Easily digestible tech news... http://www.techdirt.com/ en-us http://www.techdirt.com/images/td-88x31.gifhttp://www.techdirt.com/ Thu, 15 Nov 2012 17:00:00 PST Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120210/14024217733/dailydirt-bullet-blue.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120210/14024217733/dailydirt-bullet-blue.shtml

Different languages describe colors in ways that sometimes can't be translated exactly, and these linguistic definitions can affect how people perceive colors. The Russian language has very specific words for different shades of "blue" (and no term for "blue" in general), and Russians have distinctly different reactions to blue than English speakers do. [url]

A color-coded analysis of various English texts according to word origins can show some interesting patterns that could be unique to certain genres of writing. British literature has more words from Anglo-Saxon origins, but other kinds of writing has different mixtures... if only spam were easily identified by this kind of analysis. [url]

Ancient greeks wouldn't have described the sky as blue.... Homer did not use "blue" at all, and maybe Greeks didn't see colors the same way we do today. But other ancient civilizations didn't use blue in their written languages, either. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.

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]]> urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20120210/14024217733 Thu, 8 Nov 2012 17:00:00 PST Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120210/14562417734/dailydirt-people-colored.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120210/14562417734/dailydirt-people-colored.shtml 1962, and now Crayola has a pack of eight crayons specifically called "multicultural" that includes: black, sepia, peach, apricot, white, tan, mahogany and burnt sienna. However, there are other colors that have been used to label people, like red and blue. The history of these color associations isn't so black and white. Here are just a few interesting links on how we've changed looking at colors over the years.

• Red states and blue states didn't always refer to Republican and Democratic electorates, respectively. Red and blue were frequently used to describe American political affiliations, but which color represented which party was not consistent until relatively recently (ca. 2000) -- for instance, during the Cold War, who wanted to be described as "red" in American politics? [url]
• Studies of how linguistic descriptions of color affect the way people perceive colors have rekindled the idea that language can shape how people think. And that's doubleplusgood. [url]
• Babies used to be dressed up in all white, but then little boys started only wearing blue... and girls would wear only pink. Again, this convention wasn't settled on for a long time, and it could have easily gone the opposite way (boys in pink, girls in blue). The real loss is in gender neutral colors for children's clothing.... [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.

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