Posts Tagged ‘google’
So a few people on the Internet couldn’t help but notice that after 16 years of existence, Google chose today as the day they would honor Cesar Chavez’ birthday . . .
Today also happens to be Easter Sunday, the day that marks the Resurrection of Christ for the Christian faithful around the world, but hey, I don’t know why people are freaking out over Google’s choice of a leftist labor leader over the chosen Savior of two billion people. After all, Google has chosen to ignore Easter for thirteen straight years now. The last time Google recognized Easter was in their third year of existence back in 2000.
So I’m trying to figure out my reply to Google’s ongoing snub of the two billion faithful and I’m remembering how I was told that if you want to be a Christian, you should strive to be Christ-like in everything you do. Whenever you come to a decision point, you should ask yourself, WWJD – What Would Jesus Do? In this case, I asked myself, how would Jesus respond?
Unfortunately, I can’t really imagine what an Internet Jesus would tweet about this, so I decided to do the next best thing and take a positive course of action.
There, fixed it for you, Google!
I’m also fixing the default search engine on all the browsers in the house as well.
Happy Easter, all.
Ah, what a beautiful thing to see a great website so many people depend on willing to stand up and suspend their service in protest against evil . . .
Interesting to see Google only went halfway with their protest . . .
I was a little disappointed to see Google’s wouldn’t go so far as to suspend their service, but as I thought about it, it’s understandable, really – Wikipedia has the unique advantage that no other site anywhere provides what they provide as far as being a one-stop for any sort of knowledge imaginable, but if you need to do a search and Google has shut itself down in protest, that’s not going to stop you from searching, you just go somewhere else and who knows if once you go elsewhere you might never come back. So I’m willing to cut Google some slack for not completely shutting itself down today.
UPDATE: Excellent explanation of why Google is against the draconian measures of SOPA and PIPA and a cool graphic on just how many of us are with them.
Oh by the way, you remember Chris Dodd, the guy who did more to cause the housing crisis than any other person in America except for maybe Barney Frank? Well this guy is now chairman of the MPAA, and check his quotation here, an instant inductee to the Hall of Fame of Irony and Idiocy:
[Shutting down their services in protest] is an irresponsible response and a disservice to people who rely on them for information and use their services. It is also an abuse of power . . .
source: MPAA Press Release
This guy! Talking about “abuse of power”? This from a guy who supports Chinese-style totalitarian control of the Internet in America?
So basically, he says it’s irresponsible for a website to shut down IT’S OWN SERVICE if they choose to do so, but he thinks it’s perfectly okay for our Federal Government Overlords to have the power to shut down any website they may see fit? Oh yeah, give the government dictatorial powers and nothing irresponsible could ever happen, you’ll never see major websites targeted for their politics or their owners bullied one way or another under the threat of a possible shutdown and I’m sure you’d never see that kind of power used to stomp little sites out of existence before they get too big for anyone to notice.
He’s upset with Wikipedia because they shut down a service of their own creation???
In Chris Dodd’s world, I bet you not only should the government have the power to shut down any website they see fit to shutting down, but I bet you he’d also give the government power to force a website to stay online at their demand or risk of fines and imprisonment.
Hit the Wikipedia page, type in your zip and call your representatives.
We’re three days in on the new year, but nothing much of note has really happened so far, so still not too late to unload my psychic powers on the world . . .
Spun Honey’s Predictions for 2012
1. Coming off the 9-6 LSU victory in the regular season, in the LSU – Alabama rematch for the BCS Championship, someone finally manages to score a touchdown. The way those defenses are playing, forget picking a winner, that’s a bold enough prediction right there.
2. Drew Brees manages to outgun Aaron Rodgers at Lambeau Field in the NFC Championship, taking his Saints to the Super Bowl. The Ravens, who had a regular season record of 6-0 against playoff teams, beat both the Bengals and Patriots, but end up losing in the big one. They never need an excuse to party down on Bourbon Street, but it’s Super Bowl number two for the Saints and the people of New Orleans.
3. The day before the vote on the Stop Online Piracy Act, Google, Wikipedia, Twitter and Facebook launch a black page protest, shutting down service and asking their loyal users to tell Congress to get their cotton-pickin’ hands off the Internet. Congressional phone lines are flooded beyond anything the Capitol has ever seen, and in a stunning reversal, SOPA bites the dust.
4. Hollywood will earn $500 billion less in domestic box-office sales from the previous year, just as they did in 2011, and the movie studios still remain completely in denial, crying about piracy when the real problems Hollywood faces are a dearth of new ideas (nothing but remakes, sequels and comic book adaptations) a public that prefers their own home theater experience to over-priced movie tickets and the fact that video games are drawing more and more people’s disposable income.
5. Video game sales will break records again, hitting $20 billion and doubling Hollywood’s take for the first time ever. While video games are just as easy to pirate as movies, you hear very few calls from the video game industry for the government to have an Internet kill switch.
6. London Olympics are smashing, baby! Security is tight, no terrorist attacks, and the only incident is when a bunch of hooligans get out of hand with the celebrations as Great Britain pulls off the upset Gold Medal in football.
7. The Israelis will not and cannot allow the Mullah Hitlers to have nukes in Iran and the much anticipated airstrike is launched. Thankfully, predictions of oil at $250 a barrel are exaggerated, with oil maxing out at $198 a barrel. Gasoline rises to an earth-loving $8 a gallon, and the Obama administration couldn’t be happier.
8. Documents come to light proving what everyone already knew, that Attorney General Eric Holder was guilty of perjury when he denied having knowledge of Operation Fast and Furious. Fortunately for the Obama administration, all the news channels outside of FNC decide the story is not as newsworthy as the reports on Katy Perry’s second divorce and whether Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, so the story is never even mentioned.
9. On a personal note, I’m able to stay on the straight and narrow with no cigarettes and I get back down to my target weight of 200 pounds this year, but it doesn’t matter because . . .
10. December 21, 2012 lands most conveniently on a Friday, and Mayan apocalypse parties are going off all across America. When everyone else wakes up hungover on December 22, they realize there is no Mayan apocalypse, we survived to suffer a fate far worse, because just a month previous, Barack Obama was given another four years.
What a wicked political system it is when the big money of Hollywood can buy off politicians and get them to support something as wrong-headed as an assault on the very freedom of the Internet.
SOPA gives the U.S. Attorney General the ability to throw an “Internet death switch” on any website just as easy as obtaining a court order. No jury needed, the AG and a judge become a two-person judge, jury and executioner.
Hollywood’s money has bought the most powerful members of the House and Senate and left opponents of SOPA outgunned, but in a beautiful form of fighting fire with fire, we may see some of the most popular sites on the Internet choose what’s being called “the nuclear option”.
When the home pages of Google.com, Amazon.com, Facebook.com, and their Internet allies simultaneously turn black with anti-censorship warnings that ask users to contact politicians about a vote in the U.S. Congress the next day on SOPA, you’ll know they’re finally serious.
Source: CNET’s Declan McCullagh
An unbelievable collection of many of the most popular sites on the Internet stands opposed to SOPA, along with many founders of the web, think tanks, industry associations, academics, experts, entreprenuers and the list goes on and on. Pretty impressive when you look at just how much of the Internet is speaking out against this bill.
Here is a very handy map listing Congresspeople who have come out on record either for or against SOPA, to which you can respond accordingly:
Spatial Situation SOPA Congressional Support Map”
So I’m catching up on the latest three opinion pieces from Paul Krugman, more variations on how the $787 billion stimulus only failed because it just wasn’t enough spending and as I reach the end of the piece with Krugman imploring Obama to grow a pair and stand up to those evil, debt-slashing Republicans, I see the following ad served up by Google:
Are they mind readers? How did Google know I've got a thing for Middle Eastern women?
Considering how Google has made a fine science out of serving up relevant ads based either on your previous searches or the content on the page you’ve landed on, I find it almost bewildering that Google would chose this ad to serve up, because I’m vacationing and on a friend’s computer, I certainly haven’t done any searches for Arabic porn (or any other kind) since I arrived here and the only thing some might consider Muslim-related content on the page is the mention of Barack Hussein Obama. Personally, I’m not sold on the “Obama’s a Muslim” theory, but for whatever reason, Google served the ad up and was right in guessing it – I’m the guy who couldn’t help but click on an ad for “Women’s Muslim Swimsuits.”
The ad takes me to another page of links, the topmost of which is called “Muslim Swimwear for Women” and I eagerly click on that and land at a site called swimoutlet.com at a page with the more generic title of “Modest Swimwear” but they still all look like Muslims to me, and what a collection of virgin beauties to behold.
This is what paradise looks like, my friends.
It leaves so much more to the imagination, doesn’t it? Way sexier than any bikini I’ve ever seen!
Now there are as many as 1.5 billion Muslims in this world, and as part of the core beliefs, most of those Muslims believe that there will be a day when Allah sees to it that the world will be completely destroyed and up from the ashes, a Muslim Caliphate will come to power and rule the entire Earth. Making allowance for some portion of those Muslims that are less than militant in their beliefs, you could imagine then that there are at least as many as one-billion people in this world who believe that this this is the dress code the Muslim Caliphate should dictate for all women when they venture out of their homes to the beach and the poolside – this is the dress code that should be imposed over the entire world.
That might sound frightening to some, but I also have to admit, there’s something highly alluring about the style. It makes me think of Forrest Gump’s quote about a box of chocolates, or how wonderful it is to be a child unwrapping a Christmas present and all the excitement that goes with having no idea what’s inside that box! (I doubt that very many Muslims will appreciate the analogy, however.)
I’m so tired of seeing all the scantily clad women at the beach leaving almost nothing to the imagination. You know what? I’m going to say it right now – I’m ready. Bring on the Global Caliphate. There’s nothing hotter than covered women at the poolside.