blue monday

Blue Monday is a name given to a date stated to be the most depressing day of the year. The date was calculated by using many factors, including: weather conditions, debt level, time since Christmas, time since failing our new year’s resolutions, low motivational levels and feeling of a need to take action. The above formula for determining blue Monday shows: weather = W, debt = d, time since Christmas = T, time since failing new year’s resolutions = Q,  low motivational levels = M and the feeling of a need to take action = Na. 'D' is not defined.   

This date typically falls on the Monday of the last full week of January. Blue Mondays in the past were January 24, 2005, January 23, 2006, January 22, 2007, January 21, 2008, and January 19, 2009. And the 2010 Blue Monday will occur...?

twenty-eight/blue

into the blue

twenty-seven/blue

deep blue desert sky

"And after a time we begin to make mental notes on the changes of light, air, clouds, and blue sky. At first we are perhaps bothered about the intensity of the sky, for we have always heard of the "deep blue" that overhangs the desert; and we expect to see it at any and all times. But we discover that it shows itself in its greatest depth only in the morning before sunrise. Then it is a dark blue, bordering upon purple; and for some time after the sun comes up it holds a deep blue tinge. At noon it has passed through a whole gamut of tones and is pale blue, yellowish, lilac-toned, or rosy ; in the late afternoon it has changed again to pink or gold or orange ; and after twilight and under the moon, warm purples stretch across the whole reach of the firmament from horizon to horizon." - from The Desert by John C. Van Dyke, 1903 

twenty-six/blue 

cross road blues

Cross Road Blues is one of Delta Blues singer, Robert Johnson's, most famous songs. The lyrics have the narrator attempting to hitch a ride from an intersection as darkness falls. But, it has come to represent the tale of a blues man going to a metaphorical crossroads to meet the devil to sell his soul in exchange for becoming a famous blues player. While this image, may be fascinating and evocative, the song itself plainly describes the very real, harrowing situation feared by Johnson and other African Americans in the Deep South in the early 20th century who were discovered out alone after dark.

twenty-five/blue

looking out the window with a blue hat on

In computing slang, hackers and crackers are identified according to their intentions.

   White hat hacker - working for beneficial purposes

   Black hat hacker - working for malevolent purposes

   Grey hat hacker - working with ambiguous ethics

   Blue hat hacker - working as an outside computer
security consulting firm to bug test a system
prior to its launch


twenty-four/blue

blue shadows

Outdoors on a sunny day, shadows can appear to be tinted blue. The shadows appear blue because the bright yellow light from the sun is blocked from the shadow area, leaving only indirect light and blue light from other parts of the sky.  Once you start closely looking at colors, you soon realize that simply reaching for a tube of black paint whenever you need to put in a shadow doesn’t work. The result isn’t subtle enough to capture a realistic shadow. 


Renoir, is quoted as saying “No shadow is black. It always has a color. Nature knows only colors … white and black are not colors.” 


So if black was to be banished from their palettes, what did the Impressionists use for shadows? Working from the then-relatively new theory of complementary colors, the logical color to use was violet, the complementary of yellow, the color of sunlight. The Impressionists created violet by glazing cobalt blue or ultramarine with red, or by using new cobalt and manganese violet pigments that had become available to artists.

twenty-three/blue

blue glass fall

The first major proponent of color therapy was Civil War General, Augustus J. Pleasonton, who became convinced that blue light could revitalize all living things. In 1877, Pleasonton wrote that blue light caused an electro-magnetic current to be delivered throughout the body by the nervous system, invigorating every organ. His claims created the Blue Glass Craze, a huge fad for all things blue including spectacles, window panes, wall paper and curtains. 

"It's like the Blue Glass craze that whirled about us seven or eight years ago - took everybody in. I myself went under blue glass at the time." ~ Walt Whitman 1889

twenty-two/blue

blue screen of death

The blue screen of death (BSOD), is the informal name given by Windows users to a system crash that causes the computer to lock up and the screen to turn entirely blue.  The blue screen of death can strike anyone, anywhere. At a Comdex trade show, Microsoft Chairman, Bill Gates, encountered the blue screen during a demonstration of Windows 98. Luckily, he had a spare computer standing by.

twenty-one/blue

sky blue sky

The molecules which make up 99% of the earth's atmosphere do not absorb any wavelengths of visible light. Molecules in the air are not like indigo molecules which absorb red light and give blue cloth its color. Molecules in the air are not pigments. However, molecules in the air do scatter blue light more strongly than red light. This means that white sunlight has its blue components scattered to the side while its red components keep traveling straight. White sunlight bathes the atmosphere of the earth. The sky is blue because molecules in the air scatter blue to your eyes more than they scatter red.

twenty/blue

november blue

“If you see a tree as blue, then make it blue.”   
- Paul Gauguin

Young children may color trees blue or grass red because their memories can't "bind" together the color and shape of an object.  Because the brain stores color and shape in different groups of neurons, researchers at the University of Wisconsin suspect that young children have not yet developed the ability to link the information stored in each. The ability to combine the different types of visual information apparently develops after the child's fifth year.

nineteen/blue

counting blue cars

Counting blues cars may not be so easy. Worldwide, silver has been the car color of choice for many years. In North America, silver is the number one favorite. White is second, black is third and red is fourth. Even with enticing color names like Blue Flame, Hurricane Blue, Dyno Blue, Laguna Blue, Indigo Blue Mica, Laser Blue, Razor Blue Metallic, Racing Blue and Winning Blue, blue cars are still rare enough that counting them is an interesting (if odd) activity. I do it, but I'm obsessed!

eighteen/blue

winter is blue

The color of ice can be used to estimate its strength and even how long it has been frozen. Arctic Ocean ice is white during its first year because it is full of bubbles. Light will travel only a short distance before it is scattered by the bubbles and reflected back out. As a result, little absorption occurs, and the light leaves with the same color it had when it went in.
During the summer, the ice surface melts and new overlying ice layers compress the remaining air bubbles. Now, any light that enters travels a longer distance within the ice before it emerges. This gives the red end of the spectrum space enough to be absorbed, and the light returned at the surface is blue.
Arctic explorers and mountain climbers know that old, blue ice with fewer bubbles is safer and stronger than white ice. An added bonus for explorers is knowing that floating camps built on blue ice will last longer.

remember to click on image to enlarge

seventeen/blue

blue burns orange

Blue has had a long and topsy-turvy history in the Western world. Once considered a hot color, it is now icy cool. In Goethe's book "Theory of Color" published in 1810, blue is described as active, warm and luminous. Yellow, it's polar opposite, is passive, weak and cold. There are many differences in the contemporary artist's definition of warm/cool colors.  However, some will agree that French ultramarine, cobalt and cerulean are warm and Prussian blue, phthalo blue and cyan blue  are cool. Or not.

sixteen/blue

blue eyes blue

In 2008, scientists tracked down a genetic mutation that leads to blue eyes. It occurred between 6,000 and 10,000 years ago. Researchers state that before then, blue eyes did not exist. The prevalence of blue eye color among Caucasians in the United States is recorded at about 33 percent for those born from 1936-1951 compared with 57 percent for those born from 1899-1905. The plunge in the past few decades has taken place at a remarkable rate. Blue eyes have become increasingly rare. 

sixteen/blue

black gives way to blue

Several large brand name companies are associated with their corporate colors. IBM - Big Blue - signifies stability and conservatism. In corporate color symbolism Black is Power. Elegant. Secretive. IBM's logo was black from 1924-1946.  In 1948 it became blue. Blue is Loyal. Peaceful. Trustworthy. Today blue is the most popular and neutral international corporate color.

fifteen/blue

chinese laundry blues

Bluing, laundry blue, or washing blue is a household product used to improve the appearance of textiles, especially white fabrics. White fabrics acquire a slight color cast after use. Adding a trace of blue color to the slightly off-white color of these fabrics makes them appear whiter. Blue colorings have been added to rinse water for centuries, first in the form of powder blue or smalt, or by adding small lumps of indigo and starch, called stone blue. After the invention of synthetic ultramarine and Prussian blue it was manufactured by many companies, including Reckitt's Crown Blue and Dolly Blue.

fourteen/blue

blue twilight

According to the Vedic tradition, twilight is the most auspicious time of the day with the greatest mental and spiritual clarity. It is a liminal time of constant transition and change - a time that is neither day or night and when both the sun and the moon share the same sky. In French it is called "l'heure bleue" or "the blue hour".

thirteen/blue

chasing blue sky

A blue sky law is a state law in the United States that regulates the offering and sale of securities to protect the public from fraud. The origin of the term is a bit obscure. Most people attribute it to a former Supreme Court Justice who wrote about companies selling stock which was not worth much more than a “patch of blue sky.” 

twelve/blue

red don't go with blue

"Trying to improve your performance at work or kick-start that novel you want to write?  Maybe it's time to consider the color of your walls, or screen saver. If a new study by the University of British Columbia is any guide, the color red can make people's work more accurate, but blue can make them more creative."

eleven/blue

mr. blue

Blue is the West's favorite color. This is true despite gender, social origins, profession or cultural conditions. Blue dominates. In the Western world, blue in all its shades has been the most popular clothing color for decades. One of blue's essential characteristics in Western color symbolism is that it doesn't make waves, but is calm, peaceful, distant, almost neutral. 

ten/blue

don't it make my brown eyes blue

What's most notable about blue merle shepherds is their eyes. They can have two different colored eyes. Since this makes their appearance stand out from the traditional sheepdogs, it is said that they were once called the "ghost-eye dog".

nine/blue

blue moon

The next Blue Moon will occur on December 31, 2009. On average, there will be 41 months that have two Full Moons in every century. So it could be said that once in a Blue Moon actually means once every 2 1/2 years.

eight/blue

blues after hours

Alarmed by the rise in the number of people jumping to their deaths in front of trains, some Japanese railway operators are installing special blue lights above station platforms hoping that they will have a soothing effect and reduce suicides. 

seven/blue

der blaue blume

The blue flower is a central symbol of early German Romanticism.  It stands for the human wish to reach perfection and happiness. A metaphysical striving for desire, love and for the infinite and unreachable.  The color of a deep blue flower approaches the otherworldliness of this motif.

six/blue

am i blue?

Researchers believe that blue light therapy, though still 

in the experimental stage, could  help patients 

with certain types of sleep disorders, overcome jet lag, 

and even help resolve circadian disruptions 

in astronauts during space flight.

five/blue

blue offspring

"Blue Offspring Syndrome" is also known as "Blue People of Kentucky-Fugate Family" disease.

It is a form of methemoglobinemia, and results from a deficiency of a very specific enzyme called "NADH-cytochrome b5 reductase".  The iron within hemoglobin is oxidized from the ferrous (Fe2+) state to the ferric (Fe3+) state, resulting in the inability to transport oxygen and carbon dioxide.  Clinically, this can cause cyanosis, which imparts a grayish-bluish color to patients' skin and mucous membranes.

There are also acquired cases which do not arise from a specific genetic defect, but rather from an alteration in hemoglobin due to an environmental exposure.

four/blue

see blue sea

The ocean's color has two causes: water is a blue chemical, but also the water's surface is very smooth and reflective. 

If you gaze downward into deep water, reflections are minimized and you can see the water's true color. Water is a blue material.  It absorbs the red end of the color spectrum and transmits the blue end. If water had no color, then lakes and oceans would be grey or black.

three/blue

walkin'   blues

two/blue

fragmentary blue

some old some new all blue

one

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alice blue
aquamarine
air force blue
azure

baby blue
blizzard blue
blueberry

bluebell

blue green

blue violet
bondi blue

cadet blue
ceil

cerulean
chartres blue
cobalt

cornflower blue
dark blue

denim
dodger blue
electric blue
french blue

indigo
lapis lazuli
light blue
maya blue

midnight blue

navy blue

pacific blue
peacock blue

periwinkle
persian blue
powder blue

robin egg blue
sapphire blue

sky blue
slate blue
steel blue
teal
ultra blue
ultramarine

wild blue yonder

some old some new all blue

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