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

I get the links by going to the main doodle page at http://www.google.com/doodles then click on the doodle details permanent link. This always works, even for interactive doodles, and you get more info like where the doodle is visible.

http://www.google.com/doodles/virginia-woolfs-136th-birthday

I assume, like me, everyone is rather meh regarding all the Olympic animated doodles.

Double meh.

Triple meh with salchow.

PP.

I had to look up the spelling of salchow. What normal person would know it was spelled like that?

PP.

I dunno. Do you know a normal person we could ask?

I bet 2legs could spell the out of Salchow.
Salchow wouldn't know what hit it after being spelt by 2legs.

Here's a useless fact: The salchow was named after Ulrich Slachow of Sweden. Poor man...

Well, you know where to take that little factoid, right?


BTW? Does everyone pronounce it like I hear it on the US skating coverage, like the two equally accented syllables, like short for Sally and grub for pets? SAL-CHOW?

I think they must:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CoiQr6Pl-k

This strikes me as basically wrong, if it's Ulrich's last name...

This monetised version boasts 'high quality voices' which do not agree:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcHISEvJFrs

I would think it was pronounced, 'ZAHL-khoh', but I only read Swedish and can't speak it...

Perhaps Milla can help us say his name.

Milla says, 'Sal as in the name Sal, "cho" as in cog, w as in vile...Salkov if you're Swedish.'

So that's official.

This video cleared up a couple of things for me. Hearing it pronounced in another accent helped. And it cleared up that Dmitri misspelled Ulrich's name. I was really digging on the idea that the jump "salchow" was named after a fellow named "Slachow".

I know there are some things out there that are known by misspellings of their namesakes, but I can't think of any off the top of my head.


Also, as I've mentioned elsewhere, probably in the Useless Facts thread, there really should be a term for words that you're familiar with, but have never heard pronounced.

THIS video. http://youtu.be/lxtm5cW_YxE

That video cleared something up for me - I always thought a 'double Axel' was, er, a 'double axle'.

I am a terrible skater...

Heh... when I was in my club, one of the other members was in charge of getting beer Koozie's made with the name of the run on them. He came back with ones emblazoned with "Broken Axel". For several years following, it remained "Broken Axel" even on the flyers as others assumed it was an intentional spelling and the new guys (like me) didn't know what the origin of the name was, maybe one of the founders of the run was named "Axel".


Nope, that guy just didn't know how to spell axle.

I suspected this as I thought it was quite odd to name a macho run after a figure skating maneuver.








A "Koozie" was a brand name for beer can insulators commonly used in the hot, humid Southern and Gulf Coast States. I always felt that the official "Koozies" were inferior to the thicker and denser "Tiddies" brand insulators but Koozie became the generic term (like Kleenex tried so hard to avoid). I don't believe the Koozie company is still in business but all the knock-off versions are invariably referred to as "Koozies" around here.

I agree about the Olympic doodles - keep expecting them to do something whizzo.

Quality rather than Quantity would have been a better option.

I guess we've become blasé to the doodles. I assumed we were just expecting interactive games like in previous Olympic years, but I just checked and the last time they did that was the 2012 Summer games.

Today's flying squirrel is kind of blah, though...

Yesterday's doodle ( http://www.google.com/doodles/sir-william-henry-perkins-180th-birthday ) celebrated Sir William Henry Perkins for his accidental discovery of the first synthetic dye, mauvine.

What's not mentioned is his discoveries led to worldwide environmental disasters, and that the production of these synthetic dyes "were leaving a trail of tumors wherever they were manufactured."

http://www.inverse.com/article/42183-google-doodle-william-henry-perkin-aniline-dye-toxic-poison

http://www.google.com/doodles/st-patricks-day-2018

Today's St. Paddy's doodle has a "secret" message written out in the Ogham alphabet. It's fairly obvious.