Google Doodles

Happy 197th birthday, Ada Lovelace!Ada Lovelace is honored today...

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 22:55:00 -0500

Happy 197th birthday, Ada Lovelace!

Ada Lovelace is honored today by Google for her contribution to computer science. She is variously described as the “first computer programmer” and the inventor of the algorithm.

But Ada Lovelace might have become an historical footnote – the only legitimate daughter of Romantic poet Lord Byron – were it not for her relationship with Charles Babbage, the “father of the computer.”

Their work together illustrates the adage: “the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.” Yes, Babbage conceived of the “Difference Engine” and the “Analytical Engine.” But it was Ada that was able to see the wider applications, the potential beyond its use as a sophisticated calculator.

Iiiinnnteresting.
I had no idea.
Pretty impressive for a woman in the 1800s!

Photo

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 22:33:52 -0500

Happy holidays!

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 22:04:49 -0500

Happy holidays!

Happy birthday, MLK, of course. And may you celebrate the...

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 21:47:08 -0500

Happy birthday, MLK, of course.

And may you celebrate the strides he helped make possible.The country is not yet without racial problems of any kind, but it has fewer because of him.

Happy 172nd Birthday, August Rodin.One of his most famous pieces...

Thu, 15 Nov 2012 15:16:00 -0500

Happy 172nd Birthday, August Rodin.
One of his most famous pieces is ‘The Thinker’.

The Kiss:

Happy Veteran’s Day!

Thu, 15 Nov 2012 15:08:00 -0500

Happy Veteran’s Day!

GO AND VOTE!!!

Tue, 06 Nov 2012 00:47:20 -0500

GO AND VOTE!!!

Happy 70th birthday, Bob Ross.

Sun, 04 Nov 2012 19:08:35 -0500

Happy 70th birthday, Bob Ross.

Happy 161st anniversary, Moby Dick!

Sun, 04 Nov 2012 19:07:57 -0500

Happy 161st anniversary, Moby Dick!

Niels Bohr was one of those geniuses who’s name is still...

Sun, 04 Nov 2012 19:07:24 -0500

Niels Bohr was one of those geniuses who’s name is still used today in chemistry classes.

Clara Schumann, sassy Victorian pianist, gets Google Doodle...

Sun, 04 Nov 2012 19:06:37 -0500

Clara Schumann, sassy Victorian pianist, gets Google Doodle honor

Clara Schumann might not be a household name today, but in her heyday she was the toast of Europe — known as the “Priestess” and the “Queen of the Piano.” This explains why she’s honored with Thursday’s benchmark of cultural relevancy: A Google Doodle commemorating what would have been her 193rd birthday.

The German composer and classical musician died in 1896 following a career that spanned more than six decades—and bucked societal conventions of the time.

Among the obstacles facing Schumann: An overbearing father who recognized her genius, and then tried to block her marriage to famed composer Robert Schumann. Their union would be troubled in part because Robert Schumann wanted Clara to play the role of dutiful wife instead of flitting about musical circles that included living legends such as Johannes Brahms, Frederic Chopin and Franz Liszt.

By the age of 37, Schumann was a widow, according to author Nancy B. Reich, who wrote a biography of the musician entitled ”Clara Schumann: The Artist and the Woman.” Her husband suffered from depression, attempted suicide at one point by throwing himself in the Rhine River, and was ultimately committed to an asylum, where he remained until his death.

Despite such hardships, Schumann refused to be defined by a conventional life and used her musical talents to support herself and her family.

Google doodle in honor of Maria Montessori’s 142nd...

Sun, 04 Nov 2012 19:05:56 -0500

Google doodle in honor of Maria Montessori’s 142nd birthday.

Happy 100th birthday, Julia Child!

Sun, 04 Nov 2012 19:05:25 -0500

Happy 100th birthday, Julia Child!

Happy 115th birthday, Amelia Earhart!Fun story.My folk dance...

Sun, 04 Nov 2012 19:04:00 -0500

Happy 115th birthday, Amelia Earhart!

Fun story.
My folk dance teacher at Humboldt State was a retired navy flyer -
one of the first ever female flyers!

She was really tall
and explained that she had to be.
“All of the airplanes were made for men.
Only tall women were big enough to fly the planes.
I asked her if she knew some of the other earlly women flyers like Amelia Earhart.
“Oh, yes,” she said. “I knew Amelia.”
“Do you know what happened to her?” I asked.
“Nobody ever figured that one out,” she sighed.

Pretty cool that she actually knew her!

Gustav Klimt.His most famous piece is The Kiss.An amazing piece...

Sun, 04 Nov 2012 19:02:00 -0500

Gustav Klimt.
His most famous piece is The Kiss.

An amazing piece of art.

Here are some others.

The Tree of Life

Adele Bloch-Bauer I

And, of course, many others.

Photo

Sun, 04 Nov 2012 19:00:51 -0500

Six gilded Easter eggs adorn the Google home page to mark...

Sun, 04 Nov 2012 18:59:45 -0500

Six gilded Easter eggs adorn the Google home page to mark master Russian jeweller Peter Carl Faberge’s 166th birthday.

Faberge was the court jeweller for the last two Russian Czars and the bejewelled Easter eggs were his speciality. Since the very first egg that contained a jewelled hen in 1885 Faberge made a total of 54 eggs in 37 years for the Romanovs.

Only 47 of the Fabergé eggs are believed to have survived. Nine of the famous Imperial Fabergé eggs were displayed in India during an exhibition in late 2008.

Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

It is not that Peter Carl Fabergé designed bejewelled eggs only for the Russian royals, a select few prominent families and individuals also had Fabergé specially made for them.

Images of some of Peter Carl Faberge’s famed eggs:

The Renaissance Faberge egg is displayed during the exhibition “Treasures of Imperial Russia” in Croatia’s Adriatic town of Dubrovnik on November 3, 2007. The egg of gold, diamonds, rubies, white agat and enamel was presented by Emperor Alexander 3rd to his wife Empress Maria Feodorovna for Easter 1894. Reuters/Nikola Solic

June 1935: Richly decorated and highly-ornate Faberge eggs, embellished with gold and precious stones, pictured as part of a Russian Art exhibition. Topical Press Agency/Getty Images

The “Memory of Azov” egg by Faberge sits on display in the Kremlin April 6, 2011. Reuters/Alexander Natruskin

The Coronation Egg by Faberge is seen on display during the exhibition in the Kremlin in Moscow, May 18, 2004. Reuters/Sergei Karpukhin

The Rothschild Faberge egg is displayed at Christie’s auction house in London October 4, 2007. Reuters/Kieran Doherty

The Bay Tree Faberge egg is displayed during the exhibition “Treasures of Imperial Russia” in Croatia’s Adriatic town of Dubrovnik on November 3, 2007. The egg of gold, nephrite, quartz, diamonds, rubies, amethyst, citrines and pearls was presented by Emperor Nicholas 2nd to his mother, Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna for Easter 1911. Reuters/Nikola Solic

The Order of St. George Faberge egg is displayed during the exhibition “Treasures of Imperial Russia” in Croatia’s Adriatic town of Dubrovnik on November 3, 2007. The egg of gold, silver, enamel and water-color on ivory was presented by Emperor Nicholas 2nd to his mother Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna for Easter 1916. Reuters/Nikola Solic

A masterpiece faberge winter egg made for Russia’s imperial family sold for 7.2 million Swiss francs ($5.5 million US dollars) at Christie’s auction house in Geneva November 16 to an anonymous buyer. The sale was a record for a Faberge egg. Reuters

A visitor admires the Egg by Faberge, presented by the Russian Czar Nikolas II to his wife in 1911, during an exhibition in the Kremlin in Moscow, May 18, 2004. Reuters/Sergei Karpukhin

A visitor admires precious richly decorated eggs at an opening of Faberge Grand Collection Gallery in central Moscow near the Kremlin, October 25, 2005. Reuters/Viktor Korotayev

Visitors look at the baroque Cockerel Faberge Imperial Easter egg at the exhibition “Faberge in Berlin - Treasures of the Imperial Russia” at Charlottenburg Palace in Berlin, June 15 2005. The Cockerel or Cuckoo Egg is one of six Faberge Imperial Easter eggs with embedded mechanics, which reveals a bird flapping its wings and crowing. Reuters

The “Alexander III Monument” egg by Faberge sits on display in the Kremlin April 6, 2011. Reuters/Alexander Natruskin

The 1914 Faberge Mosaic Egg, one of four Faberge eggs among the Royal Collection of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth ll, is pictured in London November 20, 2003. Reuters/Kirsty Wigglesworth/Pool

Lily of the Valley Egg by Faberge is admired by visitors at the exhibition in the Kremlin in Moscow, May 18, 2004. Reuters/Sergei Karpukhin

Judy Coombes (R) and Susan McMunn look at the 1906 Moscow Kremlin Egg, the largest Faberge Easter egg on display in the exhibition “Treasures from the Kremlin: The World of Faberge” at Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum. Reuters

Happy Mother’s Day from Google.Be sure to see the doodle...

Sun, 04 Nov 2012 18:55:00 -0500

Happy Mother’s Day from Google.
Be sure to see the doodle in action.
It’s sweet.

Google’s homepage doodle today pays homage to Howard...

Sun, 04 Nov 2012 18:54:00 -0500

Google’s homepage doodle today pays homage to Howard Carter, a British archaeologist best known for uncovering the tomb of King Tutankhamen in Egypt.

The doodle on Google.com, which celebrates Carter’s 138th birthday, features him standing amongst the riches uncovered in King Tut’s tomb.

Carter was born in 1873 in England, and developed an interest in Egypt at an early age. He traveled there in 1891 for an apprenticeship that had him “recording the decorated walls of tombs in Middle Egypt,” according to the Archaeological Institute of America. In the years to come, he primarily worked as an artist and photographer at various sites in Egypt. But in 1900, he was named chief inspector of antiquities in Upper Egypt, which included excavation and conservation tasks. A 1905 altercation with some French tourists, however, prompted him to resign and he returned to his artist roots, the AIA said.

It was not until 1922 that Carter discovered the intact royal tomb of King Tut, who was interred around 1333 B.C. surrounded by priceless valuables. As the New York Times noted in Carter’s obituary, “to a modern world recovering from the World War his discovery brought a complete picture of the colorful civilization of the Eighteenth Dynasty in Egypt about which little had been previously known. The splendor of the tomb and its rich furnishings within it revealed a Golden Age of arts and crafts equal to any other period of ancient times.”

Not surprisingly, Carter struggled to produce a follow-up as noteworthy as the King Tut discovery. A biography by Kegan Paul “depicts a somewhat lonely and despondent Carter in the aftermath of this success,” AIA said. “At one point Carter is pictured, after work in the tomb had finished, pathetically seeking recognition in the lobby of Luxor’s Winter Palace Hotel, ‘waiting like the Ancient Mariner to trap some visitor to whom he might talk.’”

Carter passed away in 1939.