Blue Grotto

Blue Grotto may refer to:

See also

Blue

Blue is the colour between violet and green on the optical spectrum of visible light. Human eyes perceive blue when observing light with a wavelength between 450 and 495 nanometres. Blues with a higher frequency and thus a shorter wavelength gradually look more violet, while those with a lower frequency and a longer wavelength gradually appear more green. Pure blue, in the middle, has a wavelength of 470 nanometres. In painting and traditional colour theory, blue is one of the three primary colours of pigments, along with red and yellow, which can be mixed to form a wide gamut of colours. Red and blue mixed together form violet, blue and yellow together form green. Blue is also a primary colour in the RGB colour model, used to create all the colours on the screen of a television or computer monitor.

The modern English word blue comes from Middle English bleu or blewe, from the Old French bleu, a word of Germanic origin, related to the Old High German word blao. The clear sky and the deep sea appear blue because of an optical effect known as Rayleigh scattering. When sunlight passes through the atmosphere, the blue wavelengths are scattered more widely by the oxygen and nitrogen molecules, and more blue comes to our eyes. Rayleigh scattering also explains blue eyes; there is no blue pigment in blue eyes. Distant objects appear more blue because of another optical effect called atmospheric perspective.

Capri

Capri (/kəˈpriː/; Italian pronunciation: [ˈkaːpri]) is an island located in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the Sorrentine Peninsula, on the south side of the Gulf of Naples in the Campania region of Italy. The main town Capri that is located on the island shares the name. It has been a resort since the time of the Roman Republic.

Some of the main features of the island include the following: the Marina Piccola (the little harbour), the Belvedere of Tragara (a high panoramic promenade lined with villas), the limestone crags called sea stacks that project above the sea (the Faraglioni), the town of Anacapri, the Blue Grotto (Grotta Azzurra), and the ruins of the Imperial Roman villas.

Capri is part of the region of Campania, Province of Naples. The town of Capri is the island's main population centre. The island has two harbours, Marina Piccola and Marina Grande (the main port of the island). The separate comune of Anacapri is located high on the hills to the west.

Etymology

The etymology of the name Capri is unclear; it might either be traced back to the Ancient Greeks (Ancient Greek κάπρος kapros meaning "wild boar"), the first recorded colonists to populate the island. But it could also derive from Latin capreae (goats). Fossils of wild boars have been discovered, lending credence to the "kapros" etymology; on the other hand, the Romans called Capri "goat island". Finally, there is also the possibility that the name derives from an Etruscan word for "rocky", though any historical Etruscan rule of the island is disputed.

Bei Bei

Bei Bei (/ˈbeɪˈbeɪ/ BAY-BAY; Chinese: t 貝貝, s 贝贝, p Bèibèi) is a male giant panda cub who lives at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., in the United States. He is part of Sino–American panda diplomacy and will have to be returned to the People's Republic of China at the age of 4.

Birth

Bei Bei was born on August 22, 2015, together with a twin that died 4 days after their birth. His mother is Mei Xiang. His father, via artificial insemination, is National Zoo panda Tian Tian. As of October 7, 2015 he weighed 5 lbs (1.8 kg).

Name

On September 25, 2015, five weeks after the birth of the baby panda, he was named "Bei Bei" by Michelle Obama and Peng Liyuan, the first ladies of the United States and the People's Republic of China, respectively. The name was selected from a list of suggestions by officials from the National Zoo and the Wolong National Nature Reserve in China's Sichuan Province. The National Zoo preferred the name Ping Ping (平平, "peace"), while "Bei Bei" was the staff choice at Wolong; doubled names are usually chosen because they are diminutive in Chinese. The first ladies revealed the name in both English and Mandarin, assisted by third-grade students from a Chinese-immersion elementary school in Washington, D.C. The name means "precious" or "treasure", the same as his 2-year-old sister Bao Bao. Zoo director Dennis Kelly admitted that the name is likely to give rise to jokes and wordplay linking the name to "baby".