We can explain the wan blueness of this little world because we know it well. Whether an alien scientist newly arrived at the outskirts of our solar system could reliably deduce oceans and clouds and a thickish atmosphere is less certain. Neptune, for instance, is blue, but chiefly for different reasons. From this distant vantage … Continue reading Quote for Today: Carl Sagan
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Quote for Today: William H. Gass
The word itself has another color. It’s not a word with any resonance, although the e was once pronounced. There is only the bump now between b and l, the relief at the end, the whew. It hasn’t the sly turn which crimson takes halfway through, yellow’s deceptive jelly, or the rolled-down sound in brown. … Continue reading Quote for Today: William H. Gass
Quote for Today: Christopher Moore
How do you know, when you think blue— when you say blue— that you are talking about the same blue as anyone else? You cannot get a grip on blue. Blue is the sky, the sea, a god’s eye, a devil’s tail, a birth, a strangulation, a virgin’s cloak, a monkey’s ass. It’s a butterfly, a bird, … Continue reading Quote for Today: Christopher Moore
Prussian Blue and Early Photography: Following Synchronicity From Diesbach to Anna Atkins
Scientific discovery and artistic innovation often occur together in unpredictable ways. How is this relationship shaped by accident and synchronicity? During the early 1700s, the color maker Diesbach was attempting to produce a red pigment from iron sulfate and potash in his laboratory in Berlin. He decided to be frugal and use some contaminated potash … Continue reading Prussian Blue and Early Photography: Following Synchronicity From Diesbach to Anna Atkins
Quote for Today: Philip C. Plait
If a little kid ever asks you just why the sky is blue, you look him or her right in the eye and say, "It's because of quantum effects involving Rayleigh scattering combined with a lack of violet photon receptors in our retinae.” ―Philip C. Plait, Bad Astronomy
Quote for Today: Neil Armstrong
It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small. --Neil Armstrong
Quote for Today: Shel Silverstein
Masks She had blue skin, And so did he. He kept it hid And so did she. They searched for blue Their whole life through, Then passed right by- And never knew. ―Shel Silverstein, Every Thing On It