Gigglebit: the greatest Venn diagram of all

6 Aug 2014

Google's interactive Venn diagram Doodle

Gigglebit is Siliconrepublic’s daily dose of the funny and fantastic in science and tech, to help start your day on a lighter note.

Like any sector, technology has a serious side, and it is often issues within this serious side that make headlines or that organisations need to explore for their business. Malware! Data breaches! Cloud storage! Do I really need this software? Which candidate has the best IT skills for this job? And what the heck is fog computing?

With Gigglebit, we turn the spotlight on humorous and/or amazing content about science and tech, because sometimes the lighter side should be taken seriously, too.

Today, we belatedly celebrate the birthday of John Venn, the logician and philosopher who brought the world the Venn diagram.

While those of us in the Republic of Ireland enjoyed our Bank Holiday Monday on 4 August, Google marked what would have been Venn’s 180th birthday with an interactive Doodle in which users could pick from a variety of combinations to see what came out of the overlapping circles.

While Google’s Doodle let you combine traits like musicality with different types of creatures, it overlooked the ultimate Venn diagram cross between a guitar-strumming beaver and a keyboard-loving duck. We’re sure John Venn himself would love it.

Elaine Burke is the host of For Tech’s Sake, a co-production from Silicon Republic and The HeadStuff Podcast Network. She was previously the editor of Silicon Republic.

editorial@siliconrepublic.com