Friday, June 22, 2012

Google doodle honours Alan Turing's 100th birthday

 

 

Google honoured computer genius Alan Mathison Turing with it’s doodle on his 100th birth anniversary.

Allan Turing, who was born on 23 June 1912, is also being honoured with an award named after him in Manchester for people who help victims of homophobia.


The honour will be given as part of the Lesbian and Gay Foundation’s annual Homo Heroes Awards.

Councillor Kevin Peel, Manchester City Council’s lead member for gay men’s issues, said: "Had he not been hounded to death by the state because of his sexuality, who knows what other breakthroughs he could have made.

“The fact that we are celebrating his life and work shows how society has moved on, but the battle against homophobia continues. This represents a lasting legacy to Alan Turing, and is a fitting tribute to that great man.”

This award declaration comes ahead of the 100th centenary of Turing’s birth on Saturday.

Turing is now recognised as a hero in the history of the information technology industry, and was also highly influential in the development of computer science, providing a formalisation of the concepts of “algorithm” and “computation” with the Turing machine, which played a significant role in the creation of the modern computer.

Turing, who is widely known as the father of computer science and artificial intelligence, committed suicide in 1954, just over two weeks before his 42nd birthday, following his homosexuality resulted in a criminal prosecution in 1952, since homosexual acts were still illegal in the United Kingdom at that time.

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Google doodles eggs for Peter Carl Faberge's 166th birthday

 

He was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia to the Baltic German jeweller Gustav Fabergé and his Danish wife Charlotte Jungstedt. Gustav Fabergé’s paternal ancestors were Huguenots, originally from La Bouteille, Picardy, who fled from France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, first to Germany near Berlin, then in 1800 to the Baltic province of Livonia, then part of Russia.
Initially educated in Saint Petersburg, Russia, in 1860 Gustav Fabergé, together with his wife and children retired to Dresden, leaving the business in the hands of capable and trusted managers. Peter Carl possibly undertook a course at the Dresden Arts and Crafts School. Two years later, Agathon, the Fabergé's second son was born.
In 1864, Peter Carl embarked upon a Grand Tour of Europe. He received tuition from respected goldsmiths in Germany, France and England, attended a course at Schloss’s Commercial College in Paris, and viewed the objects in the galleries of Europe’s leading museums.
His travel and study continued until 1872, when at the age of 26 he returned to St. Petersburg and married Augusta Julia Jacobs. For the following 10 years, his father’s trusted workmaster Hiskias Pendin acted as his mentor and tutor. The company was also involved with cataloguing, repairing, and restoring objects in the Hermitage during the 1870s. In 1881 the business moved to larger street-level premises at 16/18 Bolshaya Morskaya.


A set of six exquisite jewelled eggs adorn the Google home page in honour Peter Carl Fabergé. Wednesday is the 166th birth anniversary of the the legendary Russian jeweller.
Born on May 30, 1846 in St. Petersburg, Peter Carl Fabergé is most famous for his trademark Fabergé eggs. Having honed his jewellery skills in Germany, France and England, he joined his father's business in 1870.
It was in the 1882 Pan-Russian Exhibition in Moscow where he won the gold medal that his achievements were recognised. In 1885 he was appointed as the court jeweller of the Romanov Dynasty, and the work that he did for the last two Czars that earned him worldwide fame.