ANIMATION OF THE DAY: Google Doodle salutes Jules Verne

As Google's animated "doodles" go, today's is in a league of its own.

Google pays tribute to French sci-fi writer Jules Verne with rather an elegant home-page animation for Feb. 8 -- what would have been his 183rd birthday.

To salute the author so famed for "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea," the illustration features golden portholes in the "Google" logo and interactive instrumentation that lets you dive, dive, dive to the ocean floor. (And, if you're precise with the red-knobbed joystick, you can navigate the scene downward so all the portholes are simultaneously filled with colorful marine life that approximates the world "Google.")

As a master storyteller of air, sea and land, Verne is of course one of the "fathers of science fiction"; some of his other noted literary voyages include "Around the World in 80 Days" and "Voyage to the Center of the Earth."

Ironically, the first "Twenty Thousand Leagues..." featured no illustrations. The tentacled adventures of Captain Nemo and the good ship Nautilus would receive appropriately eye-catching artwork, though, thanks to publisher-editor Pierre-Jules Hetzel.

Happy 183rd, Monsieur Verne. And to think: That age means you were dreaming up certain submarine functions before they were even a proper reality. In a league of your own, indeed.