h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Rather disappointing that a studio known for many great American films, such as Ben Hur, wouldn't warrant a Doodle in the US.*




*But, to be honest, I wasn't familiar with it before now.

BG's link a few posts back reveals a new 'archival'
system which offers a lot more info about each doodle
and especially helpful is the world map that shows
the regions where each doodle was on display.

Here's one that appeared only in Greece:
http://www.google.com/doodles/dionisios-solomoss-216th-birthday
Clicking on the highlighted country goes to that country's archive.

*Note to lurking Google researchers - the map should
include a URL to every region's Google homepage. It
would be fun to see how searches change based on the
robotic algorithms that select suggested pages suitable
to satisfy advertisers, local regulations, ethnic regional
prejudgments and cultural bias.


~jwf~

Today I am seeing Audrey Hepburn, one of my first boyhood crushes.
I later matured to value the wit and sophisticated humour of
Katherine Hepburn over the impossibly long-necked anorexia
of the petite and beauteous Audrey who really does look like
Gollum from the Rings when you look at her critically.

~jwf~

Today's Google Doodle celebrates Dorothy Hodgkin's 104th birthday.

Today's Google Doodle celebrates the 296th birthday of Italian mathematician and philosopher Maria Gaetana Agnesi
(16 May 1718-9 January 1799.

There goes your day.

Rubik's Cube doodle today.

A number of years before they were mass-produced, Rubik's cubes were sold in the New Scientist magazine. I think they were called Magic Cubes, back then. I always wanted one of the original Magic Cubes, but couldn't afford one on my minimal pocket money. (I eventually got one of the Ideal Rubik's Cubes for Christmas.)

Even if I could remember how I used to solve Rubik's cube, I don't think I could do it on the doodle today because so much of it was muscle memory. I had several memorized steps such that once I got one side complete, I could nearly do the rest with my eyes closed.

Yep... it's taken me 84 moves just to get one side and its edges done. And I can't remember the series of moves I would use after this step. It's been just 30 years or so, I don't know why I'm struggling to remember so.

It's still known as the Zauberwürfel (magic cube) in German

Hrmm, google doodle doesn't work in my version of Opera but does in chrome. Neither does their reverse image search. Something is going on.

I can't figure out how to make the doodle rotate
in the vertical axis. It spins nicely when I click
but only left to right in the horizontal plane.
But that is insufficient to the purpose.
Is there some keystroke combo I'm missing.
I need an up/down and a left turn.

~jwf~

To rotate it around the vertical axis, click and drag outside the cube above or below it. To rotate around the other two axes click and drag to the left or right of the cube. Clicking the cube itself rotates sections individually.

~jwf~

Today they honour one of the great women of science.
Until recently she was mostly only known by a silly ditty
written about her by drunken louts at the Royal Academy.

"She sells sea shells down by the sea shore..."

In those days 'men' could be so cruel when dismissing
any serious effort or discovery made by women of science.
In the 20th century they just ignored them. This would set
astrophysics back about 20 years.

~jwf~

Not on .com, as far as I can see, so I checked on .ca

Ha! I plan to visit her on my summer holiday this year. Note to self - must make more concrete plans for holiday. F19585?thread=8308159

Hmm... Surprisingly, Anna is being shown almost
globally, according to the 'reach' map on this page:

https://www.google.com/doodles/mary-annings-215th-birthday

Curiously it seems that Germany is not included but
Japan, Malaysia and most of North Africa are.

Makes one wonder who makes these decisions at Google.
Well maybe not who, I mean who cares about anyone at Google,
they don't care about us as individuals just as a mass,
but the 'how' of these decision processes is a curiosity.


~jwf~

~~ And from the Wild Wild NorthWest,USA ~ ~ ~
http://www.csmonitor.com/Innovation/Pioneers/2014/0521/Google-celebrates-Mary-Anning-with-fossil-hunting-doodle-video?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=BizTech&utm_campaign=20140521_Newsletter%3ABizTech_Sailthru&cmpid=ema%3Anws%3ABizTech%2520Weekly%2520%2805-21-2014%29
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~ ~ ~~ ~~~

That link contains a delightful video about fossils
which, in case anyone didn't scroll down far enough
to see it, I offer again via a Utooby link.

It is especially interesting that no names of famous
paleontologists are mentioned but there is a brief
glimpse of a bonnetted women who looks very much
like the young Anna in question.

http://youtu.be/3eMUdqSu2Kc


~jwf~

In the UK right now we have a Euro Election Google doodle.

I am guessing that this is replicated across Europe.

PP.