Congress accuses Google of "air-brushing history" in its post-Katrina Maps.

[LiberalHeart]

Some of us were putting on our tin-foil hats yesterday when this AP story broke. Now it looks like our suspicion was contagious and spread all the way to Congress:

http://newsgrinder.blogspot.com/2007/03/congress-accuses-google-of-air-brushing.html

[MadMaddie]

1. What I don't understand is why....?

Why would they do something so ridiculous...

I mean I understand Stalin having his artist redo his paintings to make him seem more powerful and grand...just sayin...

[LiberalHeart]

3. According to the article at the link, it says....

...something to the effect that someone might want the recovery to look better. If the truth doesn't work, fake it.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

11. "You want the truth- YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!"

[LiberalHeart]

2. And here's a link to some background info in case you missed the discussion yesterday...

http://newsgrinder.blogspot.com/2007/03/google-maps-return-to-pre-katrina.html

[MadMaddie]

4. Thanks....and another wow....they are really desperate..

[Swamp Rat]

5. Those of us who were and still are here in New Orleans knew this.

I guess we are all conspiracy nuts. x:

[Rex]

7. But they support Dems! Google is for the Left.

I was told that yesterday. So it must have been a mistake. They fixed it right away, right?

[LiberalHeart]

9. Sure, except -- well, a LOT of factors go into image selection. That's what they say.

One factor, no doubt, is aesthetics. Gotta make post-Katrina pretty.

[Rex]

10. So they have image editors, like papers have editors?

"To trashy." "To cheap." Sim America?

[keopeli]

6. Censorship in China. Censorship in the US. They really should change their motto: Do no evil . n/t

[annabanana]

8. I'm glad this is getting some attention.... I expect Google Earth

to be as current and accurate as possible. If I see a picture of a road, I expect that road to be there when I go out driving.

Otherwise we could use hand drawn pamphlets produced by the local Chambers of Commerce, you know?

[LiberalHeart]

12. Per the article, "earth" is okay...

It says "Google does provide imagery of New Orleans and the region following Katrina through its more specialized service called Google Earth." It's the satellite maps that are pre-Katrina.

[annabanana]

13. I have Google Earth on my computer.... The pictures show neat rows

of small houses all along the Southern Shore of Lake Ponchartrain. Not a single vacant lot, it seems. These are the satellite photos of before Katrina.

[Swamp Rat]

14. Yeah, and the giant oak tree near my house is still there.

Funny, when I look outside it is gone and so are a lot of other things.

Google Earth = SimCity

[IChing]

17. An interesting article from "the register" which is normally just tech

I found it an odd article coming from The Register which is normally just tech news.



Conspiracy theorists: Feds, web hosts conspire against us

Watt is one of several "esoteric researchers" (call them conspiracy theorists) who believe Big Brother is telling Yahoo!, Google, and other companies which websites get to stay up, and which come down.

"I am certain of it," said Watt, a researcher studying the role secret societies play in global events.
Yahoo!'s web hosting division, which provides services to Cutting Through, pulled the site without explanation after Watt posted an audio "blurb" about the CIA's links to drug traffickers and the 1980s crack epidemic in Los Angeles, he said.
Yahoo! lifted the suspension, again without explanation, about three days later, according to Watt.>>>snip

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/03/29/anti-conspiracy_theorist_conspiracy/

[Arkansas Granny]

15. Shortly after Katrina I looked at New Orleans with Google Earth

and you could see houses crammed together and out of kilter with a brown "shadow" everywhere. In some areas it looked like reflections from the surface of water.

A few weeks later I was going to show those pictures to a co-worker. Imagine my surprise when everything looked green and the houses were all lined up again.

[annabanana]

16. Kicking out of sheer aggravation. . . n/t