If you saw this:
what would you think it meant? I think it means exhaust fans are pleasant to pirates and not to everybody else, who run to find aircon. NASA Watch thinks it means "that big ceiling fans can send flaming arrows down to kill pirates and people crossing the street". It might even mean that if you see a pirate on a windy day, you should run for your life.
The UN, though, thinks it means "the potential dangers of being close to a large source of ionizing radiation".
Which goes to show that successful symbols are never designed by committees that are not experts in symbol design.
Hmph! I figured it out.
But it took long enough that I probably fried.
Yeah. If you already know what the radiation icon means, this one's pretty clear. If you don't, well ... you probably guess it's not good, but I doubt you'll guess radiation.
The top icon is obscure, but the ones at the bottom are clearly telling us to run away from the pirates.
Wha--? The radiation symbol is obscure? It's been used aggressively and exclusively for at LEAST forty years. I'd certainly say it is the least obscure symbol for radiation available.
I'm not claiming that it is a well designed warning sign. I don't think it is all that well-designed. But I understood it pretty quickly.
It is surprising you got it PirateDan because it clearly indicates that you should run away from ionizing radiation (of course you have to run very fast, esecially from gamma rays)unless you are a pirate.