Tuesday, July 31, 2012

London 2012 Fencing Doodle (July 30, 2012)


Continuing withllympic doodle series, Google has gifted us today with a very nice looking doodle, celebrating the sport called fencing. Here it is:

2012 Olympic Fencing Doodle

Although the characters on it look a bit like astronauts in my opinion, the doodle itself looks overall pretty good, with a nice color choice, and the detail of one of the contenders using the "l" from Google as a sword. I have to say that, along with the diving doodle, this has been so far my favorite.

Still, this is not the first doodle in commemoration of this sport that we have seen. On Athens 2004's Olympic games, we had this:

2004 Olympic Fencing Doodle

Although the image is much smaller, and clearly a bit more rustic (like all doodles from those times), I find the characters quite nice, and actually like it better than the new one. What do you people think?

Monday, July 30, 2012

London 2012 Diving Doodle (July 29, 2012)


When I saw this doodle todaI immediately thought of swimming, but after hovering my mouse over it, i realized that today's doodle is related to diving.

2012 Olympic Diving Doodle

A olympic sport, it was first introduced in 1904, at the St. Louis Olympic Games in the US, and have remained since. It was then known as "fancy diving", because of the stunts performed by the athletes that practice this discipline.

I have to say, this doodle is, so far, the one that I have liked the most from this olympic series.  In truth, although I found the first one quite unappealing, they have improved by a lot. It certainly is a big improvement over the one that was used for the 2008 Beijng Olympic games, which for *some* reason has a gg on it. Check it out:

2008 Olympic Diving Doodle

The 2000 Olympic doodle related to diving also featured an animal, but this time a kangaroo which is clearly associated with Australia, the host country, so I guess it makes a lot more sense.

2000 Olympic Diving Doodle

Father's Day Doodle (June 23rd, 2012)

On June 23, in Poland, Google decided to honor that country's date for the Father's Day with this cute doodle. I am taking the opportunity to tell you people a bit about  the origin of this day.




Apparently, the idea occured to a woman named Sonora Smart Dodd, from Washington, who wanted to pay tribute to his father, a war veteran names Henry Jackson Smart, who after his wife passed, devoted his life to taking care of his children, fulfilling the role both as a father and a mother, as best as he could. The date is chosen after the birthday of Henry J. Smart, which was on June 5th. Some time after the initiative was first proposed, US president Lyndon Johnson took the decision of instituting the 3rd Sunday of June as Father's Day, and that costume remains in much of the western world.

Sunday, July 29, 2012

London 2012 Archery Doodle (July 28, 2012)

Keeping along with the Olympic theme, Google published a doodle related to Archery. Here it is.

2012 Olympic Archery Doodle

As it happened with the Opening Ceremony doodle, this is not the first time that this sport is featured on thoogle main site, however, it didn't show up on 2008 during Beijing's games. It was, however, shown on 2004 Athen's games:

2004 Olympic Archery Doodle

This time around, I do like the new design better. It obviously has a lot more work into it, and although the 2004 is also nice, it looks way too much like Sydney 200's Olympic games, where this sport was also featured:

2000 Olympic Archery Doodle

Archery as a sport, is a sport that focuses in shooting arrows at a target, with its objective being having the highest possible accuracy from a set distance. This is called "target archery" and is the one that is practiced at the olympic games. It was precisely on archery that the first medal was won at London's 2012 games, by a chinese athlete.

Saturday, July 28, 2012

Olympic Games Opening Ceremony (July 27, 2012)

On this day, Google made a doodle which surprised me quite a bit. For one of the most important events in the year, worldwide, they used a pretty simple doodle. Here it is:



2012 London Olympic Games


Clearly, it simbolizes the spirit of every race in the world competing in different sports, but I am not so sure that the magnitude of the event is actually simbolized in such a simple doodle. The art is nothing amazing either. I think that the 2008 doodle for this event was a bit better. Judge yourselves:

2008 Beijing Olympic Games Doodle

Although smaller, I think it had more to do with the ceremony in itself, and the art is way more original too. Still, you could say that the new one makes better use of colors, and better represents the spirit of the competition, but I feel it falls a bit short. I even liked the 2004 doodle better:

2004 Athens Olympic Games Doodle.

Certainly these doodles have improved a lot over the first ones, as you can see here in the doodle from the year 2000:

2000 Sidney Olympic Games Doodle

This doodles are great to see how much google has progressed on their doodles, and how a lot more work has been put into them as time passed. In the next days, Google will upload different doodles referencing different olympic disciplines, so look out for daily updates for the next month or so.

See ya!

Jean-Jacques Rousseau 300th Birthday Doodle (June 28th, 2012)


On June 20, Google made this gorgeous doodle to pay tribute to one of the fathers of liberalism and modern national states: Jean-Jacques Rousseau.




Born in Geneva, Switzerland, on 1712, he was a writer, phillosopher and musician, of french heritage, he was an integral part of the illuminist movement that shook europe on the XVIII century. In facy of his ideas where greatly influential during the French Revolution, conspiring to create a nationalist and republican feeling throughout the "common people".



Portrait of J.J. Rousseau.

Rousseau is commonly studied by practically every student in the world, mainly because of the "social contract" theory, and his claim that man is, by nature, good-willed.

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Gustav Klimt's 150th Birthday (July 14th, 2012)



On July the 14th, Google decided to pay tribute to the iconic vienesse painter, Gustav Klimt. He was born that very same day, july the 14th, and is recognized for being one of the most important figures of the movernist movement. Often inspired by the naked female body, Klimt is known not only for his murals and paintings in canvas, but also for several decoration objects.


Klimt was also a founding member of the movement known as the Wiener Sezession, a group of artists formed in 1897, which appeared as an independent alternative for artists promoted by the Vienese Academy, of which Klimt had been part.

Here are some of the most recognized pieces of art by Klimt:

"Tree of Life"


"Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer"

And finally, his most famous piece and the one that inspires today's Doodle:

"The Kiss"

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Amelia Earhart's 115º Birthday Doodle (June 24, 2012)

On this day, Google decided to pay tribute to a woman which became a celebrity back in her day for pioneering aviation in the US (and all of the world, for that matter). She was famous for her records and for being the first person ever to try and fly around the world through the ecuatorial line.

115º cumpleaños de Amelia Earhart




In the early 20th century, women didn't have a lot of chances regarding their jobs: most of them were born and bred just to be housewives, but with the coming of the First World War, Amelia enrolled herself as a volunteer on nursing labors, where she had to help combat pilots that had been wounded in battle. She would later say that it was there where she got "stung by the bug of aviation". Some time after that, she moved with her family to Long Beach, California, and after taking a ten minute flight over the city of Los Angeles, she knew that her life would be forever tied to airplanes.


Although it was on 1922 that she got her first altitude record for flying at 14.000 ft., it wasn't until 1923 that she got her license as an airplane pilot, a feat that only fifteen women before her had accomplished. But it was in 1928 that a man called H. H. Railey asked her if she wanted to be the first woman in crossing the Atlantic Ocean by plane. The trip was completed with the help of two men, a pilot and a mechanic. And this would be what woul inspire Amelia to make yet another trip, this time to became the first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean alone. In 1932, on may 20, she did just that, and became the second person, only after Charles Lindbergh, to complete a trip over the Atlantic by herself. This trip would mean several records:

-First woman to fly over the Atlantic Ocean alone.
-First person to fly over the Atlantic Ocean twice.
-Fastest flight across the Atlantic Ocean.
-Longest distance ever flown by a woman without stopping.

Amelia Earhart in fron of one of her planes.


This remarkable woman's career came to a sudden and tragic end during her attempt to make the first flight around the ecuatorial line. After her first stop, leaving Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, her plane had mechanical problems and went out of control, with considerable damage. A member of the crew said Amelia was responsible for the accident. The plane was sent back for repairs and Amelia started planning for yet another attempt. This time, she would go east. She started the journey on Miami, and after visiting Puerto Rico, South America, Africa and several locations in Asia, she started to have some troubles associated with weather. Also, she got dysentery. This would start a series of unfortunate events that would end up with her disappearance when she was flying over Howland Island, on the Pacific. There have been many theories about her disappearence, but the official word is that her plane crashed, and although their remains where never found, a lighthouse was built on the site where she supposedly crashed.

Navigation chart with the Howland Island, where Amelia supposedly crashed, at the center.