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Showing posts from October 17, 2012

Herman Melville Google doodle marks 161st anniversary of Moby-Dick

Herman Melville, celebrated author and the man behind the all-time classic Moby-Dick, is the inspiration behind Thursday's Google doodle. Moby-Dick is the great epic of whales and waling. It tells the story of Ahab, Captain of the Pequod, and of his revenge-mission and insane pursuit of Moby Dick, the fierce white whale. Among Ahab's crew is Ishmael, a young man undergoing a gruelling rite of passage and pursuing a different salvation. As the Pequod circles the globe like a latter-day Noah's Ark, so Moby Dick ranges and digresses through space and time, through mythologies, religions and philosophies. The Google doodle depicts a scene from the book where Captain Ahab leads a boat to strike at the huge white whale. Herman Melville had written Typee and Omoo before he wrote, what he believed was his masterpiece, Moby-Dick. He was shocked by the less-than-flattering reception the book received. One critic described it as

Google India announces Doodle 4 Google 2012 contest

Google is known to have celebrated practically every special occasion ranging form birthdays and anniversaries to events like the Olympics across the globe with creative doodles on its home page. Come this Children's Day, the search giant is inviting children between the ages of 5 to 16 years to participate in the Doodle 4 Google competition for 2012 with the theme of 'Unity in Diversity'. The contest will be extended to over 40 cities in the country and the winning doodle will be announced at an event in New Delhi on November 6. It will also be featured on the Google India homepage on November 14. All 12 finalists will receive a tablet and a Google kit. This year, Google will shortlist three candidates from four zones: North, South, East and West. Post the first round of preliminary judging of entries from these regions, a total of 12 entries, chosen by a panel of esteemed judges, will then be put to a public vote t

Niels Bohr's mission for an 'open world'

Niels Bohr, the subject of Sunday's Google doodle, was a reputed physicist, and like other physicists of the time, not isolated from the political environment around him. Finn Aaserud, Director of the Niels Bohr Archive in Copenhagen, says, "Unlike Einstein, Bohr started to involve himself seriously in international politics relatively late in life. Yet there are scattered statements and activities earlier in Bohr's life indicating a genuine interest and commitment." Aaserud quotes a letter Bohr wrote to his mentor at Manchester University, Ernest Rutherford: All here [in Copenhagen] are convinced that there can never be a war in Europe of such dimensions. [...] all liberal-minded people in the world [not least in Germany] seem to have understood the unsoundness of the principles on which international politics has hitherto been carried on. "During the next fifteen years Bohr developed his new institute i

Winsor McCay's Little Nemo in Slumberland celebrated in Google doodle

Winsor McCay's Little Nemo in Slumberland is the subject of Monday's animated Google doodle. Winsor McCay was an American cartoonist and animator who's said to have been born in Michigan on September 26, 1869. However, there's some debate around the exact date and place of his birth. McCay went to Cleary's Business College in Ypsilanti, Michigan to get business training. While in Ypsilanti, he met John Goodison of Michigan State Normal College, who gave McCay his only formal art training. In 1889, Winsor McCay moved to Chicago intending to study art, but due to his poor financial state, ended up taking a job instead. His first job was producing woodcuts for circus and theatrical posters for National Printing and Engraving Company. He later moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he met his wife and also started his career as a cartoonist. McCay started doing Little Nemo in Slumberland, the subject of today's Googl

Herman Melville Google doodle marks 161st anniversary of Moby-Dick

 Herman Melville, celebrated author and the man behind the all-time classic Moby-Dick, is the inspiration behind Thursday's Google doodle. Moby-Dick is the great epic of whales and waling. It tells the story of Ahab, Captain of the Pequod, and of his revenge-mission and insane pursuit of Moby Dick, the fierce white whale. Among Ahab's crew is Ishmael, a young man undergoing a gruelling rite of passage and pursuing a different salvation. As the Pequod circles the globe like a latter-day Noah's Ark, so Moby Dick ranges and digresses through space and time, through mythologies, religions and philosophies. The Google doodle depicts a scene from the book where Captain Ahab leads a boat to strike at the huge white whale. Herman Melville had written Typee and Omoo before he wrote, what he believed was his masterpiece, Moby-Dick. He was shocked by the less-than-flattering reception the book received. One critic described it as "[A]n ill-compounded mixture of rom