At 35 years old, I can happily say I have a hero for the first time in my life. P!nk, keep doing you, you are an inspiration to us all. As someone with a tattoo on her right forearm, where the whole world can see it, of Gandhi’s “Be the change you wish to see in the world,” I can safely say that you are changing the world for the better.Here’s to us. Here’s to us following your lead and realizing the world isn’t quite as black and white as gay vs straight or black vs white — may we all find the P!nk in the world.
Gilmore Oil’s Gas-A-Teria, One of the First Self Serve Gas Stations in Los Angeles, 1948 ~ vintage everyday
My friends at Google: it is time to return to not being evil
I have known Google longer than most. At Opera, we were the first to add their search into the browser interface, enabling it directly from the search box and the address field. At that time, Google was an up-and-coming geeky company. I remember vividly meeting with Google’s co-founder Larry Page, his relaxed dress code and his love for the Danger device, which he played with throughout our meeting. Later, I met with the other co-founder of Google, Sergey Brin, and got positive vibes. My first impression of Google was that it was a likeable company.
Our cooperation with Google was a good one. Integrating their search into Opera helped us deliver a better service to our users and generated revenue that paid the bills. We helped Google grow, along with others that followed in our footsteps and integrated Google search into their browsers.
However, then things changed. Google increased their proximity with the Mozilla foundation. They also introduced new services such as Google Docs. These services were great, gained quick popularity, but also exposed the darker side of Google. Not only were these services made to be incompatible with Opera, but also encouraged users to switch their browsers. I brought this up with Sergey Brin, in vain. For millions of Opera users to be able to access these services, we had to hide our browser’s identity. The browser sniffing situation only worsened after Google started building their own browser, Chrome.
Now, we are making the Vivaldi browser. It is based on Chromium, an open-source project, led by Google and built on WebKit and KHTML. Using Google’s services should not call for any issues, but sadly, the reality is different. We still have to hide our identity when visiting services such as Google Docs.
And now things have hit a new low.
As the biggest online advertising company in the world, Google is often the first choice for businesses that want to promote their products or services on the Internet. Being excluded from using Google AdWords could be a major problem, especially for digital companies.
Recently, our Google AdWords campaigns were suspended without warning. This was the second time that I have encountered this situation. This time, however, timing spoke volumes.
I had several interviews where I voiced concerns about the data gathering and ad targeting practices – in particular, those of Google and Facebook. They collect and aggregate far too much personal information from their users. I see this as a very serious, democracy-threatening problem, as the vast targeting opportunities offered by Google and Facebook are not only good for very targeted marketing, but also for tailored propaganda. The idea of the Internet turning into a battlefield of propaganda is very far away from the ideal.
Two days after my thoughts were published in an article by Wired, we found out that all the campaigns under our Google AdWords account were suspended – without prior warning. Was this just a coincidence? Or was it deliberate, a way of sending us a message?
When we reached out to Google to resolve the issue, we got a clarification masqueraded in the form of vague terms and conditions, some of which, they admitted themselves, were not a “hard” requirement. In exchange for being reinstated in Google’s ad network, their in-house specialists dictated how we should arrange content on our own website and how we should communicate information to our users.
We made effort to understand their explanations and to work with them on their various unreasonable demands (some of which they don’t follow themselves, by the way). After almost three months of back-and-forth, the suspension to our account has been lifted, but only when we bent to their requirements.
A monopoly both in search and advertising, Google, unfortunately, shows that they are not able to resist the misuse of power. I am saddened by this makeover of a geeky, positive company into the bully they are in 2017. I feel blocking competitors on thin reasoning lends credence to claims of their anti-competitive practices. It is also fair to say that Google is now in a position where regulation is needed. I sincerely hope that they’ll get back to the straight and narrow.
It Is Not All Religion | salamamoussa
The Fatwa Kiosks are not a harmless bit of nonsense. They are a manifestation of a deeper problem behind Egypt’s recent stagnation and social divisions. There is the widely held belief that religion, appropriately defined, is the solution to many, if not most, ills. The evidence for that belief is scant, and most of it points to the opposite. In his time in Parliament, former President Morsi, thundered against corruption and when running for president claimed that it can all be cured by appointing the pious to office. During his short term the men of his party came ready to grab with both fists in a time-honored, but hardly religious, attitude of “my turn now”. Preachers long urged women to cover up in order not to excite men’s passions. But a woman walking the hot streets of Cairo in the summer of 1967 in a flimsy sun dress could do so unmolested. Today her granddaughter, fully sealed in flowing garments, will all too often run a gauntlet of sexual harassment.
For Italians With Disabilities, a Place in the Sun – The New York Times
Cambodia Daily shuts with ‘dictatorship’ parting shot at prime minister Hun Sen | World news | The Guardian
English-language newspaper had a reputation for breaking news about sensitive topics such as corruption and environmental issues
The Papaya Salmonella (4 kinds!) outbreak continues
Ahhhh! Globalization and Industrialized Agriculture
The CDC tracking of the papaya outbreak continues, with a score of
All foodborne illness outbreaks are devastating for victims but fascinating for investigators, since each is different.
This investigation has traced the illness-causing Salmonella to one kind of papaya (Maridol, under Caribeña, Cavi, and Valery brands) to one Mexican farm (Carica de Campeche).
But four Salmonella strains have been found in papaya samples and in ill people:
- Kiambu
- Thompson
- Agona
- Gaminara
The shift from one to another is evident in the epi curve:
The moral:
- Don’t buy Maridol papayas.
- If you have one, throw it away (but be careful not to cross contaminate surfaces)
- If you don’t know where the papaya was grown, don’t eat it
If you are interested in the legal implications, check Bill Marler’s website.
Could Caroline Kennedy be the baggage-free Hillary Clinton? | New York Post
After three years as US ambassador to Japan, Caroline Kennedy is coming home to New York and has big plans: a political run and penning a memoir, Kennedy insiders tell The Post.“Caroline had a
Source: Could Caroline Kennedy be the baggage-free Hillary Clinton? | New York Post
Trump to scrap protection for ‘Dreamers’, give Congress six months to fix
Typical of a dolt who doesn’t have a clue about the job he is supposed to be doing #TraitorTrumP WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump has decided to scrap a program shielding immigrants who came to the United States illegally as children from deportation but will give Congress six months to craft a bill to replace it, sources familiar with the situation said.
Calhoun Who? Yale Drops Name of Slavery Advocate for Computer Pioneer
A residential college named for a proponent of white supremacy will be rededicated to Rear Adm. Grace Hopper, a computer programmer.












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