by Christopher Paul on July 12, 2012 Interesting (and long two part) article on the history of colors, how they were named, and how the naming of colors affects our brains. Here’s just a small snippet that I found fascinating:
Languages have differing numbers of color words, ranging from two to about eleven. Yet after looking at 98 different languages, they saw a pattern. It was a pretty radical idea, that there is a certain fixed order in which these color names arise. This was a common path that languages seem to follow, a road towards increasing visual diversity.
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What it says is this. If a language has just two color terms, they will be a light and a dark shade – blacks and whites. Add a third color, and it’s going to be red. Add another, and it will be either green or yellow – you need five colors to have both. And when you get to six colors, the green splits into two, and you now have a blue. What we’re seeing here is a deeply trodden road that most languages seem to follow, towards greater visual discernment (92 of their 98 languages seemed to follow this basic route).
So even though linguistically and culturally, we can be different, the process in which colors are named is statistically the same.
via Kottke
by Christopher Paul on July 12, 2012 The WSJ is reporting that Digg was sold for a fraction of the money it raised from VCs:
Under the deal, which Digg confirmed closed Thursday, Betaworks is buying the Digg brand, website and technology. The price was just $500,000, three people familiar with the matter said—a pittance for a company that raised $45 million from prominent investors including LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman and Marc Andreessen.
No Digg employees will join Betaworks.
Another reminder that prominent social networks can fall from grace quickly and hard.
by Christopher Paul on July 12, 2012 Don’t watch this video if you are grossed out by snakes or blood because this has both.
I’m not but watching this gave me the heebie-jeebies.
via
by Christopher Paul on July 11, 2012 Cookie Monster uses some serious linguistic talents to spoof Carly Rae Jepsen’s song “Call Me Maybe.”
via Boing Boing
by Christopher Paul on July 11, 2012 Ben Brooks, who runs The Brooks Review, just dove head first into a new business model. And while diving into a new model is risky, he certainly gave it a lot of thought and I wish him the best.
Instead of ads, he offers readers the chance to purchase a monthly membership for a nominal fee. Members get immediate access to the articles and links he posts to his site. Those who opt to read things without contributing will get access to those same articles seven days later.
Read Ben’s explanation of the new model and the thought that went into it because my simple summary doesn’t do it justice. He clearly thought this through and I’m hopeful it works out and others find similar success.
I’ve already become a member and I’ve added The Brooks Review to the list of sites I support.
You should, too.