

You Say Blue, I Say Cerulean - akkartik
http://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/2014/06/10/you-say-blue-i-say-cerulean/chronicles/who-we-were

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ColinDabritz
A delightful article. I would also recomend this article:

[http://www.wired.com/2012/06/the-crayola-fication-of-the-
wor...](http://www.wired.com/2012/06/the-crayola-fication-of-the-world-how-we-
gave-colors-names-and-it-messed-with-our-brains-part-i/)

The crayola-fication of the world: How we gave colors names, and it messed
with our brains, Aatish Bhatia, 6/5/12

It is a fascinating discussion of the origins of color words and how our
perceptions are, well, colored by them. It also touches on the XKCD color map
(search for "XCKD Color Survey Results"), another lovely insight into color
names and perceptions.

~~~
jacobolus
Woohoo! They’re using the image I rendered a few years ago of the world color
survey chart ([http://www.empiricalzeal.com/wp-
content/uploads/2012/06/wcs-...](http://www.empiricalzeal.com/wp-
content/uploads/2012/06/wcs-chart-4x.png)), instead of the old photograph
everyone used to use
([http://www1.icsi.berkeley.edu/wcs/grid.jpg](http://www1.icsi.berkeley.edu/wcs/grid.jpg)),
which was extremely misleading.

------
joshvm
Interesting this comes up now, there was a talk at my lab a couple of days ago
by Jim Bell of ASU - he is/was responsible for the Pancam payload on MER, i.e.
the main stereo cameras. The talk was about colour calibration used on these
rovers.

Essentially as Spirit and Opportunity were only designed for a 90 day jaunt,
the calibration target wasn't designed to be in use for very long. Over 3000
days later it's covered in dust. However, there's also a white/grey patch that
has a ring magnet underneath it. The centre of the magnet is totally clear of
dust (which is largely magnetic, lots of Iron on Mars), and is pretty much the
cleanest part of the rover as a result. Turns out it's quite useful because as
more dust accumulates, we can better simulate the Martian atmosphere. You can
see the magnet in the top right, note the centre is still white!

[http://www.hour25online.com/pix/Spirit_dust-
comparison_feb05...](http://www.hour25online.com/pix/Spirit_dust-
comparison_feb05a_02a.jpg)

MSL Curiosity uses the flight spare from the MER project. It's the thing that
looks a bit like a joystick.

[https://planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/assets/images/z_changeove...](https://planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/assets/images/z_changeover/marsdial_msl_sol3_animation_ugordan.gif)

The six rings on the surface are where the new 'sweep' magnets are, you can
see some small debris has gotten stuck to them. It looks like they upgraded it
a bit and put them on all the colour targets.

This approach is also used for other sensors onboard (UV photodiodes in this
case):

[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/977765...](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/9777658_orig.gif)

------
ccvannorman
I can't find the article but somewhere I read that a boy was intentionally
never told what "color" the sky was. He could see color normally but when
asked what color the sky was, he said "Clear."

~~~
Macacity
This was probably in the Radiolab episode "colors".

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nieve
I'm amused that the author chose a centuries old color name that's been in
relatively frequent written use all that time for the title. The article
centers on the history behind huge catalogs number of obscure color names, but
he chose one that's not at all obscure. OTOH it's kind of a win because
cerulean isn't the generic "blue" most people would think of, so it nicely
illustrates the use of distinguishing color names.

~~~
cardiffspaceman
There was a US TV commercial which tangentially mentioned cerulean blue,
intending to characterize a speaker as discriminating or picky. So even though
I will now have to consult a reference to know what color it is, the name is
burned into my memory.

------
mutagen
Worth a mention of xkcd's color survey [1] results [2] with two different
shades of cerulean.

[1] [http://blog.xkcd.com/2010/05/03/color-survey-
results/](http://blog.xkcd.com/2010/05/03/color-survey-results/)

[2][http://xkcd.com/color/rgb/](http://xkcd.com/color/rgb/)

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girvo
Perhaps a little off topic, but I wonder if the author knew that "Orchid"
(alas, minus the subterranean) was indeed an obscure (and amazing) punk rock
band?

------
malkia
The minute I've heard Cerulean all I can think of was Trillian instant
messenger.

~~~
dvanduzer
I think that marks you as a youngster? For me, the word "cerulean" immediately
triggers memories of this: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pusher_(The_X-
Files)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pusher_\(The_X-Files\))

~~~
theoh
Or, surely, Hennessy Youngman on Poststructuralism...

