Date: April 27, 2020

Today’s Doodle commemorates what is widely revered as the Netherlands’ most popular holiday, King’s Day. Known as Koningsdag in Dutch, today honors the birthday of the first Dutch king in 123 years, His Royal Highness Willem-Alexander.

Depicted in the Doodle artwork, the red, white, and blue tricolor Dutch flag was affirmed in its current form by a royal decree in 1937. With orange as the official color of the day, the flag is often seen with a small orange stripe, or a wimpel, hovering on the top for King’s Day.

Fijne Koningsdag! (Happy King’s Day!)

Location: Netherlands

Tags: national day, National Holiday, independence, history, Netherlands, King's Day

Date: April 29, 2020

On the fifth day of the Hebrew month of Iyar, Israeli communities worldwide celebrate their Independence Day, known locally as Yom Ha’atzmaut. Today’s Doodle pays tribute to this annual holiday in recognition of the day in 1948 when the State of Israel declared its independence. 

Depicted in the Doodle artwork, the flag of Israel features two blue stripes running horizontally over the white background with the Star of David at its center. Officially adopted in 1948, the same year as independence, the flag will be waved proudly wherever Israeli’s call home. 

Happy Yom Ha’atzmaut, Israel!​

Location: Israel

Tags: national day, National Holiday, independence, history, Israel

Date: May 1, 2020

Also known as May Day or International Workers’ Day, Labour Day is celebrated on May 1st in many countries around the world. Today’s Doodle celebrates the day by illustrating a handful of the many professions across the labor force.

Recognized around the world, Labour Day originated from the 19th-century labour movement. First declared a holiday by trade unions in 1889, Labour Day commemorates worker’s rights and their fight for weekends, better working conditions, and shorter working days. 

Here’s to everyone contributing to the livelihoods of those around them each and every day. 

Happy Labour Day!

Location: Global

Tags:

Date: May 3, 2020

Location: Hungary, Lithuania, Portugal, Romania, Spain

Tags:

Date: May 8, 2020

Location: South Korea

Tags: Parents' Day, carnations, flowers, stop-motion, Animation

Date: May 10, 2020

All that glitters is not gold, but sometimes it comes in handy.

Whether they're near or far, make Mom a little piece of art from your heart in today’s interactive, digital card-maker Doodle.

Learn more about the inspiration that led to the creation of this Doodle on our official Google Blog.

Happy Mother’s Day!

 

 

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Cut out some time to send a mom some love today! Search for ”GoogleDoodles” in Gboard, GIF Keyboard by Tenor, or the GIF search in your favorite social apps.

 

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Below, the Doodlers behind today’s Doodle share their own MOM-umental creations:
 

Anthony Irwin, UX Designer

 

Collin Irwin, Engineer

 

Grace Chen, Marketing

 

Perla Campos, Marketing

 

Tom Tabanao, Engineer

 

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More behind-the-scenes of the making of today’s Doodle:
 

It begins! Special thanks to the Takara and McGupta Families for materials.

 

Early Bead Tests

 

Angle Reference for the Doodle G

 

Turtle In-Progress

 

Glitter Star Animation Frames

 

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❤️ MOTHER’S DAY 2020 TEAM ❤️

Lead Artist | Alyssa Winans

Engineering | Brian Murray, Collin Irwin, Tom Tabanao, Jacob Howcroft, Nicole Patten, Yumi Kim

Producer | Gregory Capuano, Colin Duffy

UX Design | Anthony Irwin, Diana Tran

Sound Design | Jacob Howcroft

Marketing | Perla Campos, Grace Chen

Business Affairs Lead & Partnerships | Madeline Belliveau

Doodle Team Lead | Jessica Yu, Brian Kaas

 

Location: Global

Tags: Interactive, National Holiday, greeting card, turtles, macaroni, buttons, sequins, hearts, dragonflies, giraffes, seashells, stars, glitter

Time for a break is here - the new Weekday Escape arrived! This week we get typical escape games only - four rooms with firmly closed door. The first comes Amajeto who locked you in their nice living room and... Tagged as: amajeto, blog, browser, escape, free, gotmail, japanese, pixelkobo, pointandclick, puzzle, rating-g, smartcode, spiceapp, weekday-escape

Hi, it's escaping time! With Amajeto's light and fresh room we move closer to spring and all the cute tiny birds support that feeling. TomoLaSiDo reached us a bit late for Valentine, but never mind it's fun - actually, it's... Tagged as: amajeto, blog, browser, escape, free, japanese, pixelkobo, pointandclick, puzzle, rating-g, rinnogogo, tomolasido, weekday-escape

Another escape Wednesday is here! Very retro Ariyoshi's game is quite short but fun, with refreshing approach to the genre. TomoLaSiDo locked you in their room on the day with special calendar date and you need to gather several outlets... Tagged as: ariyoshi, blog, browser, escape, free, japanese, nicolet, pixelkobo, pointandclick, puzzle, rating-g, tomolasido, weekday-escape

Welcome, this week it's retro time again! Vitamin Hana wants you to escape from an unusual place - from an oceanarium. Then you get locked in Yomino Kagura's prettily decorated room, and then it's time for No1game 's short adventure... Tagged as: blog, browser, escape, escapemen, free, fuwayura, japanese, no1game, pointandclick, puzzle, rating-g, vitaminhana, weekday-escape, yominokagura

Hi! The week is over and the brand new Weekday Escape here! Amajeto helps you to enjoy your stay at home and suggests some activities like looking for lost remote controller in coded drawers and finding ways how to open... Tagged as: amajeto, blog, browser, escape, free, japanese, masa, pixelkobo, pointandclick, puzzle, rating-g, rinnogogo, weekday-escape

Hi, it's time for a break, it's escaping time! Selfdefiant wants you to escape a desert temple which is, very conveniently, placed next to a stream so no worries of dehydration in case you stay here longer than expected. TomoLaSiDo... Tagged as:

Hello - the new WE is here! Wishing you beautiful spring and happy playing during this quarantine time! Amajeto is definitely back and has changed remarkably, the latest game is bigger and feels more like their older escapes. Very nice.... Tagged as: blog, browser, escape, free, gotmail, japanese, nicolet, pointandclick, puzzle, rating-g, selfdefiant, spiceapp, tomolasido, weekday-escape

Hi, it's time to have some fun from the past! This Weekday Escape is retro! Vitamin Hana wants you to escape a room - no surprise - but also to redecorate it. Yomino Kagura isn't so demanding, their escape is... Tagged as: blog, browser, esc-forest, escape, escapemen, free, japanese, no1game, pointandclick, puzzle, rating-g, vitaminhana, weekday-escape, yominokagura

It's Wednesday, it's escape time! Amajeto locked you in their room and wants you to escape, and TomoLaSiDo as well. Puzzles aren't hard so it doesn't take long to leave to enjoy the lovely weather outside. In Spiceapp's escape you... Tagged as: amajeto, blog, browser, escape, free, gotmail, japanese, masa, pointandclick, puzzle, rating-g, spiceapp, tomolasido, weekday-escape

Hi, hope your week is fine so far - now even better with new Weekday Escape! From Amajeto's room you'll escape easily with all the practice you have. Then you get locked in Akatsuki no Yado's one, a bit complicated... Tagged as: akatsukinoyado, amajeto, blog, browser, escape, free, gotmail, japanese, nicolet, pointandclick, puzzle, rating-g, spiceapp, weekday-escape

Hope you’re having a wonderful summer or winter, depending on where you live. I’m hard at work on new books for you, and wanted to quickly let you know about a Kindle Countdown Deal on Amazon US and UK! (Amazon only does these deals in the US and UK–sadly it is out of my control. […]

You can grab four steamy and sweet MM holiday romances in one box set for a major discount! This new collection is only $6.99 or you can borrow it in KU. I’m also very excited that these novellas are available in print for the first time! ???? Buy the ebook box set exclusively at Amazon […]

“Looking for a fun and sweet holiday romance with dual POV, some heat, a humorous caper, and a wonderful HEA ending? Look no further!” ~ Gay Book Reviews Fa-la-la-la-la! My new holiday romance is now available to buy or borrow in KU! You’ve got fake boyfriends, bisexual exploration, found family, a single dad in desperate need […]

Popular journaling app Day One today updated to version 4.13, adding support for trackpad navigation on iPad, a new Day View interface, and other improvements.


This release comes after the launch of iOS and iPadOS 13.4, which added support for trackpads and mice on ‌‌iPad‌‌.

After updating, Day One users on ‌iPad‌ can use various trackpad actions to interact with the app, including two-finger swipe down to dismiss, and two-finger horizontal swipe to open and close the journal drawer.

• How to Use a Bluetooth Mouse or Trackpad With Your iPad

The new Day View offers quicker access to daily entries by tapping on or clicking dates in the calendar or the timeline.

Also in this update, Daily Reminders now include additional information like the number of photos taken and locations visited on a given day, and the Settings pages now provide links to Day One feature documents.

Elsewhere, several bugs have been fixed, including one that caused video thumbnails not to display in the media timeline, and one that prevented photos in the activity feed from showing location or calendar events.

Day One is a free download for iPhone and ‌iPad‌ from the App Store with in-app purchases for premium features. [Direct Link]
This article, "Day One Journaling App Update Adds iPad Trackpad Support, New Day View, and More" first appeared on MacRumors.com

Discuss this article in our forums

Cornel West and Tavis Smiley criticize President Barack Obama for being to the right of even President Richard Nixon. Continue reading →

Criminal Minds newcomer Damon Gupton (Stephen Walker) celebrated his birthday yesterday, January 4. He was born on that day in 1973. Here...

European Union leaders have offered Britain a Brexit extension until May 22.

Once again the calendar rolls to December 16, also known as Jane Austen Day. We celebrate every year with our fellow Janeites, remembering the author who has given us so much joy. We have a few links to share with our Gentle Readers. Firstly, an article in the TLS from Devoney Looser about how we…

Monday? Tuesday? Judgment Day? A handy PSA from Cleveland to help you keep track of the days. Plus, Hadley and Bolt’s war of words, Trump gets nasty with the media, and the mystery of the ABC’s missing IPA audio.

1-800-Flowers.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: FLWS) Gifts When you Need, an online gift concierge for the leading provider of floral and gourmet gifts, may help shoppers uncover the perfect gift for Moms this year. Data from thousands of customers using GWYN powered by IBM Watson (NYSE: IBM) gives insight on hot gifts picks for Mother’s Day.

IBM today announced that as part of its Celebration of Service, designed to allow employees, retirees, clients and business partners to donate their time and expertise during the company's Centennial year, 300,000 IBMers around the world -- close to three quarters of its global workforce -- are volunteering in more than 5,000 projects in 120 countries, meeting civic and societal challenges and serving millions in need.

Les revendeurs internationaux observent une croissance significative pendant Thanksgiving et le Black Friday. IBM enregistre un engagement record dans son rapport annuel Holiday Readiness Clients

IBM Internet Security Systems (ISS) warns against a new wave of security threats during the holidays and provides guidance on how consumers and businesses can protect themselves.

HCF and IBM (NYSE: IBM) today jointly announced a multi-million dollar deal that will see them working together in Australia to continue to transform HCF’s IT systems, streamline processes and deliver a tailored experience for its members.

約45分程の心地好い時間が流れる佑、健吾君、絢斗とシネフィルが集まっているのに皆知らないフリして名作をそっと撫でている事に映画愛に感じたまんまと『ラブソング』が観たくなり今まさに観ているそう言った様々な映画への導きが作り手と視聴者とをタイムリーに繋ぐ希有で新たな映画の生まれ方を観た気がするそしてAFROさんは俳優としても魅力的な事が世の中にバレたので収束したら俳優業でも忙しくなるのだろうなhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGEWtIp6qF..

This Thursday (4/9), eighteen authors (including yours truly!) will be doing live readings to celebrate International Unicorn Day!!! At 10:30am ET, I'll be on Facebook Live on my author page here: https://www.facebook.com/sarahbethdurst

And I may be wearing a unicorn onesie... 

Hope you'll join me!  And feel free to invite along any unicorns who want to listen too!  I'll be reading from my kids book, THE GIRL WHO COULD NOT DREAM, which features the winged unicorn Glitterhoof.

For the full schedule of the day's events, visit: https://www.internationalunicornday.com/events


#OperationStoryTime #InternationalUnicornDay

Today is the book birthday for my new epic fantasy novel for adults, RACE THE SANDS!!! My 20th book!!! It's about two kickass women vying to become monster racing champions. I loved writing this book, and I hope it will provide an escape to everyone who needs one. 

Tamra, the disgraced monster-racing trainer at the heart of RACE THE SANDS, is named after Tamora Pierce, author of the Tortall books and one of the most awesome and great-hearted people I know.  In writing this book, my goal was to write a character as kickass as she is.

I believe that fantasy is a literature of hope and empowerment. It can serve as a light in the darkness, a guide toward strength, and an escape from pain. I hope that someone will read about my monster-riding women in their sun-blasted land and find strength, escape, and hope.

If you're interested, there's more information on my website, including the first chapter: http://www.sarahbethdurst.com/RacetheSands.htm

Thank you to my awesome editor, David Pomerico; my incredible agent, Andrea Somberg; and all the wonderful people at Harper Voyager for bringing this book to life!

Happy book birthday, RACE THE SANDS!!!

Bring the galaxy home on May the 4th.

May the 4th be with you with these special sales and discounts on items from around the galaxy.

Watch the debut of Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian, the finale of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and more!

Celebrate May the 4th with Death Star-sized deals on some the biggest Star Wars games.

It's Starfighter's Birthday! I thought I'd celebrate by announcing the big news..

Polish your vinyl sweethearts, I'll be making the big trip from NYC to SF to attend Yaoi-con this October! I'll have a little love table and everything!

I am really excited to go! It'll be my first time there.. and just thinking about the vast treasures ...of erotica to behold is making me eager! Plus, I will get to meet some sweet west coast honies. So if you're in the area or heading over, be sure to stop by! I'll be so happy to meet you guys!

Here's some more about the con:

Yaoi-Con Info

It's a date! -HamletMachine

Hi everyone!

There's a whole bunch of brand spanking new Starfighter swag at the Starfighter Shop just in time for the holidays! There are new prints, new buttons, a new T-Shirt, and more! Go check it out! -Thisbe

     It looks as though my first 3 mile cycle came back with negative results!!  Picture this: 


     I'm deep in concentration, the sweat dripping from my brow; the race is on.  I don't know if I'll finish, thoughts are pouring over me like warm syrup, I'm near the home stretch : King Edward and Queen Elizabeth Riveres are being held captive while the fate of their English lands are in turmoil and being held captive by the evil Lord Warwick!
      All of a sudden, the concentration of my exercise, as opposed to the concentration on King Edward and his "golden body" stop. My foot slips off the pedal and all of Phillipa Gregory's glorious characters go tumbling down the cycle along with the rest of my Kindle. 
     I finish off my 3 mile cycle near tears! What will become of King Edward and his lands? Will Queen Elizabeth be able to survive after the loss of her mother? Will Henry Tudor (yes the cute Henry Tudor that is the star of the hit SHOW time series, The Tudors) obtain the crown (even though if you have read any of Phillipa Gregory's novels, or seen the movie The Other Boleyn Girl you know the answer to that question)?
    Lukily, I get to find out more on Tuesday when Amazon.Com sends me another kindle to replace the one that, malfunctioned. Hey, she asked me if I dropped it, not if it fell...
     On to exerceise news!  Currently weighing in at 245 LBS.  Thats 2 LBS less that I did when I started the blog, lord knows weight flucuation sucks.  I plan to never be 250 + again.  Hello world, don't hate me because I'm beautiful!!!!
    I'll be blogging my exercise routine for the next 8 months later on today. I welcome all comments!!

Ralph Waldo Emerson

How CEOs Are Ruining America

Today, America’s wealthiest business moguls – like Jamie Dimon, head of JPMorgan Chase – claim that they are “patriots before CEOs” because they employ large numbers of workers or engage in corporate philanthropy.

Rubbish.

CEOs are in business to make a profit and maximize their share prices, not to serve America. And yet these CEOs dominate American politics and essentially run the system. 

Therein lies the problem: They cannot be advocates for their corporations and simultaneously national leaders responsible for the wellbeing of the country. This is the biggest contradiction at the core of our broken system.

A frequent argument made by CEOs is that so-called “American competitiveness” should not be hobbled by regulations and taxes. Jamie Dimon often warns that tight banking regulations will cause Wall Street to lose financial business to banks in nations with weaker regulations. Under Dimon’s convenient logic, JPMorgan is America. 

Dimon used the same faulty logic about American competitiveness to support the Trump tax cut. “We don’t have a competitive tax system here,” he warned.

But when Dimon talks about “competitiveness” he’s really talking about the competitiveness of JPMorgan, its shareholders, and billionaire executives like himself.

The concept of “American competitiveness” is meaningless when it comes to a giant financial enterprise like JPMorgan that moves money all over the world. JPMorgan doesn’t care where it makes money. Its profits don’t directly depend on the wellbeing of Americans.

“American competitiveness” is just as meaningless when it comes to big American-based corporations that make and buy things all over the world. 

Consider a mainstay of corporate America, General Electric. Two decades ago, most GE workers were American. Today the majority are non-American. In 2017, GE announced it was increasing its investments in advanced manufacturing and robotics in China, which it termed “an important and critical market for GE.” In 2018, over half of GE’s revenue came from abroad. Its once core allegiance to American workers and consumers is gone.

Google has opened an Artificial Intelligence lab in Beijing. Until its employees forced the company to stop, Google was even building China a prototype search engine designed to be compatible with China’s censors.

Apple employs 90,000 people in the United States but contracts with roughly a million workers abroad. An Apple executive told The New York Times, “We don’t have an obligation to solve America’s problems. Our only obligation is making the best product possible” – and showing profits big enough to continually increase Apple’s share price.

American corporations will do and make things wherever around the world they can boost their profits the most, and invest in research and development wherever it will deliver the largest returns. 

The truth is that America’s real competitiveness doesn’t depend on profit-seeking shareholders or increasingly global corporations. The real competitiveness of the United States depends on only one thing: the productivity of Americans. 

That in turn depends on our education, our health, and the infrastructure that connects us. Yet today, American workers are hobbled by deteriorating schools, unaffordable college tuition, decaying infrastructure, and soaring health-care costs. 

And truth be told, big American corporations and the CEOs that head them – wielding outsized political influence – couldn’t care less. They want tax cuts and rollbacks of regulations so they can make even fatter profits. All of which is putting Americans on a glide path toward lousier jobs and lower wages. How’s that for patriotism?

The first step toward fixing this broken system is to stop buying CEOs’ lies. How can we believe that Jamie Dimon’s initiatives on corporate philanthropy are anything other than public relations? Why should we think that he or his fellow CEOs seek any goal other than making more money for themselves and their firms? We can’t and we shouldn’t. They don’t have America’s best interests at heart — they’re making millions to be CEOs, not patriots.

Big American corporations aren’t organized to promote the wellbeing of Americans, and Americans cannot thrive within a system run largely by corporations. Fundamental reform will be led only by concerned and active citizens.

On Facebook.

Today Wrigley turned 6 years old! I can't believe he's lived with me for over 5.5 years. He's such a wonderful, joyful pup. Happy birthday, Wrigley Beans.

Posted by: icon_uk

An old, old, OLD and very silly post from our earlier incarnation back in Livejournal days!



( May the Fourth Be With You! )

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Posted by: icon_uk

In the comments to these weekly posts (and only these posts), it's your chance to go as off topic as you like. Talk about non-comics stuff, thread derail, and just generally chat among yourselves.

The EU hosted a summit where over 40 countries and global organisations promised a starting figure of over $8 billion to the development of a covid-19 vaccine.

Much of the world is starting to experiment with opening up again in a new sort-of-post-Covid19 world, with places like Germany and Spain relaxing, gradually, some of the lockdown protocols, with strong limitations and provisos.

In New Zealand, consistent reminder that competent politicians exist Jacinda Ardern has suggested that the country may not have open borders for a long time to come.

In the UK, a phone app is being developed for contact tracingM and notification of people you may have been in contact with who develop Covid19, though in true current UK style, it's going against every other countries developed app by not using the personalised data storage method (Where your information never leaves your phone), but a centralised database, which is raising some concerns about the storage and disposal (or not) of this data.

The US government is planning on borrowing around 3 TRILLION dollars in the next quarter to pay for pandemic support initiatives. That's 3,000,000,000,000 (Which I only mention because I've never had a reason to type an actual number that big in a real world context!)

The US is also starting to open up in places, though the wisdom of this is being called into question by... well, pretty much everyone else on the planet, and a goodly number of the local population of course.

The Clone Wars seventh and final season came to an end with a frankly spectacular arc which saw Ahsoka Tano facing off against Darth Maul in the sort of iconic fight scene that, truth be told, the sequel trilogy was mostly completely lacking, at least on an emotional level), and giving us a chance to see the impact of General Order 66 from the point of view of Ahsoka, as well as the actual Clone Troopers who we have got to know and care about over the years of this series. THIS is how you do it!

The long overdue, repeatedly delayed, New Mutants movie was briefly appearing as forthcoming video on demand from Amazon, though without a release date, but it has now disappeared again. This DOES seem to suggest it might go straight to digital with no cinema release.

Also a new image of a new baddies form the movie have been released in the shape of the Smiley-Men.

And I've clearly been watching waaaay too much anime, or at least listening to too many anime soundtracks when a random video from something called Argonavis (A games based anime from what I can see) popped up and I thought "Gosh that sounds like Unison Square Garden" (who did "Orion o Nazoru", the belter of an OP for Tiger and Bunny) only to discover it's not, but it was written and arranged by two of the members.

In terms of podcasts, alongside old favourites like "Jay and Miles X-Plain the X-Men" (pretty much what it says on the tin and currently looking at Age of Apocalypse), "The NoSleep Podcast" (Horror fiction) and "The Arkham Sessions" (An actual qualified clinical psychologist, Dr Andrea Letamendi, examined, firstly "Batman the Animated Series" and is now looking at the "Doom Patrol" TV series for their depictions of mental conditions), I've just started Mockery Manor, a horror/mystery/drama set at a gloriously awful (and thankfully fictional) British theme park in the late 1980's.

So today's extra curricular activity for the community: What podcasts are you currently listening to that you'd recommend to others?


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Posted by: icon_uk

It used to be the tradition around these here parts to post fan art on Thursday, comic themed, but not comic published, art by fans or professionals.

So share your commissions or interesting art you've seen. (If in doubt, check with the artist it's okay to post it and if they say no, then it's a no!)

( Just for fun )

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Posted by: iamrman

This is my first post here, so I hope I'm doing it right.

( Read more... )

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Posted by: iamrman

I couldn't resist sharing some more fan art.

( Read more... )

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Posted by: thezmage

Some MCU mashups from Liu-Psypher aka Prime Premne, who has designed most of my shirts

( Read more... )

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