Drapetomaniac

I’m sure some will chalk google’s censorship of certain words in their new instant search up to “political correctness“, but those same people cry the same phrase when they stub their toe and the world doesn’t bow down to them to confirm their toe was entitled not to be stubbed.

I chalk it up more to the attitude of schools who censor religion in violation of the law, because they are afraid of the law. They buy into rhetoric about what the law actually says instead of reading anything basic on it, and end up trampling on freedoms and losing their shirts in lawsuits over it.

The Huffington Post had a slide show showing the most ridiculous words censored and I noticed Latina was among the words instant search on Google would not return results for.  It is included among “other” profanities.

Some might think this is automatic, but most machine learning requires a level of human intervention.

I’m uploading to HuffPost the following slide, showing Google censoring the word Negro but not Jungle Bunny.

Google censors negro but not jungle bunny

Google is in the information business and inserted itself into the middle of moral decisions in the search for information.

Instead of adding value as a business or information partner, they make a global display of their incompetence to monitor morality or information.

One of my favorite classes in school included the text “Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks” about Black image in film.  All of those terms, by the way, come with suggestions and spelling corrections in Google.

I could read into the fact they will not search Negro, whiel offering to finish spelling variations of mulattos with results – but I won’t.

So, if you’re looking for Jungle Bunnies and Coons, Google is your tool.  Otherwise, Bing can help you with Latina (like the magazine) and Negro like the League).

You can press enter and search on Google, of course, but they are trying to train us to prefer the instant search.  The alternative is they don’t want us to prefer the feature…

Related articles by Zemanta

• Which Words Does Google Instant Blacklist? [LIST] (mashable.com)
• Google Publishes Censorship Map (yro.slashdot.org)

Imagine you want to vote and you tell me who you want to vote for. I repeat it back to you and then write something down in to places. If it’s disputed, I will take what I wrote down (whatever I wrote down) and print it out with all the others from the day. This is what Travis County in Texas considers “triple redundancy” and very secure.

Q: Some computer experts claim that there is no way to audit the vote without a paper trail? Does this system have paper backup?

A: This system provides voters with confidence that their vote will be counted as they intended. First, the voting device provides each voter with a summary of all votes, alerting the voter of any skipped races, and allowing the voter to make changes. The voter has visual confirmation that the vote was cast exactly as intended. To ensure the votes are recorded correctly, the system is publicly tested and validated before, during, after each election to ensure that votes are counted and reported as they are cast. There are many security features designed to test procedures, equipment and software. Finally, the system can print out all Cast Vote Records should that be required for a recount.
http://www.co.travis.tx.us/county_clerk/election/eSlate/faq.asp

The only thing I know when I cast my ballot is that the screen in front of me showed me what I put in. I have no idea what was actually recorded. And if there is a problem, they seem to indicate they are only printing out the problem…

Here is a description of what an election monitor observed in Venezuela. They have visual confirmation of the face of their candidate,the results are sent to a remote place as well, they vote electronically, visually see their paper ballot repeating their results and they place it in to a box (I believe with their thumbprint). Hands are also marked to prevent multiple vote attempts. After the vote, more than 50% of voting machines are audited (others recommend 3%).

I do think there are politicians who think it will be in the best interest to control the vote – time of war, criticial junction in the war on terror, etc. And while I do believe it may happen occasionally, I’m not on the bandwagon to say it’s an all out conspiracy. The problem with joining the full conspiracy camp is that when your candidate wins, you look foolish and it makes it more difficult to argue there are problems. It’s like arguing against the death penalty when you have a genocidal rapist as your poster child. You tend to lower your voice during those executions a bit.

What does concern me is the apathy by our elected official over the election process. It’s not impractical to print paper – we did it for centuries. If apathy is the rule, then we will see a day when large scale fraud is carried out and there will be nothign to be done about it – if anyone notices.

Anyway – this morning, voting in Precinct 248 in Travis County, I arrived 10 minutes before polls opened. I couldn’t vote until an hour later because the machines weren’t setup and/or working. As a voter, all I know is the machines weren’t working or an hour and I was one of the first dozen to use the machines after that.

Should I hope my vote was recorded?

ps – I hope the lady who discussed her bowel issues in great detail behind me in line for an hour feels better.

I’m met several people who aren’t too sure what water boarding is. Gnooze.com (The G is silent) is one of my daily news sources. It’s like a 2 minute Daily Show. Marta Costello has some brief visual aides for those still wondering what it is and if it’s torture.