Starship Asterisk*

Ann wrote:Is the sea sad when it is blue?

Ann wrote:Art suggested in the "Tethys and Ancient Rings" APOD that a smiling blue smiley is a contradiction in terms since the color blue refers to sadness. But why do you English-speaking people think that it does?

Chris Peterson wrote:

Ann wrote:
Art suggested in the "Tethys and Ancient Rings" APOD that a smiling blue smiley is a contradiction in terms since the color blue refers to sadness. But why do you English-speaking people think that it does?

We don't. Westerners see the color blue as symbolic of calmness and peace. It is the most popular color. See Color Psychology.

The word blue is synonymous with sadness and depression, but not the actual color.

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLA25B46F604E61D5E wrote:
<<Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the Deep South of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads. The term "the blues" refers to the "blue devils", meaning melancholy and sadness; an early use of the term in this sense is found in George Colman's one-act farce Blue Devils (1798). Though the use of the phrase in African-American music may be older, it has been attested to since 1912, when Hart Wand's "Dallas Blues" became the first copyrighted blues composition. In lyrics the phrase is often used to describe a depressed mood.>>

http://www.uwec.edu/mwood/colman/summaries.html wrote:
George Colman's one-act farce Blue Devils
Debut: 24 April 1798; two performances at Covent Garden, eight at the Haymarket.

<<A farce. Loosely translated from LAnglais (1781), by the French playwright Joseph Patrat. A waiter with no money, James, has been fired for falling in love with Annette, his employer's daughter. James meets a suicidal but wealthy Englishman who thinks at first that James would like to join him in death. But when he learns that James is only broke, the Englishman, Megrim, gives him money. Megrim also misunderstands Annette, thinking she loves him, and her father mistakes Megrim's request for her hand as an offer to relieve him from bankruptcy. James then provides that relief with Megrim's gift. The lovers are happy, the father is out of debt, and Megrim has found, in acts of benevolence, the pleasure he has been seeking to make his life worthwhile.>>

geckzilla wrote:
Traditionally, blue is also associated with security because the police have worn blue uniforms. I see a lot of police in black lately, though. Maybe black is more easily associated with security, now.

http://www.policeone.com/police-products/apparel/undergear/articles/99417-The-psychological-influence-of-the-police-uniform/ wrote:
<<The police uniform is a tradition as old as the field of law enforcement itself In 1829 the first modem police force, the London Metropolitan Police, developed the first standard police apparel. These first police officers, the famous "Bobbies" of London, were issued a dark blue, paramilitary-style uniform.. The color blue was chosen to distinguish the police from the British military who wore red and white uniforms at the time. The first official police force in the United States was established in the city of New York in 1845. Based on the London police, the New York City Police Department adopted the dark blue uniform in 1853, Other cities, such as Philadelphia, Boston, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Buffalo, and Detroit quickly followed suit by establishing police departments based on the London model, including the adoption of the dark blue, paramilitary-style uniform.

To this day, the majority of police uniforms in. the United States continue to have a paramilitary appearance and are generally of a dark color. Darker colors may have been preferred for their case in cleaning and their ability to help conceal the wearer in tactical situations. Dark colors help cover up stains and keep the officer from being easily spotted by lawbreakers, especially at night.

The Influences of Color

The majority of police uniforms in the United States today are produced in darker colors such as black, blue, brown, green, and grey. Just as with the style of the police uniform, the color of the police uniform has meaning. Psychological tests have found that people associate colors with specific moods. For example, red is generally associated with excitement and stimulation, thus explaining why it is often a color in flashing emergency vehicle lights. These tests have also found that the color blue is associated with feelings of security and comfort, and black is most often associated with power and strength. Studies of both high school and college students in the United States have found that students perceived light colors such as white and yellow as weak, but also good and active, The same students perceived dark colors such as black and brown as strong and passive, but also as bad. These results were not based on cultural influences because they did not vary with the race of the students.

Even people in Europe, Western Asia, Central Africa, and the Middle East had similar perceptions of colors. Across all cultures that have been studied, light colors are consistently associated with goodness and weakness, while dark colors are consistently perceived as strong but evil. On psychological inventories, test subjects rate lighter colors as more pleasant and less dominant. Dark colors on the other hand elicit emotions of anger, hostility, dominance, and aggression.>>

orin stepanek wrote:

Ann wrote:Is the sea sad when it is blue?

Ann! Just thought I'd let you know; my security system said there was a virus on the link; ( is the sea sad when it is blue)!