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Google Honors Veterans Day, Finally
theodp writes "It took nearly a decade, but Google has done a turnabout and is honoring Veterans Day with a special holiday design for its famous logo. Users who log onto Google's home page are greeted with three World War I-era helmets capping the letters 'o' and 'e' in Google's name. The decoration is a marked departure for the company, which has come under fire from veterans' groups for ignoring American holidays such as Veterans Day and Memorial Day since Google's inception in 1999."
There needs to be a moderation system for editors.
) Human Kind Vs Human Creation
) It'd be interesting to see how many humans would survive to serve us.
I thought that part of the point of Google's honorary logos was that the holidays had to be:
1. Completely obscure and unheard of
or
2. A MAJOR (American) holiday
I don't understand why anyone would actively attack them over not including this particular one..
p.s. first?
-- lol pwned
couldn't we have picked a better source for the info? Yes, Google acknowledges Remembrance Day in Canada (as pointed out in this blog/whatever), but that doesn't mean they have to acknowledge Veterans/Memorial Day. Am I glad they did it? Sure. Do I believe they have to? No. Does World Net Daily have to go off on how Google is supposedly left leaning? Umm...no. I got to this part, and threw up a little in my mouth and called it a day.
"In addition, the company came under fire for an editorial decision giving preferential placement to large, elite media outlets such as CNN and the BBC over independent news sources, such as WND, even if they are more recent, pertinent and exhaustive in their coverage."
Who bloody cares? And "elite" media outlets? WTF does that mean? Independent news sources? How is the BBC not an independent news source? And what does this have to do with acknowledging Veterans Day? I would have preferred they simply said "Those commie pinkos in Silicon Valley aren't red blooded Americans for supporting Veterans." What a bunch of crap.
While it's amazing that this story is newsworthy... it's worth taking a look at the bigger picture: people take notice at Google's logo changes because they've kept an uncluttered appearance. On most websites, you probably wouldn't even notice a small logo change!
In general, the so-called Web2.0 revolution has brought about much more single-purpose tools, compared to the multi-tools of the past. This leads to deeper functional design and performance, instead of deep integration (which is only slowly coming along thanks to mashup-enabling technologies).
The message is clear: web designers, get to the point! Don't distract your users. Make every word and every image count.
--
NerdKits: Educational microcontroller kits for the digital generation.
Do these same veterans groups attack Yahoo, MSN, and Altavista for not decorating their logos with militaria on Veteran's Day? This is a non-news post about a bunch of whiners if you ask me. Google's decoration can be purely voluntary and random for all I care. --As a USMC veteran to all the whiners, shut up.
should read:
World Nut Daily are a bunch of kooks, with a knife to grind. Getting listed in google news was a wet dream for them. Getting delisted ('cause they aint a news site), really pissed them off. They've had an anti-google axe to grind ever since.
There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
- Fantastic! Google has had its head up its search engine for more than 7 years!
- I'm glad to see the change of heart, and I'll use Google more often
- I still have major gripes with Google, but at least this is a small step in the right direction
- Looks like someone reminded people at Google they live in the U.S. and enjoy freedoms soldiers have shed blood fighting for
- 1 lonely logo for veterans since 1999? Whoopidy-freakin-doo!
- Google's logos are irrelevant
- Google only did it to get WND off its back
- Must have been the new guy who did the design. He's not hip to the anti-American company rules yet
- Google is still evil, and must be shunned at all costs
- Other
And I RTFA'd too. No, these people don't have any sort of bias against the Googles. . . Put this WorldNetDaily.com on your list of propaganda websites that are too stupid to even try to appear objective.Then they should title the image "Armistice Day" instead of "Veterans Day," just for that added pinch of spite (and for the sake of historical accuracy).
"There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge." - Bertrand Russell.
I'm not going to defend Google from the position of a fan, but only to say how I would feel if I were in that same position.
If I had to design logos for my company based on holiday themes, what do you think I would do when I came across Veteran's Day? I can't think of any appropriate way to symbolize veterans without displaying something explicitly national or military. The holiday doesn't really have any symbols other than American flags and stuff, and that's not too great for public relations as I'm showcasing a particular country's role in a major war. War means killing people. Lots of people. Lots of people whose dead relatives and ancestors (on the other side of the conflict) are now customers of mine.
Personally, I'd want to sweep this one under the rug. Google couldn't do that because of all the bad press it was getting, so they finally drew some army helmets. Sure, it's military equipment, but at least helmets save lives and rarely (if ever) end them. Also, the green little helmet doesn't have to identify any single nation, even though it's an American holiday.
I am a recent United States Navy Disabled Veteran, I was very happy to see this little design.
Most people think veterans day is just "another day", but to the people serving in the military, and fighting for your rights, it means a lot. Each and every time I see anything that honors veterans, it really makes my day.
Shit, I cry during the National Anthem and the Pledge because, as a former military member, those words really do mean a lot more to me.
What if I would DEMAND that Google also include the Dutch "Queen's day" for the rest of the world to see? That wouldn't make sense at all. But at least it's not as insensitive as rubbing salt into the wounds of Iraqi or Afghan or Vietnamese or Japanese people who visit Google (and the list will keep growing for a while). I'm sure those people will be thrilled to know that the killers of their lost family are being honored on this special day. If you actually check, google is only putting this out on the US version of the site, ie www.google.com a quick look at www.google.co.uk will clearly show the helmets are not there.
Try doing some research before making stupid demands to the search engine gods.
Most world war 1 vetrans would slap the crap out of these people for whining.. They died to defend our right to freedom.
And then they would slap the crap out of the rest of us for letting our country turn into the clusterfuck it is today.
I am ashamed you are a countryman of mine. Iraq back then was part of the Ottoman empire, so didn't even exist back then. Japan was on the "allied" site. Vietnam was a french colony, so on the same side as the US (when the americans finally got involved).
The 11th of november is remembered in the western nations that took part in WW1, this includes the US, canada, great britian, france and belgium at least. It is NOT a US day. It is also not a celebrations, it is a remembrance of those who died. Not a glorification of killing but a rememberance of the loss.
It is similar to our 4th of may, we remember those who died, ALL who died, in conflict. This includes those on the other side. No we do not lay reefs at site of nazi war criminals, but the graves of german soldiers are tended too and they too are remembered.
Frankly most soldiers from these past wars have learned to forgive but never forget, they can talk with their former enemies, why can't you get over it.
As for google displaying a bit of pride in the US, it is a US site. Let the afghans and iraqies and anyone else with a beef against the US go on their own internet and use their own search engines.
As a dutch person surely you must have noticed how everything turns orange around queens day? How should people from Suriname feel about that? Enslaved by dutch forces, to pay for the dutch empire, about this day?
Start looking a little closer at home before you start blaming other countries.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
This holiday is actually the anniversary of the end of WWI. It is celebrated in several countries as armistice day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armistice_Day. The Google logo was quite appropriate for this. If the USA want to celebrate their veterans that day, fine, but that's no reason to forget the origin of the holiday. To us in Belgium it's a holiday about peace, not about war (or those who wage it).
Looks to me like people are remembering the wrong thing. On November 11, one should commemorate fallen soldiers. But one should also remember the political and social issues that caused millions to die in WWI and WWII in the first place, the international cooperation it took to win in those conflicts, and the dangers of right wing populism, nationalism, and militarism.
It seems to me those lessons are getting lost, in particular among the right wing nuts that complain about Google not having a special logo for Veterans Day.
Let's just make sure that everyone gets that before this goes too far. It's also the work of one man, so let's not go pretending that it's an authority on anything.
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of disappointed shells that dropped behind.
GAS! Gas! Quick, boys!-- An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And floundering like a man in fire or lime.--
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,--
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.
1) Debate the message, not the messenger.
2) Someone who advocates raping and murdering others because they don't like their pollitical opinions has no business calling someone else "insane" or "fascist". Hint: that would be you, Chuckles.
I could not care less about Vetereans day - and I'm an American USMC veteran (six years active duty, combat, got all the fruit salad to wear, thanks...). A Federal Day off (in the US) is worth nothing to me. I would be happy if the civilian leadership (that's you, voters) would bother to learn from history and maybe learn about the world outside the US borders, so there might be fewer Vets in need of remembrance or memorial and more walking around pulling air and enjoying the good life we seem to take for granted and by right.
/Rant
Why should Google placing a helmet or other cartoon on their home page mean anything, and why should I care?
Sorry, it is *that* day.
It's a fairly big day in the UK. In New Zealand, it's still traditional to have a minute's silence at 11am, often done in schools. There are other days to remember, but this is a pretty big one. WWI, in some ways, was a bigger lesson for humanity than WWII. It showed us that with the technology we've developed, no one truly wins when two or more big powers square off against each other. Until then, declaring war against other large powers for no real other reason than to prove your own power was commonplace.
We learnt a lot more lessons from WWII (about what happens when a major power is backed into a corner), and from the Cold War (the fact that there was never a direct war between the two major powers involved shows we *are* learning, albeit slowly). Days like Nov 11th are there to help us remember these lessons, so we don't make the same mistake twice. In a lot of countries, these lessons are "rolled up" into one day, e.g in New Zealand, Anzac Day (25th April) is used to recognise all major wars NZ has been involved in, even though it was originally a WWI rememberance day.
The fact that it's almost 100 years ago since these lessons were first learnt is even *more* reason for us to try to work hard to remember them.
+1
Too many people have picked their sides in this growing civil war and could care less about the truth because it might be reported on a conservative or liberal source. What's laughable is many then claim to be "moderate." "Oh I'm not a Democrat or Republican. I just want the truth!" Yeah right. This is getting out of hand. If I'm for lower taxes I have to choose Republican. If I'm for gay rights I have to be Democrat. Oh and if I'm gay and a Republican I risk being outed by gay Democrats. What is it that we want? Split the country? Looks like we could be headed that way.
Socialism and National Socialism are completely opposite ideologies. Calling yourself a "socialist" in Hitler's Germany got you a one way ticket to prison - if you were lucky. National Socialism is an ideology based upon racial superiority. Socialism is an ideology based upon working cooperatively rather than in competition.
Here are some other helpful things to know:
The last of these is particularly important, especially if you're the kind of person who believes that socialism and national socialism resemble one another in some way. You will not "save money" by using your own poo to wash your hair.
I hope this helps,
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
Socialism and National Socialism are completely opposite ideologies.
... ahem ... acquired.
That is entirely black-and-white thinking to say that socialism and the Nazi idology are "completely opposite" ideologies. Only a Nazi or a Communist would say such a thing, since both of then were fighting each other for who would be the totalitarian slave-lord of Europe. Do you think "slavery" is too harsh a term to describe the Communists? Read the Gulag Archipeligo and get informed as to who performed the work in the GULAG (what was a "zek"?) and how they were
In truth, both the Nazi ideology and the Communist ideology are anti-individual and thus evil ideologies which deserve to be utterly destroyed. I demand nothing less than complete and unconditional surrender from both of them.
If you hate individualism, then you'll probably see my last comment as somewhat extreme. In that case, you would be a prime candidate for Nazi/Communist proselytizing.
I don't make the rules. I just make fun of them.
Excessive guilt-by-association with a bonus condoning of "evil"?
First, I'm not slamming him for being associated with "progressives". I'm saying that "progressivism" itself is evil.
Second, you mis-used the world "condone". It means "to overlook". And I am certainly NOT doing that.
honestly, you're just as bad as that which you purport to 'cast out'.
First, I notice that you are castigating me for criticizing the "progressive" instead of objecting to what the parent wrote. Shall I assume that you approve of all of the "progressive" things which were written?
Second, how do you judge me "just as bad" as that which I cast out? Namely, where did I espouse the things for which I judged him evil?
if lumping everyone you disagree with under some stupid insulting banner is bad in the parent post, it's just as bad when you do it too.
I am not "lumping everyone I disagree with" under a stupid insulting banner. I am objecting to:
1. The overuse of profanity
2. The abuse of the word "fascist"
3. Expressing violence and wishing for murder
4. Excessive guilt-by-associating
5. Condoning of rape -- I take it back. He wasn't merely "condoning". He was actively wishing that someone be violently raped.
All of those were expressed in the parent post, and I see all of those and much more in most "progressive" writing today. I think that "progressivism" stands for all five of those things, and thus "progressivism" is evil. If you disagree, then please explain where I've gone wrong, you who saw no reason to object to what the parent poster wrote.
I don't make the rules. I just make fun of them.
What we have here is a pissing contest between people who are deeply impressed with how "smart" they are. Can you do math quickly? Probably. Do you have an extraordinary memory? Almost certainly. Are you great a puzzles? Indubitably.....
So, when these two geniuses disagree, the argument is "I'm pretty sure I'm much, MUCH smarter than you are", followed by "I'm pretty sure you're not".
That is pathetic.
That is also a great demonstration that someone who is extraordinarily "smart" isn't necessarily wise or admirable.