Google Doodles

[odeon]

I couldn't be bothered to look, tbh.

[Gopher Gary]

Today's Google Doodle is Sir Frederick Banting’s 125th Birthday.



Google has no comments for this doodle. 

[Gopher Gary]

I also saw this one and want to post it because it's pretty. 

Today's Google Doodle is also Children's Day 2016 (India).


There's also no comments for this doodle. 

[Gopher Gary]

Today's Google Doodle is James Welch's 76th Birthday.



Today’s Doodle by artist Sophie Diao pays tribute to James Welch, the Blackfeet writer, on what would be his 76th birthday. Through his novels, documentary film, and poems, Welch gave voice to the struggles and humanity of the Native American experience in the United States.

Thirty years ago, Welch published his best known work, Fools Crow, the story of the Blackfeet people during the period of post-civil war encroachment by Europeans. In this award-winning novel, the Blackfeet seek to continue traditional ways, and to avoid both contact and conflict. As a whole, Welch’s works emphasized the humanity of native peoples and their deep attachment to their homelands. He was considered an early part of what was later dubbed the Native American Renaissance, during which native writers celebrated tribal culture and revealed its complex problems in works readily accessible to the larger American public.

Welch, who as a young man described himself as an "Indian who writes," gained an international audience. His works were appreciated universally for both their artistic appeal and ability to bring the experiences of the Native American people to life.

Here’s to James -- thank you for your contributions!


In celebration of National Native American Heritage Month (NAHM), the Google Cultural Institute is highlighting 6 Native American artists, Google Play Books is presenting a special category of Native American heritage reads, and YouTube is highlighting music and traditional dance content from modern Native American communities.

Additionally, we’ve launched new Google Expeditions of Indian Country, allowing students from all over the globe to learn about topics ranging from Southwest tribes to powwows to the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

[Gopher Gary]

Today's Google doodle is Thanksgiving 2016.



On Thanksgiving, celebrated in America on the last Thursday of November, friends and families gather around tables to feast and give thanks. This holiday has origins dating back nearly 400 years when early American settlers met the Native American Wampanoag people.

It was 1620 in Plymouth, Massachusetts when Mayflower colonists and the Wampanoag forged a partnership of necessity. Decimated by an epidemic and wary of the mightier Narragansett, their nearby enemies, the Wampanoag and the newcomers become allies. The pilgrims were unfamiliar with Massachusetts’ natural resources and ill-equipped for survival - but Tisquantum, an English-speaking Patuxet Wampanoag, taught them how to hunt, gather shellfish, and plant corn, beans, and squash. Following harvest in the fall of 1621, the settlers and the Wampanoag, celebrated what’s considered the “First Thanksgiving,” a three-day feast with wild , goose, turkey, deer, and barley ale.

Evocative of American folk art, with quilt-like patterning and simple shapes, today’s Doodle, rendered in a rich harvest-colored palette, is an ode to this season of togetherness.

[renaeden]

No Thanksgiving here but really interesting to read how it originated. Thank you Gary.

[Walkie]

No Thanksgiving here but really interesting to read how it originated. Thank you Gary.

No "thanksgiviing" here in England either. Not exactly.  When i was a kid, we had something called the "Harvest Festival" , which is clearly similar, though it was never a public  holiday.  It pretty much centred on schools and churches, and the main activity was collecting donations of foood , to be distributed to the elderly in the community. I think it's pretty much died out now? Now that State school assemblies have to be non-religious,come to think,  I don't know how they'd reformulate a festival that was  all about thanking God for his bounty?  Who else could be thanked instead? Sainsburies? Tesco ? The farming corporations? ugh. Bring back supernatural agencies! It's easier to believe in their goodness 

It also occurs to me that it was probably realised that it isn't altogether  wise send children  round , delivering hampers of food to lonely old men .  (I do recall being invited in and propsitioned by one, much to my embarrassment ) . But then, all interaction between children and adults seems fraught with that particular danger. I don't know what the answer is, but surely not scrapping all such traditions and observing a strict segration between adults and children (aside from family who are safe , aren't they? oops , no they're not)

Oh! and ever-increasing urbanisation in Britain means that your average Brit has no connection whatsover with the food chain, except as a consumer. And what with all that imported fruit and veg, the little variations in supply caused by harvest are barely noticeable. They just make it easier for Supermarkets to  pretend to be offering bargains.
(I used to shop at the local Market, where seasonal produce really is substantially cheaper . Couldn't keep that up, unfortunately. The difference is shocking)

Anyway,  I  suppose those colonist were, essentially just carrying on  British  tradition, and that their circumstances made it all the more meaningful.

Indeed I  belatedly thought to look it up Wikidedia (just now)  The tradition's history appears to be less clear-cut than Google's story suggests, but it does seem pretty clear that British Protestants brought it over.

So why didn't it catch on in Australia too?  Hmm.  Maybe British colonists in  Oz just didn't find much to be thankful for? 

[Fun With Matches]

Now that State school assemblies have to be non-religious,come to think,  I don't know how they'd reformulate a festival that was  all about thanking God for his bounty?  Who else could be thanked instead? Sainsburies? Tesco ?

 

[Gopher Gary]

No Thanksgiving here but really interesting to read how it originated. Thank you Gary.

Indeed I  belatedly thought to look it up Wikidedia (just now)  The tradition's history appears to be less clear-cut than Google's story suggests, but it does seem pretty clear that British Protestants brought it over.

The wikipedia text doesn't even reference the american Indians, even though the happy joy-joy neighborly settler story is widely accepted as true of the origin. The wikipedia explanation is probably more accurate. Plus some things seem to romanticize native americans, and it makes more sense that the indians likely had nothing to do with the tradition at all.

[Walkie]

No Thanksgiving here but really interesting to read how it originated. Thank you Gary.

Indeed I  belatedly thought to look it up Wikidedia (just now)  The tradition's history appears to be less clear-cut than Google's story suggests, but it does seem pretty clear that British Protestants brought it over.

The wikipedia text doesn't even reference the american Indians, even though the happy joy-joy neighborly settler story is widely accepted as true of the origin. The wikipedia explanation is probably more accurate. Plus some things seem to romanticize native americans, and it makes more sense that the indians likely had nothing to do with the tradition at all.

Yeah, disappointing. I like the "happy joy-joy neighborly" story much better.  Shall we just call it an harmless mythology , eh? And pretend that it's true?

[Gopher Gary]

No point in facing reality after 400 years. 

[Gopher Gary]

I forgot to post yesterday's Google Doodle.

Yesterday's Google Doodle was Louisa May Alcott’s 184th Birthday.



"I like good strong words that mean something," says Jo March in Little Women. The same could be said of that beloved novel's author, Louisa May Alcott, who was born on this day in 1832. In addition to being a writer, Alcott was a suffragist, abolitionist, and feminist. She grew up in the company of luminaries like Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau, who fostered in her a strong sense of civic duty. Alcott volunteered as a nurse during the American Civil War, and her family's home was a station on the Underground Railroad. She was active in the women's suffrage movement and became the first woman to register to vote in Concord, Massachusetts. Through it all, she wrote novels and short stories tirelessly, sometimes working 14 hours a day.

Today's Doodle portrays Beth, Jo, Amy, and Meg March, as well as Jo's best friend Laurie, their neighbor. The March family of Little Women was based on Alcott's own, and the coltish Jo was Louisa's vision of herself: strewing manuscript pages in her wake, charging ahead with the courage of her convictions, and cherishing her family above all.

Doodle by Sophie Diao

[Gopher Gary]

Today's Google Doodle is Jagadish Chandra Bose’s 158th Birthday.



Sir Jagdish Chandra Bose was a master of scientific achievement with numerous accomplishments in various fields. Born in Bangladesh in 1858, Bose was to become known not only for his work in biophysics, but also his innovation in the world of radio and microwave sciences, ultimately inventing an early version of wireless telecommunication. As a testament to his numerous contributions to the field, a moon crater was named in his honor.

Bose’s investigations into nature included the invention of the crescograph – an instrument that measures movement and growth in plant life by magnifying it 10,000 times. He went on to demonstrate the similarities between animals and plants, particularly when it came to reactions to different environmental, electrical, and chemical influences.

Today’s Doodle features Bose and his invention in action on what would be his 158th birthday.

[Gopher Gary]

Also today only in the UK, the Google Doodle is St. Andrew's Day 2016.



St. Andrew’s Day is Scotland’s official national day, celebrating the feast day of St. Andrew—the nation’s patron saint since the 10th century. The Scottish government mandates that the flag, also known as the Saltire or St. Andrew’s Cross, is flown today on every building with a flagpole. Festivities will include traditional Scottish foods like haggis, neeps, and tatties, as well as parades, music, and dancing. The celebrations kick off Scotland’s winter festival season.

Today’s Doodle features the Scottish flag proudly waving against the backdrop of famed locations throughout the country, including Cuillin Hills, Ben Nevis, Broch of Mousa, Isle of Skye, and Loch Lomond.

["couldbecousin"]

I forgot to post yesterday's Google Doodle.

Yesterday's Google Doodle was Louisa May Alcott’s 184th Birthday.



"I like good strong words that mean something," says Jo March in Little Women. The same could be said of that beloved novel's author, Louisa May Alcott, who was born on this day in 1832. In addition to being a writer, Alcott was a suffragist, abolitionist, and feminist. She grew up in the company of luminaries like Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau, who fostered in her a strong sense of civic duty. Alcott volunteered as a nurse during the American Civil War, and her family's home was a station on the Underground Railroad. She was active in the women's suffrage movement and became the first woman to register to vote in Concord, Massachusetts. Through it all, she wrote novels and short stories tirelessly, sometimes working 14 hours a day.

Today's Doodle portrays Beth, Jo, Amy, and Meg March, as well as Jo's best friend Laurie, their neighbor. The March family of Little Women was based on Alcott's own, and the coltish Jo was Louisa's vision of herself: strewing manuscript pages in her wake, charging ahead with the courage of her convictions, and cherishing her family above all.

Doodle by Sophie Diao

  I recognized those characters immediately.  I read the book as a child.