Ten things you never knew about... colours
Today is an exceptionally colourful day in our calendar, as the first four items below testify.
1. This is Go Green Week, hosted by People and Planet (peopleandplanet.org) to raise awareness of climate change and environmental issues.
2. Today is also Red Hand Day, an annual United Nations campaign to stop the use of child soldiers.
3. It’s also the 91st anniversary of the premiere of Gershwin’s Rhapsody In Blue in New York…
4. … and the founding in 1909 of the US civil rights group the National Association For The Advancement Of Colored People ( NAACP) which has kept its name “for historical reasons”.
5. Peruvian alpaca wool comes in 22 natural colours, the most of any wool- producing animal.
6. In 2002 it was reported that people with ginger hair require 20 per cent more anaesthetic before surgery than people with hair of another colour.
7. Bees cannot see the colour red. To them it looks like black. And sea lions cannot tell red from grey.
8. Research has shown that female guppy fish prefer brightly coloured males to drab ones.
9. Mosquitoes are attracted to the colour blue twice as much as to any other colour.
10. The most common colours in the King James Bible are white, purple, red, scarlet and blue.