I’m fascinated by the growth, morphing, and over-use of clever short-hands. For example, those country oval stickers that started in Europe to identify a car’s country of origin, and can now be seen everywhere signifying anything (I myself have a “FOO” oval on my car). Or the I♥NY bumper stickers that were adapted to all sorts of affections, abbreviation-friendly or not.

Most interesting is when the paradigm shifts to accommodate a new need. For example, an oval sticker with an American flag in it, rather than an abbreviation of any kind. Or when the oval is green rather than white, with a four-leaf clover.

Now we in the blogging world have our very own hyper-accelerated instance of shorthand meme evolution and adaptation. You know those mini-badges displayed on some sites to indicate they have an RSS feed or whatever?:

Well, they have been sprouting like weeds, and now Taylor McKnight has taken on the job of creating and collecting them: Steal These Buttons.

For extra enjoyment, look at the GNU button, with an oval-sticker displayed in the blog button!