What Google thought of 2011
Google have put together this, reducing the entire year’s worth of human experience in 2011, to 2 mins 51 seconds; for entertainment purposes. That said, it’s good though. When I watch this stuff, I feel a lump rising in my throat and it makes me take a perspective check.
2011 was a cracking year for me, softly wrapped up in my Trinity bubble. Notice that Ireland does not feature in this video. Yes indeed, we have been sheltered from world events. Although we like to moan and grumble about Ireland, when compared to a lot of the world, we really live a charmed existence. We live in a safe and stable society; more than can be said for Egypt or Tunisia. If we get sick, we will get treated; something that only the wealthy can afford in the US. If we lose our job, we will receive generous welfare payments. You won’t find that in the US. If we are not at war, law and order prevails; so that puts us above Iraq and the Sudan. Notionally, at least, we have a say in how the country is run and we are guaranteed human and civil rights, which works out for the most part. Our climate is benign; we will never die in a heatwave or a hurricane, nor do we have to worry about earthquakes or tsunamis. Importantly, we will never starve. Put something in the ground here, and it grows; people all over the world would, and have, killed for land like that. With that in mind, replay the google video.
That said, life here isn’t perfect and I’m not suggesting that is it. We will we always find something to moan about. After all, that’s the Irish condition. Problems however, are relative and depend on perspective. Compared to the conditions faced by hundreds of millions of people all over the world in 2011, we really have no idea how lucky we are.
Things fall down
Google gravity.* It’s one of Newton’s Laws.
Go on, it’s really good fun.
*Told ya it’s good fun!
Google’s secret plan to take over the world using lava
Well I think that’s what this video is about. I kind of lost track of it somewhere around the magnets. Seriously though, this video is quite lovely; I think it’s the choice of music. It’s definitely worth watching a second time, on full screen, just in order to peer at the science experiments to see if you can fathom what’s going on. It’s a science nerd’s paradise. (I can imagine this video being very popular down the east end of campus.)
Fall of the firewall
Look at the three images above. Until this evening, if a Chinese person in mainland China googled “tiananmen square” they would only see the last picture. Now they can see all three, or at least Google no longer censures the first two. The Chinese government still have their nets, but nets have holes.
