WTF: On Cesar Chavez Day, Google Honors 200th Birthday of Robert Bunsen

THIS MOMENTOUS DAY!

Not one day in anyone’s life is an uneventful day, no day without profound meaning, no matter how dull and boring it might seem, no matter whether you are a seamstress or a queen, a shoeshine boy or a movie star, a renowned philosopher or a Down’s syndrome child.

Because in every day of your life, there are opportunities to perform little kindnesses for others, both by conscious acts of will and unconscious example.

Each smallest act of kindness – even just words of hope when they are needed, the remembrance of a birthday, a compliment that engenders a smile – reverberates across great distances and spans of time, affecting lives unknown to the one whose generous spirit was the source of this good echo, because kindness is passed on and grows each time it’s passed, until a simple courtesy becomes an act of selfless courage years later and far away.

Likewise, each small meanness, each thoughtless expression of hatred, each envious and bitter act, regardless of how petty, can inspire others, and is therefore the seed that ultimately produces evil fruit, poisoning people whom you have never met and never will.

All human lives are so profoundly and intricately entwined – those dead, those living, those generations yet to come – that the fate of all is the fate of each, and the hope of humanity rests in every heart and in every pair of hands.

Therefore, after every failure, we are obliged to strive again for success, and when faced with the end of one thing, we must build something new and better in the ashes, just as from pain and grief, we must weave hope, for each of us is a thread critical to the strength – the very survival – of the human tapestry.

Every hour in every life contains such often-unrecognized potential to affect the world that the great days for which we, in our dissatisfaction, so often yearn are already with us; all great days and thrilling possibilities are combined always in THIS MOMENTOUS DAY!

Excerpt from Dean Koontz’s book, “From the Corner of His Eye”.

It embodies the idea of how the smallest of acts can have such a profound effect on each of our lives.

Go with God, until we see you again, Cesar Estrada Chavez, thank you.

I'm SO sick of hearing about minority rights. When (and why) have the rights of minorities supersede the rights of the MAJORITY, the people who actually built and support this country!

WTF is right, the ignorance and insensitivity of some of you is appalling.

Robert Bunsen's significance and contributions to science are conducive to Google's existence today so it is fitting they commemorated his life's work and legacy on his 200th. Deservedly so.

However, to bash or berate Chavez' life's work and contributions to help improve workers' lives, nay human lives yesteryear is uncalled for. Both equally merit to be remembered and celebrated respectfully on their birthdays.

Sure Chavez is techinically American, he was born in Arizona, yadda yadda but he did not make such contributions as Bunsen did although he was a German chemist. In my mind science versus civil rights....yeah science wins. Not to knock Chavez, he did good things but in laments terms Robert Bunsen was just much more important to commemorate. UFW or the Bunsen Burner i without hesitation choose the latter. Then again i'm not a laborer so way to go Chavez, happy birthday. Sorry you were excluded but there was just someone that much more worthy ;)

"the back burner," heh

who the fuck is Cezar Chvez?

Cesar Chavez? We should honor an activist for "Illegal Aliens"? C'mon now!I am not racist. Just tired of taking care of the rest of the world when we can not take care of those that are living here legally and can't find work!

there is a big difference between cesar chavez and martin luther king jr.

Looks like this was posted on 4chan. Trolls galore.

Who the heck is this Chavez? This must be another whiny hispan wanting more from America.

Wow...farm workers over science and modern medicine? Just the comparison of two such subjects speaks volumes of the I.Q.'s involved in such a debate, and supporting the former.

i'd like to see the doodle that Google comes up with to celebrate Britney Spears birthday...

lol at anyone that believe he used non violent methods...need to do some more research on this guy. The guy murdered people. Not sure I would put him next to Martin Luther King Jr. on this one.

So who the hell is Cesar Chavez anyway? I spent 15 years in California and the only Cesar Chavez that I ever heard of was a damn good boxer. Google can celebrate anyone's birthday that they want, and you whining about just makes you look like a complete moron.

The fact that only 53% of adults know how long it takes for the Earth to revolve around the Sun means that it is probably more important to celebrate science as much as possible. While it is understandable that someone such as Cesar Chavez should be honored for his efforts, there is no legally recognized holiday for science. Why is it that science, one of the most important things that drive our modern world, one of the least celebrated things? Bunsen burners have helped develop the minds of thousands of students who grew up to make some of the most important discoveries of our time. Why shouldn't we celebrate scientists? Lets have a Albert Einstein day or a Louis Pasteur day. A James Clerk Maxwell day would be nice as well. My point is that there should be more people as passionate about science as you are about Cesar Chavez because in the grand scheme of things, knowing more about science is more important than knowing about Cesar Chavez because so much of our world is dependent on science. As a result of this, the public must understand science in order to understand the world. If that means that Google needs to snub Cesar Chavez in their doodles, so be it.

Chavez: Hero to a few local Leftists - especially the whiny author of this article. Bunsen: Visionary to the planet.Now, let's explore the benefits that each has brought.Bunsen: improvements in heat efficiency, spectroscopy, a better understanding of many elements and even the discovery of some. The list goes on... Chavez: Better pay for farm workers, which in turn caused all of us to pay more for our produce.Without Bunsen, you wouldn't be looking at your monitor now, let alone using any device to read my response.Without Chavez, you'd be paying less for fruits & nuts (or is it paying fruits & nuts less?).I'll take Bunsen on my homepage, thank you.By the way it is Bunsen's 200TH BIRTHDAY. I'm confident that in 2137, Google will gladly honor Chavez.VIVA CAPITALISM!!!

I think this is appropriate, civil rights are in the news all the time if people want to celebrate rights fine do it but you don't have to freak out because some dude doesn't get honored as the google topic of the day. Who really cares its some stupid animation on the google banner its just an informative thing nothing other than information, like if on the 23rd of march had they displayed a swastika and sid that was the day Hitler was declared supreme chancelor of the third reich, then you could maybe bitch about the meaning of the swastika. This is nothing but a daily fun fact not an immortal declaration of what this day shall represent forever more.

Perhaps you don't appreciate Bunsen because you think he just invented the Bunsen burner. This is inaccurate - he contributed some design but was not the inventor. His legacy is much more important to chemistry and to the world. He was able to isolate pure compounds, developed a way to treat arsenic poisoning, and most important of all, co-invented spectroscopy. This led to the discovery of many elements and massive advances in astronomy. It allowed us to determine the chemical composition of matter by burning it and examining the light given off.

Modern chemistry would not exist without it - and with it all that chemistry brings us. Polymers, plastics, basically the modern materials we make everything with today. We wouldn't have modern forensic science (no CSI!), nor would we be discovering more and more about the composition of the universe.

To read a great bio of Robert Bunsen, try the second or third link when you click on the Google logo. It's corrosion doctors - great bio.

Scientific pioneers > Political pioneers

Yeah 200 years, BIG anniversary date. I wonder if on March 31, 2127 how many will remember Mr. Chavez? Proud to be a nerd, even though I haven't handled a bunsen burner for years.

Chavez isn't like martin luther king jr, cause no one knows who he is. Ask anyone who isn't located in the South West of USA and they won't know who the heck he is. Compare that to science, which is one of the most important subjects in the world. So, if you were google, would you pick the guy who is only known in a small region of the world, or the guy who helped make science what it is today.

Cesar Chavez was nothing more than a hot headed Latino with a tiny penis who decided that since he was poor, everyone else should be poor! Communism, and it's weaker cousin, socialism does not work! Only in the most repressed and autocratic environment can they survive. Cesar Chavez was a little boy in a man's body throwing a temper-tantrum because he was born into poverty... He couldn't pull himself up by his own bootstraps so he tried to steal someone else's boots!

It doesn't matter where the "Googleplex" is located, Google is the internet/ worldwide--they post themes that relate to world wide, not just the US. if you hadn't said it was Cesar Chavez Day, I would have never known-- because it isn't something that affects my heritage or the region I live in-- how do you think someone in England, China or Japan would feel?

Chavez is way overrated. do a little research. just b/c u have a t-shirt of him, doesn't make it real

it was his 200th birthday. kind of a big deal, no?

grrrrrrrrow up.

Everyone has a "day" now... when it is national taco day maybe google will put a taco up there for you

Not to rain on your Chavez parade but Robert Bunsen was way more then just Bunsen Burners... follow the link and maybe learn something new, he was a pretty brilliant man!http://news.nationalgeographic...