Día de los Muertos. Day of the Dead. Its name is decidedly somber, but Mexico’s celebration of its departed souls overflows with color, music, and the unmistakable fragrances of its wonderful cuisine. To honor this holiday of mourning and remembrance, artist Kevin Laughlin has reimagined our logo as a string of papel picado, the vibrant, artfully perforated tissue paper that will drape windowsills and doorways all over Mexico tonight. Here’s to lively festivals and fond memories. ¡Salud y felicidad!
We love highlighting the many good stories about women’s achievements in science and technology. When the story involves a 1940s Hollywood star-turned-inventor who helped develop technologies we all use with our smartphones today… well, we just have to share it with the world.
Today on Google’s homepage we’re celebrating Hedy Lamarr, the Austrian-born actress Hollywood once dubbed “the most beautiful woman in the world.” Lamarr’s own story reads like a movie script: bored by the film industry and feeling typecast, Lamarr was more interested in helping the Allied war effort as World War II broke out than in the roles she was being offered. She had some background in military munitions (yes, really), and together with a composer friend, George Antheil, used the principles of how pianos worked (yep, pianos) to identify a way to prevent German submarines from jamming Ally radio signals. The patent for “frequency hopping” Lamarr co-authored laid the groundwork for widely-used technologies like Bluetooth, GPS and wifi that we rely upon daily.
It’s no wonder, then, that Lamarr has kind of a mythical status at Google, and I was pretty excited at the chance to tell her story in Doodle form. This took some tinkering of my own—after deciding on the movie format as a nod to her Hollywood career, I dug through old fashion illustrations and movie posters to try to capture the look and feel of the 1940’s. Sketching storyboards on a yellow notepad helped me figure out how to show Lamarr in very different scenarios—movie star by day, inventor by night—which we then animated and set to the awesome soundtrack created by composer Adam Ever-Hadani.
Re: Google
Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2015 4:57 pm
by felinefan
If I recall correctly, they never really used her invention during the war, and it languished until the cell phone came along. I remember once reading about a two-headed goat whose owner wanted to name after her, but she objected.
Re: Google
Posted: Wed Nov 11, 2015 9:59 am
by hobie16
Veterans Day 2015
Re: Google
Posted: Fri Nov 13, 2015 10:52 am
by hobie16
Dorothea Christiane Erxleben's 300th Birthday
Throughout her life, Dorothea Christiane Erxleben advocated for women's rights and maintained the unwavering conviction that women should be allowed to—and ought to—pursue an education. After receiving a dispensation from Frederick the Great, Erxleben earned her M.D. from University of Halle in 1754, the first woman in Germany’s history to do so!
Happy 300th birthday, Dr. Erxleben!
Re: Google
Posted: Mon Nov 16, 2015 11:28 am
by hobie16
Doodle 4 Google 2015 - India Winner
For the 7th Doodle 4 Google competition in India, we invited kids to create Doodles with the theme "If I could create something for India, it would be...".
Today, on India's Children's Day we're delighted to share the winning artwork.
And the winner is... Drumrolls!
9-year-old P Karthik from Sri Prakash Vidyaniketan, Visakhapatnam.
In his own words: "This machine will recycle all the plastic waste from our country and turn it into a material which helps the growth of mother nature. This machine will turn the most powerful evil plastic into green."
Congratulations to the winner and a big shout out to all participants!
Re: Google
Posted: Mon Nov 23, 2015 8:00 pm
by hobie16
Nadine Gordimer’s 92nd Birthday
Today's Doodle features Nobel Prize winning author Nadine Gordimer laboring in her study, where she typically worked from early morning into the late afternoon. A dear friend of Nelson Mandela’s and a powerful voice for change in South African politics, Gordimer moved untold thousands with the pathos of her sparse, penetrating narratives.
