The Micropolitan Museum exhibits an unworldly spectrum visible only through the lens of a microscope. Painter Wim van Egmond photographs spectacular microscopic masterpieces with ethereal color palettes. To capture these hidden treasures, he uses a Zeiss Standard light microscope and an old Zeiss Photo-microscope. Several methods of illumination are employed: bright-field, dark-field, phase contrast, differential interference contrast, and Rheinberg illumination.

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Van Egmond's Insectarium offers such specimens as the iridescent butterfly wing, whose tiny scales possess a microscopic texture that refracts light. Here we find lavender blue and green.

Jack-o-lanterns, haunted houses, vampires, witches, ghosts, candy and kids trick-or-treating... Halloween has grown into one of the biggest commercial holidays in the US since the first official citywide celebration in Anoka, Minn., in 1921. But, Halloween has been around for over 2,000 years and its customs and rituals have changed dramatically over time. Here we'll look at a bit of the history of this holiday and get some color inspiration from the day's iconic colors.

Halloween's origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in).

The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31, they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter.

By the 800s, the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands. In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV designated November 1 All Saints' Day, a time to honor saints and martyrs. It is widely believed today that the pope was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday. The celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints' Day) and the night before it, the night of Samhain, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween. Even later, in A.D. 1000, the church would make November 2 All Souls' Day, a day to honor the dead. It was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils. Together, the three celebrations, the eve of All Saints', All Saints', and All Souls', were called Hallowmas.

Source - History Channel

Halloween Colors & Symbolism

Probably the most well known symbol of Halloween is the carved pumpkin, or jack-o-lantern. The tradition of carving a lantern comes from the Irish who used potatoes and turnips, but was modified to use the pumpkin in the US where it was available.

There are a few colors that are strongly associated with Halloween. Orange and black being the two main colors of the holiday. Although these colors have been mass-marketed in recent years, they are thought to go all the way back to the celtic celebrations and be reminders of the candles and fires that were lit to welcome the cold black winter ahead.

Blend, Gradient, Steps... whatever you call them, they're fun to make and to look at. I tried to organize them as best possible, but it honestly is difficult to categorize these things. First we have blends where all the colors are in pretty much the same hue. Then blends to black or gray. Analogous blends are of colors that are near each other on the color wheel and I threw the rest in complementary blends as they, for the most part have colors across the color wheel from each other.

Monochromatic Blends

In the process of making food or drink, especially mass-produced by machine, the accuracy of the end product's can be a bit skewed. Because certain colors are associated with certain flavors, and vice versa, food coloring was introduced in acknowledgment to its correlation to perceived flavors. Coloring has also been added to mask color loss, aid food identification, and for decoration, as in cake icing. Food Coloring even existed in the times of early Rome, when saffron, carrots, pomegranates, grapes, mulberries, spinach, beets, parsley, and flowers were employed as dyeing agents.

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At the Apple Special Event this week, they announced several new products and updates... One update I found very interesting was change in colors for the new iPod Nano and Shuffle... Away have gone the bright pop colors and welcomed in are more mature, rich colors. Apple has been a dominating force in the digital music scene with iTunes & iPod...

Are they now making an effort to dominate the rest of the "older" market?

Music can be a very youthful industry. In most Mass-Market Genres: Pop, Rap, R&B, Etc. the most popular artists usually have a expiration date around 30 years old. Apple has done a great job tapping the young and creative crowd to create a very loyal and early adopting fan base. The buying power of these young early adopters has fueled amazing growth of the digital music industry and with an already great market share, it looks like Apple is using some more mass-appealing colors to reach out to the rest of the market.

It's been asked innumerable times: What's the deal with using "colour" in some places of this site and "color" in others? To us, it is the same idea and the same love we're sharing... just with different ways of spelling it. But for those who want more of an explanation, here is some history of the word and why we use both spellings.

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The History of Word

The origin of the word 'colour' is in Middle English (developed into Modern English in 16th Century), which actually borrows from Anglo-Norman French in this case. 'Colour' has many definitions and uses (About nine, and then a tonne of little bullets). Somewhere between colonisation, revolution, and the Industrial Revolution, the English language had no central regulation. Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755) is the source of most of the current British spellings, but American English became somewhat simplified in spelling during the times between this book's publication and Noah Webster and his An American Dictionary of the English Language of 1828. Webster was a large part in changing the spelling of the language because of his philosophies and strong nationalism. What would've been seen then as the "correct" spellings have been listed as variants, and still are today.

So, the unstressed -our (favour, flavour, colour, savour) became -or (favor, flavor, color, savor), the few -re endings in British spelling (centre, metre, litre, manoeuvre) became -er (center, meter, liter, maneuver), and -ce (defence, offence, pretence) became -se (defense, offense, pretense). Because of wide usage in both countries and acceptance onto the pedastal of dictionaries, both spellings are accepted today, though it seems that "when in Rome" follows. And Canada got caught in the middle of it all, using mostly British spellings with some American leaking in.

Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean. The estimated population in July 2007 was 28,674,757. Although the culture is primarily Amerindian and Spanish, traditionally, it has been influenced in its cooking, clothing, music, dance, and art by a number of African, Asian, and European ethnic groups. Because of this blending, Peru is a country so vibrant in colour.

Please see the bottom of this post for how you can help in the Earthquake Relief Efforts in Pisco, Peru.

Spanish conquest introduced the guitar and the harp, was responsible for the development the charango. African contributions to Peruvian music include its rhythms and the cajón. Peruvian folk dances include the marinera, tondero and huayno. Festivals, dances, and performances are marked by almost-flamboyant splashes of colour.

More than half a century ago, Aemelius Müller, professor at the academy of Winterthur, Switzerland, came up with a formula that could predict the appreciation of a color-combination. In other words: Müller was able to predict which combination of colors most people would probably like.
 

		Müller's formula predicts that these color combinations will be considered as ugly by most people.
		While these will be liked. How is this possible?

		First we need to consider the 'natural' brightness of the colors of the color circle, as discussed in this post about Brightness vs. Whiteness. You will notice that yellow, for instance, is a lot brighter than blue.
		On a scale from 1 to 100, bright yellow has a brightness value of 90, while bright blue has a value as low as 35. Likewise, every hue in the color circle has its own 'natural' brightness.

The Great Barrier Reef in Australia is the world's largest coral reef system, composed of roughly 3,000 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for 2,600 kilometers (1,616 mi) over an area of approximately 344,400 square kilometers (132,974 sq mi). The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland in northeast Australia, and can be seen from space.

From jellyfish to whales and a wide variety of fish, the reef supports such a diversity of life, including many rare, endangered species. The reef has skeleton deposits dating back half-a-million years, but among these deposits lives a world of colour. Coral alone can be from red to blue, and even white. Despite its stone appearance, coral is actually alive and growing. Corals have been growing in the region for as long as 25 million years, but have not always formed coral reef structures. Four-hundred species of corals, both hard corals and soft, are found on the reef.

Colorful Sea Life of the Great Barrier Reef

More than 1500 species of fish live on the reef, including the Clownfish (below), Red Bass, Red-Throat Emperor, and several species of Snapper and Coral Trout.

There is a very clever mug that has been popping up on all my favorite sites lately (Neatorama, swissmiss, Gizmodo ). The MyCuppa "mugs to help you mix your favourite brew to just-how-you-like-it by matching the colour guide on the inside. Available in Tea or Coffee styles."

20 Coffee & Tea Color Inspired Palettes