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Red is a color evoked by light consisting of the longest wavelengths of light discernible by the human eye.

Longer wavelengths than this are called infrared (below red), and cannot be seen by the naked human eye.

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In Judo, for instance, fighters are allocated Blue or White prior to competition, and in Taekwon-Do, the colours are Red and Blue. Boxers often wear multi-coloured or patterned trunks, but the colour of the gloves is often different.

Hill and Barton (2005) demonstrated that in the 2004 Olympic Games Red competitors were significantly more successful than blue competitors in an even contest. Basically, Red doesn’t give you a +10 str, but it will a) tip the bias of the point recorders in your favour; b) increase one’s competitiveness; or c) scare you opponent just enough so that you have an advantage.

Their paper, published in Nature, does not speculate on the cause – a, b, and c are my own speculations. They also found that Red vs. non-red and non-blue also tipped the advantage to the red competitors. It kind of stands to reason – red is a scary colour, it’s a natural marker of many evolutionary elements, and it’s visually arresting , like black.

I thought maybe it has to do with dominance of colour – but Dijkstra and Preenen (2008) demonstrated that in Judo (where competition is between blue v white) there is no relative advantage to blue – which is arguable the more dominant colour.

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photo { Adam Amengual }

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{ Mapping Stereotypes | more }

{ UK Pavilion at Shanghai Expo 2010 }

{ Raoul Ubac, Dessin pour un torse II, 1972 | John Maeda, ad for Absolut Vodka, I.D. Magazine, 1997 }

{ Middle finger sculpture at American Apparel CEO Dov Charney’s LA home | Maurizio Cattelan message to Italy’s bankers. }

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{ According to the World Intellectual Property Organization’s website and Dime, Tinker Hatfield and his boys at the Nike Innovative Kitchen have filed patent papers for a shoe with an automatic lacing system, such as seen on the Nike Air Mag from Back to the Future II. | Nice Kicks | more }

Pursuit of novelty may be one of fashion’s most durable illusions. The fact is that very little in fashion is new, in any real sense, nor is it truly supposed to be. (“There’s so much striving for newness now that newness feels less new,” as Marc Jacobs told Style.com.) Many of the 175,000 people who work in fashion in New York, in the more than 800 businesses that generate $10 billion in total annual wages and tax revenues of $1.7 billion, could probably confirm Mr. Asfour’s proposition that fashion is at heart a conservative business.

{ Guy Trebay/NY Times | Continue reading }

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{ Julie Blackmon }

Biologists who study mutualism have long believed that the solution to cheating is to punish cheaters—but a new model suggests that the benefits gained from playing nice might be enough to deter cheating.

{ denim and tweed | Continue reading }

photos { 1. Ron Jude | 2 }

{ “A real piglet that has been taxidermied and inserted with what all piglets probably dream of as babies, a coin storage unit and a cork plug.” | $4,000 | thecheeky.com }

{ Michael Sailstorfer, Zeit ist keine Autobahn, 2008 }

{ The pie chart first appeared in 1801 in a publication entitled The Statistical Breviary by William Playfair. | Thanks James }

{ Gilles Deleuze, Difference and repetition }

{ American Museum of Natural History, NYC | Read more | Photos: Imp Kerr }

{ Tim Noble and Sue Webster, New Barbarians, 1997-1999 }

{ Tim Noble & Sue Webster, Masters of the Universe, 2000}