Colors-The Inside Story !

Color symbolism is the use of color as a representation or meaning of something that is usually specific to a particular culture or society. Context, culture and time are certainly important factors to consider when thinking about color symbolism.

Some time ago, before the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, I heard a joke about colors: somebody informed USA officials that the Russians were thinking of painting the entire moon red to show their supremacy in space. Everyone was expecting to see the Americans getting angry over this, but instead they were very calm about it. “Okay, no problem, let them paint the moon red.” To which they added “We’ll just write Coca-Cola on top of it and everybody will know who the best is…”

So you see, same color, two different meanings: red is perceived as the color of communism and Russia used to be a communist country, but red is also the color of Coca-Cola, which is a very well-known symbol of the United States.

Colors are important in communications. Feelings, ideas, and emotions can be expressed with colors. When designing websites or brochures for International markets, colors are crucial. Not paying attention to them could result in expensive and often embarrassing problems… And you would want to make sure your website or advertisement campaign will be well received in the countries you target. Just think of the impact you’d have by wearing all red to cheer for one of Detroit Red Wings’ rivals… You wouldn’t want to be there… You’d be detested by the entire audience. The same could happen with your website. Make sure your website has the right color when entering into different markets. The wrong color could transform the best designed website and best ad promotion into a nightmare.Even in Bangladesh colors are crucial part of our culture. On Pahela baishakh(Bengali new year) people wear red & white. On our victory day people wear green & red.

Here are a few things about colors you might find useful:

Red

Red is the color of love in most cultures: Chinese brides wear red for their wedding, and red roses are the most common gift for St. Valentine’s Day.

Red is also the color of communism – the flags of China and Vietnam are red. The Former Soviet Union’s flag used to be red too. The army of the Soviet Union was known as the “Red Army”.

In Christianity, green and red are associated with Christmas. There is an Easter tradition to color eggs red – red in this case represents the blood of Christ.

Satan is also most of the time represented by the color red in icons and popular culture. On the other hand, Santa Claus wears red and white for Christmas.

In China, red paper and red envelopes are frequently used to wrap gifts of money. Though, on the negative side, obituaries are traditionally written in red ink, and to write someone’s name in red signals that you are either cutting them out of your life, or that they have died.

Red is also used to indicate emergency and warnings. Red is the color for all Stop signs around the World. However, the first Stop sign had black letters on a white background until 1924 when white was replaced with yellow. It wasn’t until 954 that all stop signs became white and red.

Green

The color of nature, environment, healthy, good luck, renewal, youth, spring, generosity, fertility, jealousy, inexperience, envy, misfortune, vigor.

In North America, because of the color of the United States dollar bill, green is the color of wealth and money. Also, the color green is always associated with nature.

In my native country, Romania, people with green eyes are seen as very deceptive people. In some of Shakespeare’s plays, envy is associated with the color green.

Green is considered the traditional color of Islam. It is also the national color of Egypt. But don’t create packaging or mail packages in green: It’s not well-received.

In some Asian cultures the color green is often used as a symbol of sickness.

Green is a symbol of Ireland; green is a strong trend in the Irish holiday St. Patrick’s Day.

Yellow 

The color of sunshine, happiness, cowardice, weakness, warmth,hospitality,benevolence,Sacred,mourning,strength,reliability,hope.

It is often considered as a color of shine, success and hope. While in many cases it is considered as a color of cowardice. Often people are called  "Chicken" which is referred to a person who is weak or coward.

It is also a sacred color of the Buddhist people. The usually wear red or yellow sacred wear. Also many Buddhist countries flag is in yellow like Thailand, Vietnam Tibet etc.

 
White

Color of reverence, purity, birth, simplicity, cleanliness, peace, humility, precision, innocence, youth, winter, snow, good, sterility, marriage (Western cultures), death (Eastern cultures), cold, clinical.

In India, people wear white after the death of a family member.

White is the traditional color of bridal dresses in Western cultures. A woman wearing white will be seen as a bride on a Western website, and as a person in mourning on an Eastern website.

White is also the color of snow and winter. Some associate snow with Christmas, forgetting that countries from the Southern hemisphere don’t have snow during Christmas time.

White is a sacred and pure color.  It's the color of angles and gods, as the color reflects that which is sacred and pure.   It is also the color of doctors, nurses, and others in the health profession, as well as cleanliness. In fact, the Japanese refer to nurses as "Angels in White". 

A white pigeon is an international sign of peace; a white flag is an international sign of surrender.

Blue

In Iran it is a color of mourning.

In China this is a color of immortality; workers’ uniforms; blue-colored gifts are associated with death. Azzurro, a light blue, is the national color of Italy. In Hinduism it is the color of Lord Krishna. For Egyptians dark blue is a color of mourning. In christianity it is the color of virgin marry.

In addition, it is the color of water and the sea, with all the symbolic references already discussed for that element - that is, blue usually indicates femininity, life, purity, etc., just as water does.

Black

Color of power, sexuality, sophistication, formality, elegance, wealth, mystery, fear, evil, unhappiness, depth, style, evil, sadness, remorse, anger, anonymity, underground, good technical color, mourning, death (Western cultures).

Black is also the most common color used for clothing for formal occasions; black is also worn by priests. Black is the color of the night, and of "evil."  Black can also be a color of elegance or class

Black, sumi, is the color of mystery and solemnity; the color of the night. Black expresses the depths of the unknown, and encourages the imagination of a different world from that of daylight realities.      

In Ancient Religious Meanings of Color -- Pre-Christian,Black was the color of Understanding (because it absorbed all light)

In the Japanese culture, until the nineteenth century, some women used to dye their teeth black because it was thought that black teeth would make a woman look beautiful.

Orange

The color of energy, balance, enthusiasm, warmth, vibrant, expansive, flamboyant, demanding of attention

The colors orange and black are the colors of Halloween because orange is the color of pumpkins and black is the color of night and darkness.

Orange is the national color of the Netherlands, referring to the royal family, the House of Orange-Nassau.

Orange is the brand used by France Telecom for its mobile network operator and Internet service provider subsidiaries.

Pink

The color pink usually serves two purposes.  It can be used to show childish innocence, or a characters child-like personality.  It can also be used to show a more flirtatious personality.  Pink is normally a color associated with girls and femininity. 

Pink is considered a color of good health and life - we speak of people being "in the pink" or the "freshness" of a newborn.

Cherry blossoms in shakuras have short blooming times and are fragile, they have been used to symbolize the transience of life in Chinese and Japanese culture. 

Purple 

Purple can represent royalty, spirituality, nobility, ceremony, mysterious, wisdom, enlightenment, cruelty, arrogance, and mourning.

Brown

Brown represents the ideas of earth, hearth, home, the outdoors, comfort, endurance, simplicity, and comfort.

In Islam 

♦  Islamic symbols express an identification with Islam, or a particular tradition within Islam. They are also used to evoke feelings, or to stand for certain Islamic beliefs and ideas. Some symbols, such as the color green, have been associated with Islam for a long time and in many areas; others are of more limited duration and extent. Muslim art often uses such symbols to represent complex ideas (see Iconography and Islamic calligraphy). Islamic architecture may also incorporate such symbols in the decoration of religious edifices such as mosques, khanqahs, and dargahs. The Quran does not specify any symbols or colors for Islam; these Islamic symbols are results of the understandings and imaginations of Muslim artists, politicians, and thinkers  ♦

Emotions

♣  Blue is seen as conservative. Red is power and aggression. Brighter colors such as yellow and orange represent warmth not only with emotions but also with temperature. Cool colors are blue, green, black or any color with a dark shade. When someone is feeling down or depressed, it is said they are feeling "blue." When someone is angry they "see red." When someone is seen to be afraid or "chicken" they are called "yellow."  ♣

Used as Therapy

♠  Colors are sometimes used in therapy. Colors have a huge effect on people who have brain disorders or who are emotionally troubled. The color blue has a calming effect on many people and lowers respiration and blood pressure. Red has the opposite effect. Some therapists use green to sooth and relax emotionally disturbed people who suffer from anxiety or depression. Some claim that the color violet is good for migraines but I doubt that claim because it would be used more extensively in the medical field. Yellow helps energize people and relieves depression  ♠

Colors can...

♣ heal and comfort

♣ alleviate physical, mental and emotional conditions

♣ help change your attitude which can be holding you back in your life .

♣ unlock your creativity

♣ change your mood

♣ release energy blockages

Just Sand ???

Composed of the remnants of volcanic explosions, eroded mountains, dead organisms, and even degraded man-made structures, sand can reveal the history—both biological and geologic—of a local environment. And examined closely enough,sand can reveal spectacular colors, shapes, and textures.
These images of sand from around the world using an Edge 3D Microscope. Make some space for the fascinating stories of these tiny characters.........

Lumahai Beach, Kauai, Hawaii.Bright green olivine is a significant mineral in Hawaii’s slow-flowing basaltic lava and is rich in iron. Its density allows it to separate from other sand grains in the rolling and depositing action of waves, which results in the accumulation that tints this beach a yellowish green. Dense sands like olivine are also resistant to weathering, allowing it to endure millennia of constant waves.

Northern Sahara, Morocco.The pitted and frosted surface of these grains is typical of desert sand, where grains constantly collide with one another. 

Many desert sands have a faint red color caused by a thin layer of iron that precipitates from the atmosphere and coats the grains.

Metamorphic minerals, which form at high temperatures and pressures underground, can become heavy, brightly colored sands like these. But color is often unreliable for identifying different types of sands.Like them on Plum Island, Massachusetts.

Here, the pink and red grains are garnet, but garnet can also be brown, black, green, or orange, depending on the chemistry.

The bright green epidote in the center can also be gray, brown, or nearly black. The angular, black magnetite—the most common naturally occurring magnetic material on earth—is always black, however, and is frequently found near garnet.

Makena Point, Maui, Hawai.

This sand, red from iron oxide, was found at Makena Point, Maui. It eroded from igneous rock, which was produced by the solidification of molten magma.

Not all sand is made of tiny bits of rock. Biogenic sand, which forms from the remains of marine life, is the major ingredient of many tropical beaches. The grains here are tiny fragments of a baby sea urchin shell.

The raised bumps on the white grain represent the sites of insertion for the sea urchin’s spines. The blue grain has eroded to the point that the raised bumps have been completely rubbed off. Like this one from Taketomi Island, Okinawa, Japan.
Looking like a puffy white star studded with little pearls, this is the shell of an amoeboid protist called a foraminifera, or foram. An estimated four thousand types of forams live in the world’s oceans.

The shells, called tests, are made mainly of calcium carbonate, which the animals derive from carbon atoms in the air and water. Forams thus play a significant role in the carbon cycle.

The glass-like needles are sponge spicules, which form the internal skeletons of sponges.

They are made of silica, can be found in a variety of bizarre shapes (including spiders and fishhooks), and are hard and sharp enough to cut through human flesh.
They surround the tip of a spiral shell, composed primarily of calcium carbonate, that has broken off and eroded.


Geriba Beach, Brazil.

Worms have burrowed trails into this shell fragment. Worms like these are abundant in the ocean as well as on land.





Delos Island, Greece.

Man-made objects can also become sand. This grain was found on the Greek island of Delos, one of the most important mythological, historical, and archaeological sites in Greece.

Delos had no indigenous marble, and an enormous amount of marble had to be quarried and brought to the island to erect the temples. Over the years, the marble blocks have eroded and the local beaches are now peppered with different types of marble. 

Micro-Photography turned out to be a piece of art

Crystals evaporated from solution of magnesium sulfate and tartaric acid (50x), Polarized Light. / Richard H. Lee, Argonne National Laboratory. Courtesy of Nikon Small World.

Crystals of Influenza virus

Quantum dot nano crystals deposited on a silicon substrate (200x), Polarized reflected light. / Seth A. Coe-Sullivan, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Courtesy of Nikon Small World.

Doxorubin in methanol and dimethylbenzenesulfonic acid (80x),Polarized Light. / Lars BechNaarden, The Netherlands. Courtesy of Nikon Small World.

Gold residue and gold-coated bubbles in glassy matrix (20x), Brightfield. / David Smith, Queensland, Australia. Courtesy of Nikon Small World

Collapsed bubbles from an annealed experimental electronic sealing glass (55x), Reflected Light, Nomarski Differential Interference Contrast. / David Gnizak, Ferro Corp., Independence, Ohio. Courtesy of Nikon Small World 

Microscopic image of alcoholic drinks:Created by United States company Bevshots : Vodka

Microscopic image of snow crystals

Microscopic image of Champagne created by BevShots by crystallizing on a slide and photographed under a polarized light microscope. As the light refracts through the beverage crystals, the resulting photos have naturally magnificent colors and composition.

Photo-chemical reactions under sub-millisecond thermal heating

Kentucky cancer researcher Margaret Oechsli tinkers with microscopic photography. She recently put the antibiotic powder mitomycin under her lens and viewed through polarizing filters, the drug gave off colors that reveal its complex crystal structure.

Image of Dopamine crystals viewed under polarized light by UK photographer Spike Walker. 

A cetaminophen Crystals

Marfa Lights

The Marfa Lights are named for their location near the town of Marfa, Texas. Marfa is a small ranching community on a Chihuahuan Desert plateau in the Trans-Pecos area of west Texas. Supported mostly by ranching, and more recently by tourism, it is surrounded by vast mountains and is Texas’ highest incorporated city. Marfa is known primarily for its famous Marfa Mystery Lights and as the location for the shooting of the classic movie “Giant,” with Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, Dennis Hopper and James Dean.

The Ghost lights of Marfa still shine as bright as ever, and are still as mysterious as they were when they were first seen by early settlers who drove their herds into the Marfa area in 1883.

Who can explain their source? Where are they actually located? How long have they been in existence? The mystery is no closer to being solved now than when they were first seen.

Robert Ellison came to Marfa in 1883 and off-loaded his cattle in Alpine. He then drove the herd west and on the second night out, while camped just outside Paisano Pass, he saw strange lights in the distance. At first, it was feared that they were Apache signal fires. Mr. Ellison searched the countryside by horseback. He finally realized that the lights were not man-made. Other early settlers assured him that they too had seen the lights and had never been able to identify them.

The Marfa Lights are reported to be from 1-10 feet in diameter. They are spherical and reddish-orange in color. They have been observed to vary their size and fly at high speeds. Numerous photographs and video footage have captured these lights in action. Marfa Lights are generally considered harmless. They are even rumored to have helped a lost man during a blizzard by providing warmth and guiding him home.

The ghost lights appear in many different ways to different people. Some swear they have seen them divide to form separate balls of light. Others claim that they have seen them move up and down. All agree that they glow as softly as a star at times, then brighten to the intensity of a stoplight. Sometimes they pop off and on. As they fade they seem to be receding. There are verifiable accounts of people being pursued by the lights.

Scientists have made numerous attempts to put the mystery to rest. In 1947, Fritz Kahl, a local war veteran and pilot, chased the Lights in an airplane, but came up empty. In 1975, Kahl made another attempt, this time with a team that included observers in Jeeps and planes. The “Marfa Ghost Light Hunt,” as it was called, featured “more than a hundred carloads of observers gathered between the two observation points, one at Paisano Pass and the other at the entrance to the old Presidio County Airport,” according to the Sul Ross “Skyline” newspaper. The searchers, “utilizing aircraft, survey instruments, multi-band radio equipment and about a half-dozen search teams,” were no more successful than Kahl had been in his solo search of ’47, and the legend grew.

Some believe that the lights are nothing more than high-powered lights from area ranches or the reflected headlights from nearby cars and trucks, but that doesn’t explain why the Lights have been reported since before electricity or vehicles ever reached the Big Bend area. Nor does it explain why there have been reports of observers hearing a high-pitched, “tuning fork” noise in only one ear while watching the Lights.

A Marfa lights viewing site has been provided for the public on Highway 90, by the Texas Highway department. It is located nine miles east of Marfa. Ghost light watchers can park in the area and scan the south-western horizon, looking toward Chinati Peak. Using a distant red tower light as a marker, one can be certain that any light to the right of the marker, which appears and disappears, is a Marfa ghost light. You will know them when you see them. There is no mistaking them.

The Marfa Lights Festival

The Marfa Lights Festival is celebrated every Labor Day Weekend around the Historic Presidio County Courthouse. Food and crafts vendors sell their ware while the Marfa community and guests are entertained by live music and dancing.

The Festival is kicked off on Friday night with the Marfa Lights Night Parade. Saturday morning, the more traditional parade begins late morning and travels through town with floats, the Marfa High School Band, fire and police trucks, equestrian entries and more. Each evening a special music event is offered with headliner groups making the end of a Marfa Summer a huge party. For more information, contact the Marfa Chamber of Commerce at (915) 729-4942.

Enhance Your Photography Skills With Microscopic Photography

Micro photography can be an interesting hobby, creating pictures that reveal a world much too small for viewing with the naked eye. There are commercially available microscopes with integrated camera systems. However, a homemade attachment can be used to place a camera in the proper position to take pictures of the images created by the microscope.

Now you might think it's much of the scientists work. Well who saids that you have to take pictures of blood cells or germs ! you can take shots of the available things around you just like what you do with your DSLR everyday. But just in a different manner. Don't be a trend follower. Now it's your time to set a new trend of taking pictures you cannot see with the naked eyes.

Good results can be obtained using amateur or hobbyist microscopes and low-end digital or film cameras. The process involves mounting the camera above the eyepiece of the microscope in such a way that the camera can focus on the image while all other light is excluded from the image. The system utilizes the eyepiece of the microscope as part of the focusing process.

In its simplest form the microscope camera adapter is a tube that can be attached to the microscope eyepiece and to the camera lens. The camera's focusing mechanism is used to maintain the sharpness of the image. The tube gives some distance between the camera and the image, allowing the camera to focus. The tube also excludes outside light, creating a circular image of the item under the microscope set against a black background.

Select a camera with a lens housing similar in size to the physical size of the eyepiece of the microscope. This often makes lower-end digital cameras easier to use with a microscope than more expensive digital single lens reflex cameras (DSLRs). The adapter can be constructed from plumbing parts and even salvaged parts. The parts need to fit together closely to prevent light from entering the adapter.

By using a lens to enlarge the image before it reaches the camera, this type of system works better with larger cameras such as DSLRs. The mounting system and housing of this assembly will still need to exclude all external light from the lens.

Digital cameras have several advantages over film cameras in micro photography. The image can often be previewed in the electronic viewfinder before the shutter is tripped.

In some cases digital cameras can be directly connected to a computer and images displayed on the screen. Digital images can also be manipulated for brightness, contrast and sharpness.

 

You Think You're A Photographer.........then what will you call them who took these shots !!

 A bizzare Mosquito head

A human head louse clinging to a hair

 Cut hairs and shaving foam between two razor blades.

Cigarette Dust 

The surface of a strawberry.Will you still love to eat strawberries after this?  Feel pukish?

 Bacteria on the surface of a human tongue

Household dust which includes long hairs such as cat fur, twisted synthetic and woolen fibers, serrated insect scales, a pollen grain, plant and insect remains