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Some people might be feeling a little frustrated lately, due to social isolation. Overwhelmed by the necessity of working from home and all the routine shifts and uncertainties the Covid-19 situation has imposed worldwide.
Inasmuch there are plenty of things we cannot change just by wishful thinking, be those what they may, there are some within our reach; we can use this moment to scrutinize situations and cast light over some matters we take for granted.
Like the yellows we perceive, ignore, ignite or postpone every day.
With a little self-awareness, we can recognize those not-so-well-hidden yellow elephants that lie in our living rooms, waiting to be addressed — someday, but never today.
But I am here to tell you there is no better day than today to deal with the yellows we dismay.
But fear not, this is not — in any sense — a motivational speech. It might even have the opposite effect. Regardless, this is plainly a quick reminder of our impermanent human condition. And how we can run, but we can’t hide.
We might stubbornly deny. But sooner or later, yellow light shall arise.
We might as well enjoy our sunshine while we can.
Yellows will catch up with us at some point, so we ought to at least recognize how this color impacts our lives.
And how we deal with, laugh at, and look away from yellow hues tells a lot about our retinal cells. And all that jazz that happens behind our visual curtains.
More often than not, it is also very useful to perceive we are colorblind at some levels.
Welcome to this yellow brain thunderstorm…
Yellow is a bright and intense color located between orange and green on the rainbow. It is usually associated with strong feelings of hope and joy and has a dominant wavelength of about 570 to 590 nm.
As easily as yellow quickly grabs one’s attention, it can also lead to visual fatigue.
The color theory brings visual arts and mathematics together and determines the visual harmony (or fitness) of colorful combinations. And we give them very interesting names.
To say a few of the yellows around us, there are the more obvious: Lemon and Royal yellows; the peculiar Maximum, Cyber and Safety yellows;
But the gold medal for best name rests on no other than Unmellow yellow.
All colors have visible properties:
Hue refers to the dominant wavelength perceived by the majority of observers when facing an object that reflects a given color, primary or not. It locates the different pigments on color wheels by a set of coordinates.
Chroma refers to changes in each color’s relative saturation or colorfulness. For instance, whenever we are mixing paint pigments, increasing the tint refers to adding white and lighting up a color or making it brighter.
Meanwhile, if we apply black pigments to the mixture, we darken the color’s shade, decreasing its overall saturation. In both cases, we change to achieve different tones of the color scale.
When we say that two colors look harmonious, or aesthetically pleasing when combined, we are not talking about a random effect. That occurs exactly as musical sounds.
Because colors are light waves and behave somewhat similarly to sound waves. But they are “brighter” and independent, filled with “quanta”. They can roam around outer space freely, without physical media as sounds require.
Harmony is a concept discovered by the Pythagorean philosophers that observed the numerical harmonious interplay of opposite pairs and their ratios on Nature.
That explains why some people experiencing synesthesia, or more specifically chromesthesia — like myself — can sometimes visualize colors whenever hearing specific musical tunes, because they share wavelength ratios.
We can only observe the mellows and yellows in the meadows — perhaps while drinking a Mello Yello or eating a juicy and mellow melon, due to the hard work of our retinal cells, nervous system, eyesight, and the heaven-sent visible light spectrum.
Yellow is imprinted in Modern life in many ways. Millennials have mainly Coldplay and Transformers to blame. And we should consider ourselves extremely lucky for that.
There are plenty of different meanings for yellow and some are quite distasting, I must say.
As some of us might be writing yellowish thoughts in the hopes of amending brainstorms and mental tornados that never cease; others might be drowning in all shades of Netflix yellows to endure the quarantine.
Not everyone is fortunate enough to live the online chill and streaming ease. Some of us have bellyaches that persist.
I’m sure there are plenty of people eager to wear their favorite yellow jumpsuit while working out the gym routine like the old days;
Some might be on a yellow alert moment with the red bank account, avoiding the dark bills.
Others might still be waiting for the best moment to seek revenge and finally Kill Bill.
I will cover a lot of yellows, not only mainstream.
Bring about all sorts of shades. No need to get angry, dearest bird.
We are all friends here.
Or at least we appear to be.
Despite — like it or not — we are all crazy, indeed.
‘Cause normal, really normal, I am confident everybody just pretends to be.
No need to fake sunshine here, I am also very fond of rain.
Without honesty and rain, there would be no life, no rainbow. Just waiting for decay.
Therefore, no yellows. And less Lady Gaga crime scene outfits.
Spare your poker face.
Let us just say that the world is a better place with yellow. Perhaps a little less shallow…
I know, these are terrible jokes, but this hue can do that to you.
And besides, tell me, for real.
Is there any other color that allows people to dress up — at the same time — like a giant banana and the Wolverine???
I don’t think so…
It has to be yellow to release the human creativity submarine to levels unforeseen…
And all the hues, shades, rhymes, tones, science curiosities, real facts, nonsense, cosplay costumes, and bad jokes such shade brings along with it.
And all the tilting this tint permits.
Pac-Man is a fictional video game character protagonist of the franchise with the same name, created by Toru Iwatani in 1980 by Bandai Namco Entertainment.
We have been obliged to enroll in a Pac-Man lifestyle lately.
Plenty of junk food eating and avoidance of human interactions whilst trapped indoors, evading ghosts in the maze of the mind.
But are those big news?
We might take the philosophical path and ask ourselves: was there ever a moment when we were NOT living as “packed” humans?
Trapped inside a claustrophobic reality, creating revenue by overconsuming and wasting resources (and plenty of cookies to evade old ghosts and habits).
Some could go further and ask: at what point have we learned the wrong rules to his arcade game?
Why do we act as if either to eat or be eaten is the true nature of things? How come we believe in such final fantasies and agree to such unnecessary obstacles?
At what point did life become a Mortal Kombat tournament?
Most of us have no idea how to press the order of switch control buttons to at least survive to the next round. Our thumbs are badly injured by pressing the buttons at random, frantically.
Is that only because we fear losing grip of our life’s control?
Are we stuck kicking and punching randomly, trying our best to achieve a friendship finale, while unintentionally forever enduring unfair fatalities and brutalities?
Anyway, I was never really fond of wrestling games. I’m a Toe Jam and Earl-kind-of-person.
Even further, if we ought to live in a platonic video game reality, it should be a modified universe of Mario’s Mushroom Kingdom, where Princess Peach behaves like Lara Croft and doesn’t need Mario or Luigi to do her plumbing. Since in this reality we are also slaves of a given Browser, aiming desperately to power up and evolve, seeking coins while saving our lives by defeating some villains, aiming for the stars, and sometimes eating those magic mushrooms, I think it’s plausible.
Despite mainstream media and Van Gogh’s pigments, most of the stars we see in our night sky are not yellow.
All stars have different strengths of absorption lines of different chemical species. The color of a star provides a measure of its surface temperature. Check this amazing interactive simulation from the University of Colorado to see how that happens.
Yellow stars have this color due to weaker hydrogen lines, stronger calcium and many ionized and neutral metals mixing in their surface.
Our Sun is a true yellow star but the light it emits is white and gives us the warmth of life.
Sunlight has a slight yellowish hue when the Sun is near the horizon, due to atmospheric scattering of shorter wavelengths (green, blue, and violet).
Sunshine brings us light, energy and colors.
Photons are electromagnetic energy that come from the sun to us in different light wavelengths and allow our perception of colors.
They are emitted by atoms when electrons lose energy with peaks that rise quickly and tail off slowly, changing layers.
They form the visible light spectrum we perceive and make our lives more colorful, by allowing our eyes to all perceive — at least the unessential.
It took some time but finally (almost) everybody agrees that the Earth is not flat and that the Sun is located at the center of our Solar System. Earth orbits 93 million miles away from it.
According to NASA, Our Sun is a yellow dwarf star.
That does not mean it has less value or should be excluded from the Hollywood walk of fame. It still allows life on the planet, so no prejudice here. I like all sizes and colors of stars.
If you think our Sun suffers any sort of bullying, fear not. It remains a giant for us. It comprises 99.8% of our planetary system’s mass.
Dwarfism is a type of dysostosis and varies for each individual. It belongs to a group of skeletal disorders manifested as abnormalities of individual bones or in a group of bones and can manifest in other organs as well. It also affects animals in different degrees of severity and sometimes bones can be completely absent.
Ectrodactyly, or split-hand deformity is one of several congenital bone abnormalities that can occur. It is characterized by a soft tissue and boney split between metacarpal bones and sometimes even the radius and ulna, along with deformities of the carpal bones, giving an appearance of a lobster claw.
Besides, there is nothing wrong with being different. Everything depends on how you decide to deal with a given condition or situation. What limits us is our mind.
Do you know the name of the gene that is key in regulating embryonic morphogenesis and controls the occurrence of malformations?
But this is not the most curious name given to a gene. “Mothers against decapentaplegia” and “Lunatic fringe” are surreal as well. And you thought you had quit your PlayStation habits?
Sonic’s best pal is a yellow two-tailed fox called Tails.
Thankfully we do not have a gene called Tails nor do we display animal tails.
But comets do.
Legend goes that whenever you see a comet you are granted a wish, for they are considered a sign of good luck.
Make a wish.
No, wait. Not those comets.
Comets are small icy bodies that heat up when passing close to the Sun and release gases by a process called outgassing that produces their tail.
That is due to the Sun’s magnetic fields and the solar wind. It also causes the incredible phenomena of the Polar Auroras.
We know most of what we know from solar physics due to an amazing and daunting woman that — as her audacious brother — never took no for an answer: Joan Feynman.
According to the Christian tradition, the three Magi brought about the birth of Jesus Crist to humanity by their visit. They were guided by the best GPS of the old days: the yellow Comet Star.
This event is celebrated on January 6th or Epiphany Holiday.
According to the Cambridge dictionary, epiphany is an English noun that means a moment of deep understanding or suddenly becoming conscious of a very important fact. The Greek term “epiphàneia” means “revelation” or “apparition.
The magi presented the lucky birthday boy with the best they had at that time. Since iPhones or Disney World tickets were not an option, they offered different treats:
- Gold — as a symbol of kingship on Earth — which is quite disputable;
- Incense — as a symbol of deity — and also for those moments of undesirable aromatic rings floating around;
- and Myrrh — It is a resin-like organic gum compound that — like ambers — is yellow/orangish and known to have immunomodulatory, anti-inflammatory, cytotoxic, antioxidant, antimicrobial, hepatoprotective, anti-tumor, anti-ulcer and analgesic activities.
Sounds good to me. Perhaps excessively good? One could even assume it has magic properties.
It has also been scrutinized as a possible Covid-19 treatment. As plenty of other substances have, and hoax debunking is more than necessary to test those heaven-sent-over-the-counter substances that cure it all.
Star of David
Humans can drastically change the meaning of a given symbol. For instance, the shameful and inexcusable torture and genocide practices conducted by the Nazi regime that transformed the symbol of Jewish identity, the Star of David into a stigma in the chest of those marked to endure the unthinkable: the human capacity for pure evil. And the quest to acquire Jewish gold.
Gold is a precious metal of the chemical symbol Au from the Latin word aurum meaning ‘shining dawn. It is long known to be associated with royal status.
- Gold has undeniably served as the yellow glow of Royalty throughout History due to its anti-corrosive properties, associated as an aesthetic symbol of immortality.
Alchemists have been trying to turn matter into gold for centuries, I’m sorry to say they have not achieved such a miracle.
You can include our pal Isaac Newton on the list of those trying to conquer matter.
Despite not granting us easy gold, they have granted us chemistry and all that is good, bad, and ugly in the pharmaceutical industry.
SoyGold® 1000 is a soy methyl ester industrial solvent derived from soybean oil produced by the AGP Company. It is one of the numerous products derived from the refined soybean bioindustry that also holds magic promises in numerous commercial enterprises. Mainly unregulated and over-biased.
Soybean products from genetically modified food — the new golden fever — expand their evidence-free reign with untested products that go from the animal food industry (yes, to feed the animals people will eat later) to industrial machine cleaning. The miraculous effect might hide some not-so-precious metallic intentions. To be exact, “biodegradable” ones.
If one has used plant-based oil for anything one has quite a good perception of how easily it is to get rid of them once it adheres to your hands, clothing, kitchen floor.
These types of organic compounds are added to fossil fuels and do not exist solely in nature and therefore animals have quite a hard time digesting and not dying from it. And studies have already proven they can even add up important NOx gas emissions to the Ozone problem.
But the main problems with the soy industry are not only related to proven unhealthy effects. But to the lack of unbiased studies.
Since there is plenty of money already involved, studies that prove commercial products unfit, if ever get done, are never published due to the immense industry lobby.
Asides, the soy industry worldwide is known to officially evade environmental certification. So they do not even try to hide practices such as deforestation, applying children as a task force, slave labor, and the worst: invasion of protected lands and even killing of indigenous people.
In Brazil, the SoyGold equivalent is a product of the Bayer company, called Áureo. The law itself grants commercial license without quality control or serious side effects required.
The matter went to U.S. courtrooms and legal orders demanded that the company provide an oil spill contingency plan and written commitment of manpower, equipment, and materials required to expeditiously control and remove any quantity of oil discharged that may be harmful and trespass the Clean water act. But they have failed to provide such improvements.
The company is not a stranger to the legal system and has had other “blasting” scandals. Mainly accused of neglect towards their workers.
So think twice on how you don’t think twice over biased and golden bioproducts.
How true is the statement that plant-based oil causes “oiling of the coastline and marine life just as fuel oil, “but without their toxicity, unless great quantities are ingested”? Except for benthic fauna getting asphyxiated when they do not curb their oil-eating enthusiasm.
Yellow bastard refers to Sin city’s fictional character Roark Junior. According to the Fandom website, he is a sadist who rapes and murders prepubescent girls. His father uses his extensive wealth and connections to let Junior get away with these atrocities.
Life would be much better if this type of despicable character existed only in fiction. But yellows are everywhere.
Pikachu is also a yellow fictional character. I’m not sure if it is a bastard, though. You never know what the cute face hides.
Pokémon are fictional monsters with unique designs, skills, and powers. They have gathered momentum as Nintendo’s games and are very famous in pop culture.
Pikas are small lagomorph mammals of the Ochotonidae family, distant cousins of the domestic rabbit.
Pika in Japanese is an onomatopoeia that indicates a flashing light or big glow. For the hibakusha (atomic bomb survivors), the event that took place on an eerie Monday morning in 1945 are associated with this word.
On 21 October 2008, the word “pika”, drawn by a small airplane appeared in the sky over Hiroshima. This act would have serious consequences to the art group, Chim↑Pomp.
They would face public retaliation by banalizing what has been banal ever since August 6th, 1945: the horrible reveries of the hibakusha and human life.
Pokémon’s are now forbidden inside The Holocaust museum at Auschwitz. Yes. That is true.
Not only were kids catching Pokémons in the live-action game fever inside the museum — disrespecting holocaust victims — but someone thought it would be very funny to place a Pokémon called Koffing (coughing)
that emits poisonous gas floating by a sign for the museum’s Helena Rubinstein Auditorium.
For those unaware, this is the place that shows the testimonials of Jews who survived the gas chambers. There you go, humankind.
But Pokémon has also been used as a symbol of hope by artist Moustafa Jano to help the children harmed by the Syrian war.
Either way, Pikachu and Pokémon go have turned into a pop culture fever.
Almost yellow.
Yellow fever is a tropical disease, a virus transmitted by the mosquito Aedes aegypti, very common in some parts of Brazil. Some clueless people harm monkeys believing they transmit the virus, but they are intermediate hosts. But with simple cleaning habits and vaccines, the disease could be better managed.
But monkeys are endangered not only but ignorant people but by ignorant leaders that sell and burn all that is green and yellow in Brazil to endorse their inner darkness.
Yellow in yellow fever refers to jaundice, the condition that turns the skin yellowish.
When blood cells are broken down in our liver to be absorbed, the heme groups break down the hemoglobin into smaller molecules that turn our skin yellow in a condition called jaundice.
In patients where too much blood is digested (traumatic injuries, internal bleeding, blood parasites, infectious diseases) the skin, the whites of our eyes, and mucous membranes turn yellow because of a high level of bilirubin, a yellow-orange bile pigment.
Corruption in Brazil is rampant and discourse mistrust has hampered all sorts of vaccine campaigns, aggravating not only yellow fever but COVID-19 as well.
Whoever survived the first vaporizing steam hit of the first atomic bomb blast in Hiroshima, would die the following days with such yellow color, because the red blood cells boiled inside their bones due to the temperature and radiation. Most of the internal damage to organs and the circulatory system would be due to the explosion’s shock wave and following radiation sickness.
Shock waves cause a virtually instantaneous jump in pressure at the shock front. The combination of the pressure jump (called the overpressure) and the dynamic pressure causes blast damage. In the first phase, the positive pressure phase, the effect of overpressure squeezes the internal organs, especially the hollow organs such as the heart, lungs, and gastrointestinal tract.
Yellow was the favorite color of Mrs. Enola Gay Tibbets. Would she have any idea that both her son and her name would not be forgotten from world History so easily?
the B-29 named Enola gay was the first airplane to ever drop an Atomic Bomb. Unfortunately, it would not be the last.
Captain Lewis, co-pilot of the Enola gay B-29 would later say that The explosion was so bright that some of the crew members feared at first they had been blinded by the yellow flash.
Suicide became epidemic in Hiroshima and Nagasaki soon after de atomic attacks. And who can blame them? No water, no food, no medical assistance, no painkillers, no hope.
Regardless, suicide continues a worldwide problem taken for granted.
Yellow is considered a strong symbol of light and life worldwide. It is the color of the suicide prevention Yellow Ribbon campaign.
The color was chosen in the memory of Michael Emme, who decided at age seventeen, to end the greyness and blues inside his mind he could not put into words.
He painted red the white ceiling and black leather sits of his yellow Mustang in September 1994. Suicide is still a stigmatized subject and yellow may cast a light on how we deal with (or deny) the importance of such a topic.
Beware of your colors. Respect all shades.
Don’t paint the world black.
