June 23rd: National Pink Day

June 23rd is National Pink Day. Here are 10 things you might not know about the colour pink.

1. The word pink comes from the flower of the same name which belongs to the genus Dianthus. The name of the flower, in turn, comes from the frilled edge of the petals which derives from the verb "to pink" which means "to decorate with a perforated or punched pattern" - which is why pinking shears are so named. In other languages, it's a different story. In many European languages, such as French, the word for pink is rose or rosa, after the Rose flower. In others, such as Danish, Faroese and Finnish, the word for pink literally translates as "light Red".
2. Pink is generally associated with the feminine gender, although that hasn't always been the case. In the 19th century, the opposite was true, because men often wore red uniforms, and little boys were seen as small men and dressed in pink, and it was girls who wore Blue. That said, babies in that era were usually dressed in White because their clothing needed to be washed in hot water, so any colour would fade. In the late 19th century, blue and white sailor suits became fashionable attire for little boys, which might partially explain the reversal.
3. People associate pink with charm, politeness, sensitivity, tenderness, sweetness, softness, childhood, the feminine, and the romantic. Most connotations of the colour are positive, so it is perhaps surprising that only 2% of people say it is their favourite colour. Women are more likely to be fond of pink than men, while older people are more likely to like it than younger ones.
4. Pink wasn't all that common in clothing and art in the middle ages. Nobles generally liked brighter reds. Artists did use pink for skin tones, and some artists painted the baby Jesus dressed in pink. Pastel colours became fashionable in European courts in the 18th century. Madame de Pompadour, mistress of King Louis XV of France, was particularly fond of pink and even had a tint of pink specially made for her by the Sevres porcelain factory.
5. In  Thailand, pink is associated with Tuesdays. Anyone born on a Tuesday may adopt pink as their colour. Other people can wear pink on Tuesdays.
6. In law courts in England and Wales, pink has traditionally been associated with the defence (prosecution was white). Hence a brief delivered to a barrister by a solicitor is usually tied with pink ribbon.
7. Pink has become a signature colour for the LGBT community. This began in Nazi Germany where people accused of homosexuality were forced to wear a pink triangle. The modern gay rights movement subsequently adopted it. The pink pound is an economic term for the spending power of gay people.
8. While on the subject of economics, the Financial Times has used a distinctive pink color for its newsprint since 1893, originally because pink dyed paper was less expensive than bleached white paper. Later on, they kept the pink newsprint because it stood out from all the other newspapers, which were white. The financial section of a white newspaper is often printed in pink.
9. The Pink Panther is a cartoon character who first appeared in the opening and/or closing credit sequences of films in the series of comedy-mystery films featuring an inept French police detective, Inspector Jacques Clouseau. The reason for this is that the first film in the series was called Pink Panther, because the story was about the theft of a pink diamond which had a flaw in it that looked like a leaping pink panther. Six of the eleven films in the series featured this diamond.
10. Why do sunsets and sunrises look pink? As white light from the sun travels through the atmosphere, the component colours are scattered. At sunrise and sunset, when the path of the sunlight through the atmosphere to the eye is longest, colours with a shorter wavelength get filtered out, leaving the longer wavelength Orange, red and pink light. This light is scattered even more by cloud droplets in the sky.

The Raiders Trilogy

Book One

Book Three

Book Two

   

Power Blaster is a superhero who lives in a dimension not unlike our own, in the mega-nation of Innovia. No-one knows who he is or where his powers come from. 
After saving the life of the President several times, Power Blaster learns that a test of a nuclear warhead to defend the planet against asteroid strikes will have devastating consequences for his world and sets out to prevent it.

Power Blaster's actions lead to an unexpected result - a wormhole opens between his dimension and our own. Anyone in the vicinity is pulled through. People from diverse backgrounds and cultures must co-operate to survive and learn to live with the powers travel through the wormhole has bestowed on some of them.

A stable wormhole is established between the two dimensions. Power Blaster is determined to bring Desi Troyes, the person responsible for the bomb, to justice. Help comes from some rather unexpected sources. Meanwhile, Shanna Douglas sets out on a mission of her own, to find out if there is a cure for the life altering condition the wormhole gave her friend, Benedict Cole. Little does she know that she will stumble upon the secret of Power Blaster's mysterious origins.