Blue is the colour between violet and green on the optical spectrum of visible light. Human eyes perceive blue when observing light with a wavelength between 450 and 495 nanometres. Blues with a higher frequency and thus a shorter wavelength gradually look more violet, while those with a lower frequency and a longer wavelength gradually appear more green. Pure blue, in the middle, has a wavelength of 470 nanometres. In painting and traditional colour theory, blue is one of the three primary colours of pigments, along with red and yellow, which can be mixed to form a wide gamut of colours. Red and blue mixed together form violet, blue and yellow together form green. Blue is also a primary colour in the RGB colour model, used to create all the colours on the screen of a television or computer monitor.
The modern English word blue comes from Middle English bleu or blewe, from the Old French bleu, a word of Germanic origin, related to the Old High German word blao. The clear sky and the deep sea appear blue because of an optical effect known as Rayleigh scattering. When sunlight passes through the atmosphere, the blue wavelengths are scattered more widely by the oxygen and nitrogen molecules, and more blue comes to our eyes. Rayleigh scattering also explains blue eyes; there is no blue pigment in blue eyes. Distant objects appear more blue because of another optical effect called atmospheric perspective.
Blue was an adventure travel magazine, founded in 1997 by Amy Schrier, with David Carson as the original design consultant. Its focus was on global adventure travel. It was published in New York and is now out of print; its last issue was February–March 2000.
The cover of its first issue was included in a list of the Top 40 magazine covers of the last 40 years by the American Society of Magazine Editors. In 1999 Life magazine listed it in the Best Magazine Photos of the Year. The New York Times characterized it as "not your father's National Geographic."
Blue Gender (Japanese: ブルージェンダー, Hepburn: Burū Jendā) is a 26-episode anime created, co-directed and co-written by Ryōsuke Takahashi (of Armored Trooper Votoms and Gasaraki fame) broadcast in Japan from 1999-2000. Blue Gender was created by the Japanese animation studio, AIC and is distributed in the United States by Funimation Entertainment. In 2003, Blue Gender was released on American television as part of Cartoon Network's Adult Swim, though it had originally been planned for Toonami, and was thus edited to remove its graphic violence, nudity, and sex scenes (however, its airing on Colours TV and Funimation Channel in the United States). There is also a compilation movie (Blue Gender: The Warrior) available on DVD with an alternative ending. The series was also shown on the Sci Fi Channel in the UK in 2002-2003. The Blue Gender series is set in the 2030s, in which Earth has been overrun by the Blue, which are mutated insect-like creatures containing a newly evolved B-cell that recently appeared in several humans, including the main protagonist, Yuji Kaido, that kill and harvest humans for food. Most of the surviving human race has moved to Second Earth, a huge space station that orbits the planet. The series mostly focuses on Yuji and Marlene's relationship as they work together to reach Second Earth and their participation in military combat operations against the Blue.
"Things" is a song which was written and recorded by Bobby Darin in 1962. It reached #3 in the US, #2 in the UK, and #3 in the first ever official Irish Singles Chart, published by RTÉ in October 1962. However, there had been an Irish Top 10 before 1962, published in the Evening Herald from February 1959. As a result, "Things" actually peaked at #2 in the "unofficial" Evening Herald Chart.
In 1962, Darin began to write and sing country music, with hit songs including "Things". It was the final Darin single released on the Atco Records unit of Atlantic Records before he began recording for Capitol Records. While vault material would continue to be issued on Atco, Darin would later return to Atlantic Records. The song was sung by Dean Martin and Nancy Sinatra in the 1967 TV special Movin' with Nancy, starring Nancy Sinatra, which was released to home video in 2000.
A cover of the song by Anne Murray from her 1976 album Keeping in Touch peaked at #12 on the adult contemporary chart.
Split Enz were a New Zealand rock band, formed in 1972 and featuring Phil Judd and Tim Finn and later Neil Finn. One of the most successful New Zealand musical acts of the late 1970s and early 1980s, the band would go on to achieve chart success in New Zealand, Australia and Canada – most notably with their 1980 single "I Got You" – and built a cult following elsewhere. Their musical style was eclectic, incorporating influences from art rock, vaudeville, swing, punk, rock, new wave, and pop. Split Enz established a reputation for a distinctive visual style, thanks partly to their colourful, offbeat costumes and hairstyles.
The group's career falls into two phases. They began as an acoustic folk band in the early 1970s and by the time they recorded their first album they had changed to electric instruments and took on a progressive rock sound. From 1977 onwards, with the departure of songwriter/guitarist Phil Judd and the arrival of Neil Finn, Split Enz' sound began to move from progressive rock towards new wave and pop. The early 1980s proved the group's most commercially successful period, with a string of popular albums. The videos for some of the songs from this period were among the first played on MTV. Since the band's break-up in 1984, the group has reunited several times, and its members have gone on to create varied musical groups with one another, including Neil Finn's band Crowded House, Schnell Fenster, Citizen Band and the Finn Brothers.
43 Things was a social networking website established as an online goal setting community. It was built on the principles of tagging, rather than creating explicit interpersonal links (as seen in Friendster and Orkut). Users created accounts and then listed a number of goals or hopes; these goals were parsed by a lexer and connected to other people's goals that were constructed with similar words or ideas. This concept is also known as folksonomy. Users could set up to 43 goals, and were encouraged to explore the lists of other users and "cheer" them on towards achieving their goals.
The 43 Things website went offline on New Years Day, 2015.
43 Things was launched on January 1, 2005, by the Robot Co-op, a small company based in Seattle founded by blogger Erik Benson, Maktub keyboardist Daniel Spils, and former Amazon.com and Microsoft executive Josh Petersen. 43things.com became read-only on August 15, 2014, and shut down permanently January 1, 2015.
According to "43 Things: A Community Study," 43 Things had two shortcomings: (1) it failed to have a central area containing documentation about the website and (2) it relied heavily upon RSS, which is unfamiliar to a large portion of users. Regardless, it received solid reviews in regards to responsiveness and user suggestion integration.