discipline, from vexillum, Latin for a military standard, and it consumed, fired and shaped his life.

"Flags of a kind date back at least 5,000 years—he liked to cite an ancient Iranian one, made from copper. But their modern significance, he argued (and who would contradict him?), started with the 16th-century Dutch revolt against Spain. For the first time it was not a state or monarch being symbolised, but a people, a language, a culture and a cause.

My comment:
(a) Whitney Smith was born and died in Massachusetts.
(b) There is no need to read the rest of this obituary. In fact the first quotation is meant to show what "vexillologist" means in the title -- and for that purpose only.

(c) Regarding the second quotation.
(i) Andrew Lawler, The World in Between; 5,000 years ago, a long-buried society in the Iranian desert helped shape the first urban age. Archaeology, November/December 2011.
http://archive.archaeology.org/1 ... ahad_tepe_yaha.html

Quote: "Iranian archaeologist Ali Hakemi was working at another [archaeological] site, Shahdad [in present-day eastern Iran] * * * Shahdad's metalworkers also created such remarkable artifacts as a metal flag dating to about 2400 BC. Mounted on a copper pole topped with a bird, perhaps an eagle, the squared flag depicts two figures facing one another on a rich background of animals, plants, and goddesses. The flag has no parallels and its use is unknown."
(ii) Here is what the copper flag looks like.

Shahdad Standard circa 2400 BC, Iran.
https://www.reddit.com/r/vexillo ... circa_2400_bc_iran/
(iii) Here is what Shahdad Standard represented.
http://scontent.cdninstagram.com ... wMTg1Mjc1OTI4MTEz.2

(d) For the flag associated with "Dutch revolt against Spain," see Prince's Flag
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince's_Flag