Federal Assembly declares that the dress is blue and black

[Burleson 2]

In a 146 to 125 vote, the Federal Assembly approved A.R. 15-59, which officially recognized the dress as blue and black. The resolution had wide support from all parties.

A.R. 15-59: Recognizing the Color of "The Dress"
Republic of Burleson
Federal Assembly
Proposed on February 27, 2015

The Republic of Burleson shall officially recognize that "the dress" is blue and black.

Proposed by Melinda Ray

Sponsored by Mike Powers, Arnold Owen, Kelly Parker

Voted for by 146/271 representatives

Signed into law: February 27, 2015 by President Nick Teleno

Effective: Immediately

[Burleson 2]

Update
President Teleno signed the resolution, making the idea that the dress is blue and black the Republic of Burleson's official position.

[New Pyrrhius]

there is nothing left to hide from

[Blakullar]

The People's Senate has made the following statement regarding 'the dress':

"We really wouldn't give a toss if it was black, blue, gold or white. Seriously, shouldn't you guys be spending more time running your country instead of fretting over the colour of a frock?"

[Burleson 2]

The People's Senate has made the following statement regarding 'the dress':

"We really wouldn't give a toss if it was black, blue, gold or white. Seriously, shouldn't you guys be spending more time running your country instead of fretting over the colour of a frock?"

The US Congress has a resolution to congratulate the New England Patriots. We're pretty much on par with them.

[United Russian Soviet States]

The Soviet government applauds Burleson on focusing on popular fads. That is a good way to distract the masses.

[The Supreme Magistrates]

Supreme Magistrate Rafael the Vigilant, after 48 straight hours of deliberation within the large halls of the Neo-House of the Magistrates, has officially declared the color of the dress to be white and gold. Chief Advisor Isaac the Zealous will ensure that the decree be put into effect immediately.

[Maldovania]

Maldovania does not care about this.

[Commonwealth of Hank the Cat]

President Hank the Cat and his aides have recently had a discussion. President Hank the Cat declares that "The Dress" is a national security hazard, and is Brown and Black.

[Charlotte Ryberg]

The State of Minoa has no idea behind how the dress colour debacle became a wildfire, but since many here are photography experts, it does highlight the importance of paying attention to colour temperature to avoid confusing the viewer.

[Aenglaland]

The Cattish Government declares that all this discussion is just another way the West found to plot against the government of Venezuela and that the dress contains in fact secret prints with detailed instructions to build a rogue McDonalds.

[Ayermani]

What dress?

[Victorious Decepticons]

An analyst from another universe said,

... the actual colors in the picture, as determined by Photoshop, are blue and gold. Specifically the blue is #6e7591 and the gold is #615130 on an 8bit color palette.

As robots, this is precisely how we see the dress as it is shown in the photograph that made the rounds through that universe. As being shades of #6E7591 and #615130. Simple as that.

The colors of the original item are irrelevant since what is being discussed is not really the original dress, but the image in the specific photograph that has been disseminated. No one is standing in a store looking at it, they're looking at The Picture. Any proper lifeform can easily distill this particular image to its hexadecimal color values and will see it accordingly - as light blue and gold.

However, we have not made any official announcements on the colors of the image, except for this one here. Instead, we have added knowledge of this controversy to our already-massive database of proof that humans are beta versions of life.

[YellowApple]

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Musings of a Minty-Fresh Pony

Minuette Colgate Talks About: The White-Balance Illusion Effect

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reporter: Minuette Colgate
location: Manzanopolis Prime, YellowApple, Inc.

¡Hey everyone! Minuette here with yet another of my articles published by the YANNN. So cool, ¿right?

Well today, we're going to talk about something that's very special to me:

Some random fucking dress.

At least, so it seemed way back when, near the beginning of the 21st Century, when a photograph of a blue-and-black dress spurred what's now known two centuries later by a slightly-more-formal name: the white-balance illusion effect (WBIE).

The white-balance illusion effect, demonstrated in the original image above (preserved in its original JPEG-compressed form in the YellowApplan Internet Archive), sparked intense debate at the time among those who viewed it; many believed it to be "blue and black", while others believed it to be "white and gold".

We, of course, now know from other photographs of the same dress that it is indeed blue and black. So why is the above picture so confusing to look at for so many viewers?

Well, the white-balance illusion effect relies on a principle called color constancy, which causes the brains of many animals to recognize the colors of an object to be the same regardless of whether the object is illuminated or in shadow. When contextual information in an image is incomplete, however - perhaps there are insufficient reference points relating to lighting and colors - it becomes unclear whether or not an object is in shadow or being illuminated, and thus we get something similar to the white-balance illusion effect. To demonstrate this with the infamous blue dress, consider the below diagrams:

On the left, you have the perception of the "white and gold" crowd: those whose brains register the dress to be in shadow (relative to the bright background behind it) and therefore perceive it to be white and gold. On the right, you have the perception of the "blue and black" crowd: those whose brains register the whole image as being excessively bright, and therefore perceive the dress to be blue and black.

For another example of this phenomenon, let's take a look at another pair of pictures:

Specifically, have a look at the second card from the left (the pink one). Notice how it looks brighter in the blue-tinted image? It might surprise you that they're actually the same exact color. No really, they are. You can even check the color values of the pixels in that image; in both cases, you'll get the color corresponding to the 24-bit color ⣾⣻⣼⢻⣽⣽ (0xEBC3DD for our non-YellowApplan readers). They just look different because your brain is trying to adjust for the hue of the whole image.

Of course, this isn't the whole story in this famous instance of the white-balance illusion effect; other factors - especially the probable poor quality of the camera used to take the original photograph - contributed heavily to anomalous perception as well. However, it's still a solid scientific explanation.

So how is the white-balance illusion effect useful in real life? Well, as a Corporate Representative for YellowApple, Inc., it would be silly of me to not mention at least one product of YellowApple, Inc. that leverages it very well. Active-camouflaged products in YellowApple, Inc.'s military product lines are capable of leveraging the white-balance illusion effect as a visual disruption technique. Color-capable "e-Ink" layers are embedded in armor plating and uniform fabrics in order to allow them to change colors on-the-fly during combat operations, whether it's to better blend in with the surroundings or - in the case of YellowApplan aerospace craft - to confuse those attempting to gauge the vehicle's size, location, and velocity by shifting colors in a way that doesn't match ambient conditions - similar to "dazzle paint" used in early-20th-century warships, but much more sophisticated.

That's all I have this time around. ¡See you later!

-- Minuette "Team Blue-and-Black" Colgate