Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Google Maps renames "Lake Ontario" to "Lake America" faster than US Government

arstechnica.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 67 posts

Re: Google Maps renames "Lake Ontario" to "Lake America" faster than US Government

#31

Post by archonis »

amiga386 wrote: post #10
nixon_why69 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> 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.

It feels good to model the future that way, but seems incredibly unlikely there will be consequences for those people.

Re: Google Maps renames "Lake Ontario" to "Lake America" faster than US Government

#32

Post by Hikikomori »

thunky wrote: post #23
amiga386 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

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.

Trump is irrelevant. What really matters was done by Project 2025, that will not be undone anytime soon, that is if democrats can even gain federal power again due to election interference or whatever they will do with ICE if they lose an election again.

Re: Google Maps renames "Lake Ontario" to "Lake America" faster than US Government

#34

Post by insane_dreamer »

Duwensatzaj wrote: post #28
nerdsniper wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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.

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)

Re: Google Maps renames "Lake Ontario" to "Lake America" faster than US Government

#35

Post by mindslight »

thunky wrote: post #23
amiga386 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

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.

What we actually need to do are things like ranked pairs voting, a recall election dynamic for president/congress/judges, constitutional amendment to enshrine splitting executive power into agencies with heads elected separately from the president, get rid of the electoral college, take out the supplicating trash from the Supreme Council, criminal trials and unjust enrichment clawbacks, and so on. The whole point of the names are to be stupid petty distractions, don't let yourself be distracted.

Re: Google Maps renames "Lake Ontario" to "Lake America" faster than US Government

#38

Post by mcv »

Duwensatzaj wrote: post #28
nerdsniper wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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.

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.

Re: Google Maps renames "Lake Ontario" to "Lake America" faster than US Government

#39

Post by crote »

dbbk wrote: post #17
alirezaxdehghan wrote: post #15

Didn't google do the same to Persian Gulf too? they please whoever's feeding them

They just do whatever your local country calls it. The name changes based on where you are.

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?

Re: Google Maps renames "Lake Ontario" to "Lake America" faster than US Government

#40

Post by Tadpole9181 »

amiga386 wrote: post #10
nixon_why69 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> 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.

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.

Post reply on HN