Google Doodle Celebrates Birthday of Douglas Adams 104
mikejuk writes "Today's Google Doodle celebrates the fact that today would have been Douglas Adam's 61st birthday. For any fans of Adam's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy this isn't to be missed. The interactive doodle takes us aboard the Heart of Gold spaceship where the towel — the essential travel item for any intergalactic voyager sits on the console besides the, also very necessary cup of tea, which is also a reference to a Dirk Gently novel, The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul. There are lots more tributes hidden including Marvin — the real one not the one in the film, a Babel Fish and more. Have fun exploring but make sure you click on the search symbol to find out more about Douglas Adams and his work."
No, he's 49 (Score:2, Insightful)
He has 49 been since 2001, and will be long after the dolphins leave and the earth is demolished. Once does not age past death, only decompose.
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Well, it does say "would have been" and if he were alive is "would have been" his birthday today. And he would have been 61.
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Interesting. So young. I'm the age he was, when he passed away. In his photos, you'd swear he was 20-25 years older than I.
I'm sad he died, and I'd have greatly enjoyed more of his work. Yet, the evidence is that his death might not have been so surprising - if visual assessment of Adams' vitality is any real measure.
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Does anybody have a link to it? I can't see it.
PS: No, it's not here: http://www.google.com/doodles/finder/2013/All%20doodles [google.com]
Re:No, he's 49 (Score:5, Funny)
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That one's not interactive.
(I assume there's an interactive one because it says "many of the iconic sound effects used in our doodle were kindly provided by the creative folks behind this show"...)
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Re:No, he's 49 (Score:4, Funny)
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Uh, did you know google is different depending on where you access it from ?
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Try this:
http://www.google.com/doodles/douglas-adams-61st-birthday [google.com]
Imagine if he was 42 (Score:2)
Imagine if he was 42... that would have surely been wild.
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He has 49 been since 2001, and will be long after the dolphins leave and the earth is demolished. Once does not age past death, only decompose.
Do the scientists that do carbon-dating know about this? It certainly is going to throw off their results...
Film? (Score:5, Funny)
I'm glad no one has ever made a HGTTG film. They would have screwed it up.
Re:Film? (Score:5, Insightful)
Although uneven, the movie was not bad, with a few brilliant parts. it's not like it's "blasphemous" -- Adams himself wildly changed the story every time it switched mediums. It's got most of the best bits from the book, plus a new ending that does more than just stop (as the book does), and as a bonus it does a great job of capturing Adams' absolute love and fascination with life itself.
not saying it's great beginning to end, but acting like it's any more uneven than a lot of his books is silly.
Re:Film? (Score:5, Interesting)
I didn't care for the film on first watch, but warmed up to it after 2 or 3 more viewings. I think the biggest thing they screwed up was "Hollywoodizing" it. It's too American - what I loved about the BBC series and books was their British. Arthur Dent and our window into his world are quintessentially British.
That said, the movie had some nice new bits, such as cutting back to the pub just before the Earth is destroyed to see everyone lying on the floor with bags on their heads!
One thing that bothered me was casting Mos Def as Ford. And not because he's black; he's just wrong for the part. I came out of the movie feeling like Ford wasn't in it.
(captcha: rescind)
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yeah ... i liked the casting in theory but then not so much in practice. i know what you mean.
i think my absolute favorite part is the destruction scene: the brutal, stomping musical queues as the camera zooms out from the rubble of arthur's home to outer space, giving a true sense of the mind-breaking scale of the vogon fleet, before it simply ploops the earth into oblivion.
Re:Film? (Score:5, Insightful)
I honestly didn't have a problem with Ford, but that may well be because I had no idea there was a Mos Def before I saw the movie. Zaphod, on the other hand, had me grinding out my own fillings.
And the less said about the iMarvin, the better...
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Agreed with the iMarvin though! Also, I liked the new Heart of Gold and the visuals for flipping through infinite
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I loved the Heart of Gold, too.
I don't know, my biggest problem with Zaphod wasn't the stupid head-configuration (though I agree with you, it failed). It was more like he gave me the impression that DNA was taking a swipe at the low-hanging fruit of the popular American stereotype.
The thought was kind of amusing in a meta sort of way, since the whole thing was a Hollywood implementation of quintessential British humor.
Re:Film? (Score:4, Funny)
"Getting a movie made in Hollywood is like trying to grill a steak by having a succession of people coming into the room and breathing on it."
Douglas Adams
Re:Film? (Score:5, Insightful)
The original radio series [wikipedia.org] is by far the best and funniest version. As people so often say, the pictures are better on the radio. If you haven't heard it, buy yourself a present [amazon.co.uk].
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I think it's VERY difficult bringing something on screen that draws most of the humor from encyclopedia entries. Or Footnotes (that would be Terry Pratchett. Still waiting for a decent screen adaption.)
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Indeed. Can you also imagine a third "Aliens" movie?
Screwed up too, it would have been.
Marvin (Score:3, Interesting)
"There are lots more tributes hidden including Marvin - the real one not the one in the film"
Huh? What makes the TV Marvin "the real one"?
I always thought the TV Marvin was completely wrong, compared to how he's described in the books.
Re:Marvin (Score:4, Informative)
Though I agree with your sentiment in principle, when I was a child, the TV series was my first exposure to the story and thusly, for me*, the TV Marvin is the real one (It also had the correct voice which helps the continuity).
I also went on to consume said story in every other form that I could find, and liked them all, bar one. it helped that, for the most part, the radio and TV show had the same voices.
However, I know some people that will have seen the film first and to them, *that* is the real Marvin and that just makes me want to curl up & shudder.
*I have always supposed that for any given story or song, the first version you experienced will always be the greatest in your own mind. Haven't found many exceptions to this rule yet.
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Actually, I guess I broke my not-well-though-out theory as the Radio is my favourite version. But in my mind, the Marvin in the radio version is the TV Marvin. I think that's what I was (badly) trying to get at lol. This could just be due to the actors being the same though.
The TV version is actually pretty dire in so much as most low budget TV from those days was. I still love it though :)
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I actually read LOTR quickly before watching the films as I didn't want the films to ruin it, so I guess it didn't matter then :). Anyway I think I got bored lol. I'm not a very good reader - the only, errr, trilogy I have ever managed to read is HHGTG lol.
Tell me this though, when you read the book, did you end up imagining the characters based on those from the cartoon, or did you 'start afresh' so to speak?
Re:Marvin (Score:4, Informative)
The Hitchhiker's trilogy is inaccurately named, sadly no longer increasingly so.
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Well eff me, I didn't notice! lol
(Note that I said "errr, trilogy"). :)
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In mitigation (Score:3)
The BBC video series was also terrible.
...but the utterly inspired "computer" animated sequences accompanying the narration made up for it.
Re:Marvin (Score:4, Informative)
Sadly, the OP doesn't realize that the TV marvin *WAS* in the movie. He's in the queue for paperwork.
Re:Marvin (Score:4, Funny)
See, the TV and movie Marvin are the same. Marvin keeps getting all his parts replaced, given that he's several times older than the universe itself.
New chassis, new interface, new hydraulics, everything's been replaced several times in different tech levels and different planets...
(except for one bank of painful diodes on the left side. )
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If that was the case, who was in the Vogon office lining up in the film?
(hint: The TV Marvin)
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A few options:
1. Marvin himself, filling out the forms. Since they can time travel, the rest of the crew knew how long it would take to get the release forms sorted out and left him there for 100,000 years.
2. A robot built out of the replacement parts, that, due to a shipping accident, ended up with a new bank of left-side diodes.
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Lol, touche!
What doodle? (Score:2)
I'm getting the standard Google logo.
Does it not work when you use SSL?
Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)
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Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
I was so upset at the reminder of his death... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I was so upset at the reminder of his death... (Score:4, Insightful)
It's funny though, how accurate that idea is. That's exactly what orbiting is - falling, but moving sideways so fast that you miss the ground.
Re:I was so upset at the reminder of his death... (Score:4, Interesting)
Douglas Adams Google Doodle Hitchhiker (Score:1)
Ingenious, humorous and really well done! Thanks for the "big warm smile" e
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Are we going to have a slashdot story for every Google Doogle now?
Yes, and you will comment every time about how they are a complete waste of your very valuable time!
Re:Wow... (Score:4, Funny)
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I'm sorry, but once someone dies, they can no longer have birthdays after their death. It should be "61st anniversary of his birth"
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/birthday [merriam-webster.com] A birthday is literally the anniversary of one's birth. A death day would presumably be the anniversary of one's death. My only qualm with this doodle is that it doesn't really appear to say "Google". I haven't been paying attention to all the doodles, but I like the ones that say Google while still relating to what the subject matter is.
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You're not paying close enough attention then.
Hint: Look at the colors of the standard Google logo and the colors in the doodle.
The roll of tape plus the blue cylinder make 'G', the red radio and yellow teacup make 'oo,' the blue Guide plus the leather bag make a rough 'g', the green towel is 'l' and the red window is 'e.'
It's always in there, just have to look.
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Whoosh on me - thanks for the fishing! Unfortunately, while tabbing back and forth between your description and Google, the doodle went black, and I panicked. :)
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So the little bit of extra entertainment you got as a gift from the extremely useful service that you get to use for free didn't live up to your expectations?
Wah. See if you can get your money back.
Re: Undeserved Doodle Recognition (Score:1)
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1. Look at $date.
2. Anything noteworthy happen? If no, skip to #5.
3. Do we think it's interesting? If no, skip to #5.
4. Make Google Doodle of it. Yay, interesting knowledge for people to stumble upon.
5. Increment $date by 1 day and go back to #1.
There's nothing special about multiples of 10. In fact, prime numbers are certainly much more special by many standards. 61 is a prime number.
If Google hired so many pedants they would probably have never gotten off the grou
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"Google Doodles like this do rub me up the wrong way. For a start, the person concerned is often an obscure one (or at least obscure outside the US - the US-centric doodles end up on Google UK, where they probably don't belong)."
I'm confused: you object because you learn something? Maybe I misunderstood.
Personally, I prefer the ones I don't know... (sorry if this seems snotty - I'm perfectly sincere.)
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Oh yes, Douglas Adams is totally obscure in Great Britain.
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Where?
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See?
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And, finally, I must take massive umbrage with the Google tooltip that says "Douglas Adams' 61st birthday". I'm sorry, but once someone dies, they can no longer have birthdays after their death. It should be "61st anniversary of his birth", but I guess that's too long and not so catchy. I now call them "deathdays" when Google does this :-)
Say what? Everyone has exactly one birthday unless you were born a night.
Actually, the tea is... (Score:3, Informative)
So Adams must have mentioned tea in more than one body of work, which isn't too surprising for an Englishman.
BTW, editors, it's Douglas Adams' birthday, not Douglas Adam's birthday. Although, according to infinite improbability, there is probably a Douglas Adam whose birthday it is today as well. Oh dear...
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Dear, Nitpick: Apparently, just an apostrophe can be correct. [englishrules.com]
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That's wrong and you should stop doing that forever. The possessive form of a proper name that ends with s is a singular apostrophe. You got it from the Interweb or from a bad computer program. Stop it. It's wrong.
source: my real name ends with an s and I am a friggin' expert at spelling my own name correctly in all its forms.
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my real name ends with an s and I am a friggin' expert at spelling my own name correctly in all its forms.
Apparently not.
Less tongue-in-cheek, both forms are acceptable, and the 's form seems moreso.
The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers states "to form the possessive of any singular proper noun, add an apostrophe and an s" and gives examples including "Dickens's reputation" and "Descartes's philosophy". There is no specific rule for proper names ending in an s.
A Writer's Reference by Diana Hacker
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Mmmm Unicode.
Here's that last quote again fixed: "Some writers and publishers prefer the system, formerly more common, of simply omitting the possessive s on all words ending in s -- hence "Dylan Thomas' poetry," "Etta James' singing," and "that business' main concern." Though easy to apply and economical, such usage disregards pronunciation and is therefore not recommended by Chicago.
Re:Actually, the tea is... (Score:4, Informative)
... a strong Brownian Motion producer, which is essential for the Infinite Improbability Drive which powers Zaphod's stolen spaceship, the Heart of Gold.
So Adams must have mentioned tea in more than one body of work, which isn't too surprising for an Englishman.
Completely useless stats for the record:
Tea is mentioned 31 times in the five volumes of the Hitchhiker Trilogy. That includes
once in the first volume's dedication ("...for tea, sympathy, and a sofa"), and three
uses of the phrase "a liquid that was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea"
(twice in vol. 1, once in vol. 2).
In detail:
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... a strong Brownian Motion producer, which is essential for the Infinite Improbability Drive which powers Zaphod's stolen spaceship, the Heart of Gold.
...plus all that fun with Arthur's attempt to get a cup of tea from the Nutrimatic machine.
Oh, and the title of the Dirk Gently book was taken from the third HHGTTG novel, anyway.
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Missed deadlines.
He so loved the wonderful whooshing sound they made as they flew by.
I'm flattered (Score:2)
Wow, I post a comment [slashdot.org] and two hours later it's become the subject of a front page story. Seems a bit like something out of one of DA's books. Or one of PDK's, take your pick.
Is this on .com, or .co.uk? (Score:2)
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There was a version of Dirk Gently made for BBC quite recently - followed up by a series 'inspired by' the books. As stand alone items they were (in my view) pretty good and worth watching, but not at all faithful to the original text. The radio drama series (on BBC Radio 4) was much closer to the originals.
As for Stainless Steel Rat -- totally agree and way overdue !! (Bill the Galactic Hero would be good as well)
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There was a version of Dirk Gently made for BBC quite recently - followed up by a series 'inspired by' the books. As stand alone items they were (in my view) pretty good and worth watching, but not at all faithful to the original text.
Agree - I much preferred the bits of the series where they weren't using bits and pieces from the books. The great fun of the books is the way all the ridiculous plot elements and red herrings all get pulled together logically (for an imaginary value of 'logic') in the end.
However, I don't think they had anything like the budget needed to create electric monks, ghosts, giant invisible spaceships, primordial Earths or pop in on Coleridge so they were probably right to keep it simple and not make a Zaphod's
Not showing up on google... (Score:1)
Have a nice diurnal anomaly!
Tribute Podcast (Score:2)
Here's a link to a rather good tribute podcast made for what would have been his 59th Birthday, including Simon Jones (Arthur Dent), Mark Carwardine, Stephen Mangan, Dirk Maggs, and me as the voice of Douglas himself.
http://poddelusion.co.uk/blog/2011/03/08/a-tribute-to-douglas-adams/ [poddelusion.co.uk]
Localised Googles (Score:1)
I tried a bunch of localised Googles (google.ru, .is, .nl, .fr, .de, .ie, ...) and now I know how to say DON'T PANIC in 26 languages. Now that's pretty thorough.
Google Plus keeps me doodle-less (Score:2)
Now that I'm using Google Plus, I don't get the Google Doodles anymore; I'm always shunted to a vanilla search page, with a small sign that cajoles me into using Google's Chrome browser instead of whatever else I'm using at the time. Attempts to view the front page or the Canadian *.ca search page senses that I'm a Google Plus user, and shunts me back to the "you would be happier if you used Chrome" doodle-less page.