Google Doodles

[Penthesilea]

Google Germany:


410th birthday of Otto von Guericke

[Fran]

Thanksgiving Day

[Sheriff Roland]

85th anniversary of Ernie Coombs (Mr. Dress-up)

From Wikipedia

...
After Butternut Square ended (1964 - 1967), Coombs developed Mr. Dressup, which became one of English Canada's longest-running and most beloved children's programs. As Mr. Dressup, he presented arts and crafts, songs, stories and games for children with his friends Casey and Finnegan, a child and a dog who lived in a treehouse in Mr. Dressup's back yard. Casey wasn't given a unisex name intentionally, but it was a serendipitous choice because the character's childlike voice left Casey's gender ambiguous. Over the years, when viewers would ask Coombs whether Casey was a boy or a girl, he would ask, "What do you think?" However the questioner responded, he would say, "You're right!"

Later in the series, when the show's principal puppeteer, Judith Lawrence, retired, Casey and Finnegan were replaced by a small cast of anthropomorphic animal puppets. Coombs believed very strongly in gentle, wholesome children's programming that encouraged kids to use their creativity and imagination. In each episode, Mr. Dressup would dress up (hence his name) in a costume from his Tickle Trunk, and lead children in an imagination game. Many times his puppets would also appear in costume as well.

(Born in Lewiston, Maine,) Coombs became a Canadian citizen in 1994. The series continued production until its final taping in February 1996, when Coombs retired. The same year, he was named a Member of the Order of Canada. Repeats continued to be shown on CBC Television until they were discontinued in 2006.

Coombs suffered a stroke on September 10, 2001, and died on September 18, 2001 in Toronto, Ontario when he was seventy-three years old.

[Sheriff Roland]

Ada Lovelace's 197th anniversary

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/google-doodle/9734018/Ada-Lovelace-in-Google-Doodle-tribute.html

Ada Lovelace, the mathematician known as the world's first computer programmer, is celebrated today in a Google Doodle on the anniversary of her birth.

Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace, was the daughter of Lord Byron and his wife Anne Isabella Byron, and was born in London in 1815.

Ada Lovelace never knew her father, who left England forever just four months after her birth, and she became interested in mathematics as a young adult, later working on inventor Charles Babbage's early mechanical computer.

Her notes on Babbage's Analytical Engine, as the device was known, included an algorithm that was to be processed by the machine, earning her the distinction of the world's first computer programmer.

Today is the 197th anniversary of her birth, and the Google Doodle in her honour portrays the Countess writing equations onto a long sheet of paper with a quill.

The progression from her calculations to the modern day laptop is also detailed in the image, with three interim images of technological breakthroughs in computing since the 19th century.

Her lasting legacy for young women in technology is remembered on Ada Lovelace Day, which is dedicated to the celebration of the achievements of women in science and technology.

The Countess was married in 1835 to William King, who was created Earl of Lovelace in 1838.

She died in 1852 at the age of 36

[Sheriff Roland]

120th anniversary of the Nutcracker Ballet

[Sheriff Roland]

200th anniversary of Grimm's Fairy Tales

[Penthesilea]

End of the Maya calendar
 

[Sason]

 

Too funny!

But - where did you find it? I just get the boring old google logo today, nothing else.

[Fran]

The Grimm's Fairy Tales' Google doodle from December 20th was interactive:

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYINF8GjtKw[/youtube]

[Penthesilea]

Too funny!

But - where did you find it? I just get the boring old google logo today, nothing else.

Google Germany.
How about Canada and the US? Did you have the Maya doodle?