Festival of Kites

Source: http://www.google.com/logos/kitefestival2009-hp.gif

The Indian festival of Makar Sankranti is devoted to kite fighting in some states. This spring festival is celebrated every January 15, with millions of people flying kites all over northern India. The states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Gujarat, some part of West Bengal, Rajasthan, Punjab and the cities of Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Jaipur, Dhanbad, Varansi and Hyderabad are particularly notable for their kite fighting festivals. Kite flying in Hyderabad starts a month before the official kite flying festival (Sankranthi). The thread used to fly kites in Hyderabad is known as 'Manjaa'. Highly maneuverable single-string paper and bamboo kites are flown from the rooftops while using line friction in an attempt to cut each other's kite lines, either by letting the line loose at high speed or by pulling the line in a fast and repeated manner. In some Indian cities kite flying/fighting is an important part of other celebrations, including Republic Day, Independence Day, Raksha Bandhan, and Janmashtami. An international kite festival is held every year before Uttarayan for three days in Vadodara, Surat and Ahmedabad. These three cities are the main sites where kite flying is observed on 14 and 15 January every year. The 14th known as 'Uttarayan' and 15th known as 'Vasi Uttarayan'. People start flying kites early in the morning and continue until the evening. Playing music to accompany kite-flying is a common sight. The kite is known as 'Patang' in Gujarat and other places in India. People start preparations before 15 days ahead to buy kites and cords for their kites.

Coming of Age Day

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Coming of Age Day (成人の日 Seijin no Hi) is a Japanese holiday held annually on the second Monday of January. It is held in order to congratulate and encourage all those who have reached the age of majority (20 years old (二十歳 hatachi) over the past year, and to help them realize that they have become adults. Festivities include coming of age ceremonies (成人式 seijin-shiki) held at local and prefectural offices, as well as after-parties amongst family and friends. [Read more on Wikipedia]

120th Birthday of Karel Capek

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Karel Čapek (Czech pronunciation: [ˈkarɛl ˈtʃapɛk] (January 9, 1890 – December 25, 1938) was one of the most influential Czech writers of the 20th century. [Read more on Wikipedia]

Sir Isaac Newton's Birthday

Google is honoring Sir Isaac Newton with it's first animated logo design on the English scientist and thinker's birthday. Newton was born 367 years ago, January 4, 1643.

The design, on Google's main search page today features a branch of apples. After a second or two, one falls off the branch and onto Google's white background, a nod to Newton's fabled discovery of the law of gravity.

Visit the site to see the animation in action, or watch the video below.

Sir Isaac Newton FRS (4 January 1643 – 31 March 1727 [OS: 25 December 1642 – 20 March 1726]) was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian who is considered by many scholars and members of the general public to be one of the most influential people in human history. His 1687 publication of the Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (usually called the Principia) is considered to be among the most influential books in the history of science, laying the groundwork for most of classical mechanics. In this work, Newton described universal gravitation and the three laws of motion which dominated the scientific view of the physical universe for the next three centuries. Newton showed that the motions of objects on Earth and of celestial bodies are governed by the same set of natural laws by demonstrating the consistency between Kepler's laws of planetary motion and his theory of gravitation, thus removing the last doubts about heliocentrism and advancing the Scientific Revolution.

Newton built the first practical reflecting telescope and developed a theory of colour based on the observation that a prism decomposes white light into the many colours that form the visible spectrum. He also formulated an empirical law of cooling and studied the speed of sound.

In mathematics, Newton shares the credit with Gottfried Leibniz for the development of the differential and integral calculus. He also demonstrated the generalised binomial theorem, developed Newton's method for approximating the roots of a function, and contributed to the study of power series.

Newton was also highly religious, though an unorthodox Christian, writing more on Biblical hermeneutics and occult studies than the natural science for which he is remembered today. [Read more on Wikipedia]

Godfrey Kneller's 1689 portrait of Isaac Newton(age 46)

Birthday of Sir Isaac Newton

Google logo - Birthday of Sir Isaac Newton

Sir Isaac Newton FRS (4 January 1643 – 31 March 1727 [OS: 25 December 1642 – 20 March 1727]) was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian who is perceived and considered by a substantial number of scholars and the general public as one of the most influential scientists in history. His 1687 publication of the Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (usually called the Principia) is considered to be among the most influential books in the history of science, laying the groundwork for most of classical mechanics. In this work, Newton described universal gravitation and the three laws of motion which dominated the scientific view of the physical universe for the next three centuries. Newton showed that the motions of objects on Earth and of celestial bodies are governed by the same set of natural laws by demonstrating the consistency between Kepler's laws of planetary motion and his theory of gravitation, thus removing the last doubts about heliocentrism and advancing the scientific revolution.

via wikipedia

Happy New Year

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Happy New Year!

As you head out to celebrate the new year with your friends and family, don't forget to check out the orkut doodle that we've created in honor of the date: