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#lake#google#name#ontario#government#maps#kagi#official#call#constructive

Discussion (53 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews

mcv•about 16 hours ago
Disgusting. At the very least drag your feet a bit.

Just goes to show how on board those corporations are with this sort of narcissistic authoritarianismm

floro•about 15 hours ago
You would be naive to expect anything else. Corporations only exist to make profit. They will never take an action that risks that.

Some people, for some inexplicable reason, believe that companies like Google who often voice support for left wing politics do that for any other reason than that it's profitable.

Google relies on (corrupt) collaboration with the US government so they will never disobey their orders to parrot your political beliefs.

mcv•about 15 hours ago
That doesn't make it any less disgusting, though.

And there are also companies that aren't quite so eager to comply.

blooalien•about 15 hours ago
> Corporations only exist to make profit. They will never take an action that risks that.

This is absolutely 100% an action (one among many over the years) that guarantees I (for one) will never give Google another thin dime of my money for any reason if there's any way I can avoid it. Permanently lost profit from at least this one user (who was at one time in the past a huge Google fanboi)...

anon373839•about 19 hours ago
Apt.
joshstrange•about 20 hours ago
The title of this article implies they changed it before being forced/asked. As stupid as the whole thing is, the executive order was signed. This article is just about how the government’s own maps aren’t updated yet.

This wasn’t a case of Google updating based on a mere suggestion or guessing at what our mad king wants. It’s still silly, it’s still petty, but this article reads (and is titled) like clickbait to me. Instead we should focus on the absurdity of the EO.

HarHarVeryFunny•about 20 hours ago
Google isn't part of the government - they can put whatever names they like on Google Maps.

MapQuest has chosen to stick with "Lake Ontario", just as they did with "Gulf of Mexico", and are seeing app downloads surge as a result.

nerdsniper•about 17 hours ago
Interestingly, Executive Order 12770, signed in 1991 by President George H.W. Bush, established the metric system as the official system of measurement in the USA.

Google still defaults to miles for some reason.

I get that these cases have their differences, but I think it’s reasonably thought provoking and worth at least a single moment of attention if we’re already on the topic.

Duwensatzaj•about 17 hours ago
Not really. Metric Conversion Act Of 1975 would be a better reference, but it didn’t go that far, only saying that Metric is preferred, and the choice is voluntary.

The EO you referenced is about what units the federal government uses, not setting an official system of measurement for the entire US.

mcv•about 16 hours ago
That's exactly what every executive order is: it's what the federal government uses. It's not binding for anyone else. It doesn't have the power of law. Google is under absolutely no obligation to do this. They do it explicitly to appease Trump.
insane_dreamer•about 16 hours ago
it's actually the same thing - T's EO only governs how the Fed Gov references Lake Ontario on its maps; it doesn't force private companies to use the name (it has no authority to do so)
nixon_why69•about 20 hours ago
Google isn't a branch of the government, they can call the lake whatever they want.

It's a decision to comply that quickly and cravenly, presumably because Trump is vindictive, why die on this hill.

amiga386•about 20 hours ago
> why die on this hill

Because when the orange one is gone, people will remember what a supremely supine bastard you were, and now you're no longer protected, will punish you hard.

archonis•about 16 hours ago
It feels good to model the future that way, but seems incredibly unlikely there will be consequences for those people.
nixon_why69•about 19 hours ago
Yeah, well, Google under Sundar hasn't exactly been full of bold stances.
al_borland•about 9 hours ago
When it’s renamed back they will likely rename it just as quickly again. Their job is to provide a map with the correct names based on whatever governments name places… not to make passive aggressive political statements of omission.
thunky•about 17 hours ago
When he's gone we can just undo it as easily as he did it. And tear down all of his other tributes to himself.

If we don't want idiots to do idiotic things we probably shouldn't make it possible/legal in the first place. But the corruption and malfeasance goes way beyond Trump so here we are.

Tadpole9181•about 15 hours ago
My concern is that the orange one and his tribe may never leave at this point. The voters seem totally immune to reflection and the party has accumulated so much power, festered so much rot, and replaced so many government officials it feels like no election will ever be fair again. Even if one is, the pendulum will just swing right back to them the next election.

And SCOTUS is compromised. They're letting them redistrict based on political party to dilute opposition. They're allowing Trump to politicize the post office to potentially delay mail in ballots so they won't be counted. They're allowing Republicans to mass revoke voter registrations and sell that data.

And now ICE, Trump's personal, unaccountable Gestapo in training, is getting access to voter roles. What will they possibly use that for if not to influence the voting process?

It's a good thing SCOTUS ruled that POTUS is entirely immune to all consequences and can pardon himself. I'm sure that won't empower a coup.

panja•about 22 hours ago
What I want to call this administration is unfortunately against the site rules
mdp2021•about 17 hours ago
> What I want to call

If you express something, it should have a constructive purpose. Sheerly reactive curses rarely fit in that.

Edit:

Again, repeating what already written here: The disagreeing part better formulate an argument. This post is consistent with the message: because again, silent disagreement is very much not constructive.

KyleTheDev•about 15 hours ago
> If you express something, it should have a constructive purpose.

I feel like trying to make any expression constructive is one of those 'nice in theory' but also 'not a thing that has ever or will ever be done by any human being, because it's an insane inhumane thing to practice' ideals.

You cannot make every expression of opinion constructive. Take the case of this post. There is no need for constructive criticism or expression here, because the people doing this are not doing it out of good will. It then follows that any use of energy to provide that constructive expression is an unnecessary waste of goodwill.

panja•about 12 hours ago
Unfortunately half of voters have no interest in engaging in meaningful discourse and think angels are real and climate change is a hoax.
luxuryballs•about 16 hours ago
fun?
karmakaze•about 14 hours ago
There's clearly a line running through the lake. It should only change name on the lower part.
alirezaxdehghan•about 19 hours ago
Didn't google do the same to Persian Gulf too? they please whoever's feeding them
dbbk•about 18 hours ago
They just do whatever your local country calls it. The name changes based on where you are.
crote•about 15 hours ago
But "whatever your local country calls it" isn't always clear! There are plenty of places where the official name differs from the commonly-used name.

For example, in The Netherlands the official name for The Hague is 's-Gravenhage - but in practice virtually everyone calls it Den Haag, including the government itself. But it won't be on any official document like a passport. Similarly 's-Hertogenbosch is also very often abbreviated to Den Bosch, and calling it by its full name in casual conversation would sound quite pompous.

So what to do? Use the official name everywhere? Use the name people use in practice everywhere? Google Maps went with the colloquial name for Den Haag and the official name for 's-Hertogenbosch, so clearly there is no one-size-fits-all policy being applied.

The same applies to the current renaming. Sure, Trump and a handful of diehard cultists will call it "Lake America", but the US population as a whole is undoubtedly going to stick with the Lake Ontario they know and love for the foreseeable future.

So does Google Maps follow what the country calls it, or what the president calls it?

oriettaxx•about 12 hours ago
not even Fantozzi with the "Mega Direttore Galattico Gran Mascalzon Figl di Putt"
aprentic•about 18 hours ago
Kagi Maps did too.
dev213•about 17 hours ago
On my end it still says "Lake Ontario" on Kagi Maps (I am outside of the US though).

And if it's showing up as "Lake America" inside of the US on Kagi Maps, it's most likely because of Mapbox, and not Kagi.

aprentic•about 17 hours ago
Users on the Kagi forum are reporting mixed results. Some US users still see Lake Ontario, some Canadian users see Lake America. They also seem to agree that it should be classified as incorrect behavior.

https://kagifeedback.org/d/11381-lake-ontario-showing-up-wit...

As of this morning I started seeing new results. Now, a search for "Lake Ontario" returns both names.

As a Kagi customer, I find this was just about the worst way to handle it. I pay for a search engine because I want searches to cater to MY need for accurate and unbiased information. If a search engine can decide that someone else' political expedience is more important, there's a fundamental problem.

In case it was remotely in doubt, Kagi just demonstrated that they have the ability to change the labels that Mapbox gives them. It's fine if there was some implementation glitch if it comes with an explanation.

Currently I'm watching Kagi silently change results. If they're doing it for Lake Ontario, how can I be confident they aren't doing it with other search results?

insane_dreamer•about 16 hours ago
still shows Lake Ontario for me (in the US)
ChrisArchitect•about 17 hours ago
westurner•about 20 hours ago
Is anyone else able to find "executive seal b ible" on YouTube? With similar queries?

The one with the modified executive seal on it?

It's unfathomable to me that there are no videos on YouTube that show their modified seal for private profit on b ibles and b eer pong sets.

beardyw•about 21 hours ago
You can make too much of this. Countries regularly have different names for foreign or shared places. The "English Channel" is "La Manche", Cologne is Köln. Like the English language, it's pretty much down to "that's what I call it". If people continue to call it "Lake Ontario" that's what it will be.
amiga386•about 20 hours ago
It's a country's leader petulantly ordering their entire country to call a lake by a new name that wrongly implies it belongs to them, which it doesn't, in order to spite their main trading partner because they rejected a trade deal that would massively harm them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_politically_motivated_...

beardyw•about 18 hours ago
Thanks for the link.

Going through those, it looks as if only about 50% stuck, mostly from World War II, so here's hoping. I'm not sure if using the name is in any way enforced?

mdp2021•about 16 hours ago
That is not the point. Are you trying to minimize the phenomenon and cause and root? The point is, the actions taken by the appointed, what they reveal, the reactions from other parts, what they reveal, what will come next.

The disagreeing part better formulate an argument.

mdp2021•32 minutes ago
If the snipers had the notion that what they do is accruing contempt.