I love this time of year- everything is such a bright green and full of life. When I come home for lunch everyday- it gets a little harder to go back to work. My gladiolus are blooming in the backyard which makes me happy.
Winston had a good birthday- lots of new toys and treats to indulge in. Adam and I finally broke down and bought a coffee table and looked at maybe a new dining room table from IKEA. We'll have to wait a bit before purchasing the dining table- but I am excited about it- because it has 2 leaves in it!
Last night we went to "Brazos Nights" to see Billy Joe Shaver & Jack Ingram. I am a people-watcher so I did more of that than listening to music. Let me tell you- there was more entertainment there last night than a cat fight in a high school parking lot! There was an old woman who was wearing daisy-dukes (old like 65), many many mullets, a 10yr old and 45yr old wearing the same jean skirt, guys in dress shirts with cut off sleeves and so much more!
And public notice to all older women- bras are not optional clothing once you turn a certain age!
Who made the decision that we are supposed to stand to sing during church? I find this strange- is it just so people can feel free to wonder if need be to the restroom or to speak to a friend? It's strange.
And who got to choose what colors mean- who was the first to say- red means stop?
posted by Amanda @ 5:57 PM
1 Comments:
The present system of color coding was developed by the railroads around the time of World War I. But its roots go back much further. Tradition among railroaders has it that red was chosen for "stop" in commemoration of a farmer who tried to flag down an early choo-choo with his red shirt. This is cute, but BS. Red, the color of blood, has been a danger signal since time immemorial. It's said the Roman legions bore the red banner of the war god Mars into battle 2,000 years ago.
The other colors have changed over time. When the first primitive railroad signaling devices were developed in the 1830s and 1840s, red meant "stop," green meant "caution," and clear (i.e., white) meant "go." This system had several defects. One obvious problem was the fact that the white signal could easily be confused with an ordinary white light. What was worse, however, was the fact that the system wasn't fail-safe. This was tragically demonstrated sometime around 1914. The red lens supposedly fell out of a signal so that it erroneously showed a white indication. This caused a train to sail through the "stop" signal, resulting in a disastrous crash. The railroads subsequently decided to drop white and make green "go" and yellow "caution." Yellow presumably was chosen because it was readily visible and offered the most striking contrast to the other two colors. When the first electric traffic signals were installed in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1914, they used red and green indications. When the first modern automatic traffic signals were put up in Detroit in the early 1920s, they used red, yellow, and green, and that's what we're stuck with today.
Colorblindness poses less of problem for drivers than you might think. About 8 percent of the population suffers from some color vision deficiency, with difficulty in distinguishing green and red being most common. But it's rare to find someone so colorblind they can't tell bright red and bright green apart. Usually they only have trouble with pastels or in dim light. If all else fails they can fall back on the knowledge that on most stoplights red is on top.
(I looked this up for you, babe ;)
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