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Google: Lake Ontario/Lake America name change in the U.S. will appear in Maps

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Re: Google: Lake Ontario/Lake America name change in the U.S. will appear in Maps

#101
post #68

I am Canadian. It is and it will stay Lake Ontario. I am mad at Google for a lot of things, but this is not one of them. A map should represent the current reality. Google Maps defaults to the user’s local reality, which seems reasonable to me. I worked at a mapping company and we had similar setups for contested borders. You would get the map that your government accepts. It was not the company’s prerogative to weig…

EU citizen here: For us it still says Lake Ontario :-) Not sure what Trump is looking forward to win with all these moves?

Yes but the gulf of Mexico shows both names, which i don't understand... Why are we seeing the BS fake name in the EU at all?

Re: Google: Lake Ontario/Lake America name change in the U.S. will appear in Maps

#102
post #87
post #68

I am Canadian. It is and it will stay Lake Ontario. I am mad at Google for a lot of things, but this is not one of them. A map should represent the current reality. Google Maps defaults to the user’s local reality, which seems reasonable to me. I worked at a mapping company and we had similar setups for contested borders. You would get the map that your government accepts. It was not the company’s prerogative to weig…

Google can take months or YEARS to make updates but this one it makes almost immediately? Don't confuse this for anything but kissing the ring.

A bit hyperbolic dont you think? Even if you disagree with the politics, you'd agree that updating a random restaurant's opening hours is different from updating a national landmark.

For instance, I checked Nepal area and Google Maps already shows the area as flood affected. It didnt take years.

Re: Google: Lake Ontario/Lake America name change in the U.S. will appear in Maps

#103
post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google can take months or YEARS to make updates but this one it makes almost immediately? Don't confuse this for anything but kissing the ring.

Really? I thought Maps was pretty constistently up to date with GNIS changes.

GMaps can be extremely slow when it comes to responding to user reports, or updating regional info like road networks or new subdivisions. A lot of that comes down to the fact that Google relies on government entities for authoritative information, which can mean waiting months or years for the local government to provide new info. The federal government updated this one quickly.

Re: Google: Lake Ontario/Lake America name change in the U.S. will appear in Maps

#104
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do we the people get to elect the people in this new branch of government? What recourse do we have if they stop serving our interests?

To be entirely honest, I haven't drafted the full text of the amendment. The key is having such an entity, the specifics of appointment and recall could follow any number of templates. If it were me, agency commissioners elected by popular vote to a six year term, subject to recall by vote and impeachment by Congress. But that's orthogonal to the purpose of the branch.

The current legislative branch has proven one thing. We the people must have the ability to remove elected officials. This would allow for us to come together when we realized we fucked up and our leadership needs change now.

The people must become the 4th branch of the government to balance the three when they unify in corruption.

Re: Google: Lake Ontario/Lake America name change in the U.S. will appear in Maps

#105
post #68

I am Canadian. It is and it will stay Lake Ontario. I am mad at Google for a lot of things, but this is not one of them. A map should represent the current reality. Google Maps defaults to the user’s local reality, which seems reasonable to me. I worked at a mapping company and we had similar setups for contested borders. You would get the map that your government accepts. It was not the company’s prerogative to weig…

> A map should represent the current reality. Google Maps defaults to the user’s local reality

Does it though? It’s showing the new name in every country except Canada. They could have limited this rename to USA only, but they didn’t.

Re: Google: Lake Ontario/Lake America name change in the U.S. will appear in Maps

#106
post #68

I am Canadian. It is and it will stay Lake Ontario. I am mad at Google for a lot of things, but this is not one of them. A map should represent the current reality. Google Maps defaults to the user’s local reality, which seems reasonable to me. I worked at a mapping company and we had similar setups for contested borders. You would get the map that your government accepts. It was not the company’s prerogative to weig…

> A map should represent the current reality. Google Maps defaults to the user’s local reality Does it though? It’s showing the new name in every country except Canada. They could have limited this rename to USA only, but they didn’t.

I live in Germany. It shows as Lake Ontario here.

Re: Google: Lake Ontario/Lake America name change in the U.S. will appear in Maps

#107

Hey Google. Don't you read these comments? Let's have a serious discussion.

Hey it's me, ur Google. If you didn't want geography to be politicized, why the hell did you elect the guy who politicizes canned fucking beans? Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Except neither of those things happened (me voting him in or them responding to a normy on HN)

Re: Google: Lake Ontario/Lake America name change in the U.S. will appear in Maps

#108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In what sense are these renamings attacks on Democrats specifically?

The entire Trump Presidency has been a uniquely partisan fiasco. I live in Wyoming—we have almost zero ICE enforcement. The brown shirts are being deployed to cities run by Democrats in states run by Democrats. I’m not advocating for counterbattery partisanship per se . But if demonstration is literally what it takes to get this to stop (or escalate to a point where everyone agrees it’s a crisis), so be it. At the ve…

I get that there is a partisan fiasco. I also think these geographic renamings are tacky and childish. I get that dems are disproportionately bothered by them, I just dont see how they are specifically attacks on the dems. Its not like Trump is renaming the Sacramento to retard river or something.

If anything, it strikes me more as a flood the zone tactic, not that the dems need help with distraction - They were obsessing over some stupid reflecting pool while Jan 6 pardon expansions were taking place.

Re: Google: Lake Ontario/Lake America name change in the U.S. will appear in Maps

#109
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm also Canadian. The nuance here is that this is not an average contested border or naming issue that mapping companies rightfully treat very carefully. There is no actual dispute between two peoples or two nations, or anyone, on what this landmark is called. The 'dispute' is that one man decreed it and everyone else bowed in respect and whispered "Yes sir Mr. President". If he decreed that the new standard of call…

What would be a valid basis for relabeling a shared body of water for US users? Would it be based on popular usage? The procedure by which it changed? Maybe we distinguish between bicameralism and presentment, an executive order, and the discretion of a bureaucrat. Or do we normally take the government database at its word but treat this as a sui generis "this guy is being an asshole" exception? Not trying to interro…

I'll elaborate on my opinion. I think that asking for a single universal rule that seemingly impartially decides how to display certain names shows that I conveyed what I meant too indirectly. Asking for a universal rule on map labeling is like asking someone to design a universally applicable test that can be taken by both a human and a gorilla. Universal rules will never work or be impartial because you can't assume everyone is a well-intentioned actor.

The real solution here is for Google to decide on their values. What they think is right, why they think that, and who they back because of it. Only that would help them distinguish between genuine conflicts and a temper tantrum, both domestically and internationally.

Of course, doing this would be extremely controversial and as a corporation they would never go for it anyway. What it would do is show their position to the world openly and let people judge them on that merit and decide if they really want to work with them. Applying universal rules that 'accidentally' happen to help a certain side is just as much of a political and ideological choice as what I've suggested above, it's just a lot more wishy-washy and coated in a pretense of rationality.

Re: Google: Lake Ontario/Lake America name change in the U.S. will appear in Maps

#110
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Trump charging and convicting didn't happen fast enough during Biden and now Trump's immune and has pardoned his co-conspirators.

Was Obama allowed to prosecute foreign influence operations or was he prevented from interfering in elections? Remember when Mitch filibustered Obama's SC nomination because presidents are lame ducks in their final year in office? Great work continuing to deny rights unequally according to medical status!

>Was Obama allowed to prosecute foreign influence operations or was he prevented from interfering in elections?

He launched https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossfire_Hurricane_(FBI_inves..., "but the evidence available to investigators did not establish that the Trump campaign had 'conspired or coordinated' with the Russian government".

>Remember when Mitch filibustered Obama's SC nomination because presidents are lame ducks in their final year in office?

It wasn't a filibuster, McConnell didn't bring it to a vote at all. But I do remember the episode, and I'm mad about it. The Democrats must propose and relentlessly campaign on supreme court reform. Have the longest-serving justice replaced every Presidential term, and change the rules so if the President proposes a candidate, they MUST be voted on.

>Great work continuing to deny rights unequally according to medical status!

I don't know what you mean by this.

I'm also not quite sure how your comment in general is responsive to the assertion that Trump felonies should have been investigated and prosecuted faster, before he was reelected. They had 4 years under Biden, it should have been possible.

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