Fridaygram: Connected Classrooms, migrating pronghorns, new Helpouts

By +Scott Knaster, Google Developers Blog Editor

When you’re a kid in school, there’s nothing like a field trip to get you out into the world to learn something new. Now, thanks to the web, there is something like a field trip: Connected Classrooms on Google+. This new program lets kids from everywhere make virtual trips to museums, zoos, factories, and other cool places.



Connected Classrooms features great tour guide partners like Seattle Aquarium, Earthecho Expeditions, and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, and we expect the list to grow. If you’re a teacher and you want to find out more, you can join the Connected Classrooms community. And if you have a destination to offer and you want to be considered as a tour guide, you can fill out this form.

Speaking of getting out into the world, each year the pronghorn population of Wyoming migrates 150 km between their summer and winter homes. Along this route the pronghorns face their greatest foe: traffic on U.S. Highway 191, which they must cross. To aid the pronghorn migration, last year the Wyoming Department of Transportation built a system of fences, overpasses, and underpasses for safe crossing. At first the pronghorns weren’t sure what to make of the crossings, but after several hours they began to cross. This time, in the second year of the crossings, the pronghorns knew just what to do and crossed without hesitation. The animals (including the human ones) seem to have adapted nicely.

Finally, take some time this weekend to check out Helpouts by Google, a new way to get help on all sorts of issues via Google+ Hangouts. There are Helpouts for cooking, fitness and nutrition, home and garden, and a bunch of other topics. You can get help solving a problem, or learn a new skill. Maybe you can even offer other developers some coding help in the Computers and Electronics category.


Kids gotta field trip, pronghorns gotta migrate, Fridaygram gotta publish. Each week we take a break from our usual developer fare to bring you fun and nerdy stuff to kick off your weekend. Thanks for being here, and please be careful crossing the highway.

Fridaygram: free web expression, million-year disk, media tools

By +Scott Knaster, Google Developers Blog Editor

The web opens up communication possibilities that never existed before. But with more people doing more on the web come new challenges for keeping these new channels open and free from censorship. Hugo Landa, Cubanet Executive Director puts it this way: “Today, access to the Internet equals freedom of expression”. Last week Google Ideas hosted a summit on this subject entitled “Conflict in a Connected World”.



One concrete outcome of the summit is a set of tools to help people who are facing online censorship. These tools include the Digital Attack Map, which visualizes DDoS attacks, Project Shield, which actively helps protect against DDoS, and a new browser extension that enables a group to build a trusted connection to the Web. We hope these tools will help keep web speech free.

If you express yourself via digital storage, there’s a new technology to make sure that what you say can stay around for a long time. A team at the University of Twente in the Netherlands has built a disk designed to store data reliably for a million years or more. Researchers studied the processes that corrupt data over time, and then built a disk out of silicon nitride and tungsten designed to withstand the corruption. They developed accelerated aging tests that proved their ideas for now, but we’ll await the final results that will be available in about a million years.

Finally, it was a big week for new toolsets. We also launched Google Media Tools, a destination for journalists and news organizations. Google Media Tools includes sites and apps to help with collecting information, visualizing data, publishing, and our favorite, developing your own tools. Even if you’re not a pro journalist but are interested in how you can use Google stuff to learn what’s happening and tell others about it, you might want to check out this nicely organized site.


We make tools, you make tools, the web rules! Fridaygram is here to inform you, but it’s mostly for a fun weekly break from your coding chores. Thanks to friend of the blog Adam Feldman for this week’s million-year-disk info.

Fridaygram: cultural works, meteorite found, homeward trek

By +Scott Knaster, Google Developers Blog Editor

The Google Cultural Institute just keeps expanding, making more treasures available to anyone with a Web browser. This time they’ve added more than 5000 new works mainly from the worlds of clothing, fashion and design.

You can see royal jewels from France and Italy, amazing body art and dress from African ceremonies, and even a wax portrait featuring Louis XIV. There’s more than clothing: visit museums in China and view children’s art from Norway. The Cultural Institute lets you get a world cultural tour and still have lunch at home.

In another shared online experience, many of us watched incredible videos of a meteorite crossing Russia last February. Now a very physical artifact of this event has been found. Divers in central Russia pulled a 570 kg piece of meteorite from Lake Chebarkul. According to Professor Sergey Zamozdra of Chelyabinsk State University, the piece is “most probably one of the top 10 biggest meteorite fragments ever found."

Finally, take a few minutes and check out this true story of humanity and technology. The tale starts with a lost boy on a train and takes some remarkable turns before reaching its conclusion.


Streaking across your browser like a meteorite every week, it’s Fridaygram! We bring you Google stuff, science things, and other fun you might have missed. Thanks to +Louis Gray for this week's meteorite tip.

Fridaygram: Austrian computer pioneer, jellyfish blockage, Web Designer

By +Scott Knaster, Google Developers Blog Editor

Since last year, we’ve been celebrating the history of computing with a series of computing heritage videos on YouTube. These videos commemorate the contributions of computing pioneers from all around the world. This week, a new video featuring Heinz Zemanek and his team from the Vienna University of Technology was added to the series. Zemanek was interested in studying computers, but didn’t have financial support from the university. So he and his students relied on donated materials from companies to do their work.

When Zemanek started in 1956, it was fashionable to name computers after powerful winds. Zemanek playfully followed this trend by nicknaming his computer after a Vienna spring breeze, writing “Even if it cannot match the rapid calculation speed of American models called ‘Whirlwind’ or ‘Typhoon’, it will be enough for a "Wiener Mailüfterl" In 1958 the Mailüfterl was completed, one of the first fully transistorized computers in the world. It still exists today at the Technical Museum in Vienna, and you can learn more about it and its creation by watching the new video.

Because you’re reading this blog, we’ll assume you like technology, and we do too. But on Fridaygram we like to point out occasionally that the power of nature sometimes wins. That was the case recently in Sweden, when the Oskarshamn nuclear power plant was shut down because a large number of common moon jellyfish clogged the plant’s cooling water intake pipes. Most interestingly, this isn’t the first time it’s happened, and it probably won’t be the last, according the plant spokesman. So not only do jellyfish sting, they can knock your lights out, too.

Finally, if you’re interested in designing cool web graphics and ads that move, check out Google Web Designer. This new tool lets you create animated graphics and automatically generates the HTML5 and CSS for you. Of course, there’s also a code view so you can hand-tweak the code if you want. The stuff you make with Google Web Designer works across various devices, including desktops, phones, and tablets. The price is right (free), so give it a try this weekend.


If you don’t have time for a Fridaygram vacation in Vienna to feel the fall breeze, you can experience the Mailüfterl from wherever you are by visiting the Mailüfterl emulator. For best results, eat some sausage or schnitzel while you compute.

Fridaygram: constitutions online, dinosaur footprints, Science Fair

By +Scott Knaster, Google Developers Blog Editor

This week Google and the Comparative Constitutions Project launched Constitute, which puts constitutions online for people everywhere to explore. Constitute includes 177 constitutions, many of which weren’t online previously.



Each country’s constitution is tagged for easier navigation, marking such attributes as citizenship, foreign policy, and electoral oversight. Having them all online together, tagged and searchable, enables unprecedented research. For example, you can quickly see which countries grant rights to minorities, and even how each country defines a minority. You can also watch the progress of trends such as marriage equality and voting rights.

With dozens of new and amended constitutions in the world each year, Constitute can become a central source for exploring what’s new and for helping drafters of future constitutions think about how to proceed with their work.

Constitutions have been around for thousands of years, but a discovery in the Yukon earlier this year revealed something far older: dinosaur tracks. Dozens of fossilized dinosaur footprints were found by scientists from the University of Alaska on an expedition near the Arctic Circle. According to researcher Paul McCarthy, “The tracks were so abundant along the Yukon River that we could find and collect as many as 50 specimens in as little as 10 minutes”. That’s a lot of footprints made by a lot of big feet.

Finally, we congratulate the winners and participants in this year’s Google Science Fair. First place went to Eric Chen, who studied ways to fight the spread of flu. Other winners included Vinay Kumar, Ann Makosinski, and Elif Bilgin. But we think the best part is the cool Lego trophy each winner gets to take home.


All we are is dust in the wind, or tracks in the Yukon, or something similarly temporary. But while we’re here, there’s Fridaygram to bring some fun nerdy news for your weekend. Thanks to our Yukon correspondent +Louis Gray for the dinosaur tip.

Fridaygram: Galapagos on Street View, insect gears, Foucault’s doodle

By +Scott Knaster, Google Developers Blog Editor

Regular Fridaygram readers know that Street View goes places even if there aren’t any streets, like the Galapagos Islands. This week we launched the panoramic images collected earlier this year with the Street View Trekker, and they’re pretty cool.

View Larger Map

As we mentioned back in May, we also used an underwater camera to collect images of marine life in the waters off the Galapagos. Between the land and the sea, we collected pictures of blue-footed boobies, Magnificent Frigatebirds, and other island creatures. These images will help with Galapagos environmental research. If you’re interested, you can read more about it.

Speaking of the wonders of nature, researchers have used high-speed video cameras to record insects with natural gears that mesh to enable movement. Scientists Malcolm Burrows and Gregory Sutton of the University of Cambridge found that young planthoppers have microscopic gear teeth that synchronize their legs when they jump. Their legs move within 30 millionths of a second of each other, ensuring that their jumping is effective. As the insects mature, they lose these baby teeth and learn to jump without them.

Finally, last Wednesday’s Google Doodle honored the birthday of legendary physicist Léon Foucault, namesake of the Foucault pendulum, which shows the effect of the Earth’s rotation. The doodle itself is a working Foucault pendulum, complete with controls to change its time and location. We hope it inspires you to do some weekend inventing and adventuring of your own.


The world keeps turning, and Fridaygram keeps publishing. Look us up for nerdy cool news right before you start your weekend. And for still more amazing Galapagos stuff, see Darwin for a Day, built by the Charles Darwin Foundation and iNaturalist using the Street View API.

Fridaygram: The Clash’s history, Voyager’s journey, personal answers

By +Scott Knaster, Google Developers Blog Editor

We normally talk about cool and nerdy things on Fridaygram, but today we're focused on just the "cool" bit. The Clash exploded onto the stage in the late 1970s in the UK. Led by Joe Strummer, The Clash were popular, successful, and influential. They were often billed as “The only band that matters”.



We’re talking about The Clash right now because Google Play has just released a five-part documentary on the band, which you can watch on YouTube. This documentary series shows the band at work during the recording and release of its albums, including hours of previously unreleased footage of Joe Strummer talking about the band. If you already love The Clash, you’ll enjoy learning about their backstory, and if you’re not familiar with them, here’s your chance to see what’s up.

Turning from a new subject to one of our repeat favorites here on Fridaygram, this week NASA announced that Voyager 1 has become the first human-made object to reach interstellar space. Launched in 1977, the same year The Clash’s first album came out, Voyager has been teasing us with the question of exactly where it’s located for some time now. As Voyager project scientist Ed Stone says, “We can now answer the question we’ve all been asking – ‘Are we there yet?’ Yes, we are.”

Finally, we’ve added some cool new features to Google search that you might want to spend some time checking out. Search can now answer questions about your stuff. For example, if you ask “What’s my flight status?”, you’ll get a personal result that shows you whether your plane is on time. You can also ask about your dining reservations, hotels (“When is my next hotel stay?”), packages, calendar events (“When is They Might Be Giants?”), and photos (“my photos from Austria last year”). For extra awesomeness, try this feature with voice search in Chrome, Android, or the Google Search app on iOS. Have fun!


Voyager 1 has left us behind (or has it?), but Fridaygram is still here for you. If it’s nerdy, cool, or nerdy cool, it’s fair game for us.

Fridaygram: Code Jam, Titan ice, super recognizers

By +Scott Knaster, Google Developers Blog Editor

Google Code Jam is a time-honored tradition in which coders around the world solve programming problems for glory and cash prizes. The 10th annual Code Jam finals took place last week in London, and when the dust settled and the flying fingers stopped typing, the winner of the coveted title Code Jam Champion 2013 was Ivan Miatselski. The champion (also known as mystic) bested 45,000 entrants to win the competition.


Code Jam participants get to use whichever programming language they want, and they chose dozens, including Python, Java, C++, and even COBOL, Fortran, Smalltalk, and Mathematica. This year’s devilish final round involved solving five challenges in four hours, including puzzles about driving around a traffic circle backwards and finding a drummer for your band. If you missed it, don’t worry: Code Jam 2014 is on the way.

As we switch from enigmatic problems to mysterious celestial bodies, there’s news that Saturn’s moon Titan is continuing its shady ways. According to new research, Titan could have a thick crust of ice, very different from previous theories. Geophysicist Doug Hemingway of UC Santa Cruz says “Already things on Titan were hard to explain. This makes it even worse.” Indeed, Titan is a pretty weird place, with its methane atmosphere that comes down in rain and forms lakes.

Finally, would you like to meet a restaurant waiter who remembers you across visits, even if they’re years apart? That’s the story of Julian Lim, a super recognizer who recalls almost every face he’s ever seen. This superpower even works across many years, as super recognizers can pick out people who have grown up and changed substantially. Researchers studying this phenomenon have found more than 20 super recognizers so far. Some of them didn’t realize they had a special ability and assumed everyone else could do it too.


On Fridaygram, scientists are heroes, space news is amazing, nature never ceases to surprise, and fun is important. We hope your weekend is filled with wonder and general cool stuff.