Category: Uncategorized

Google have been forced to apologise (to the public? to Michelle?) for a search result. Apparently when one googles an image search for “Mrs Obama” one of the pictures in the resultant search is racially offensive. BBC reported that Google “apologised” for the result but what Google did is not exactly an apology. In fact what happens now when you search “Mrs Obama” in Google Images is that one of the paid ads above the search links to Offensive Search Results. If you click on that link Google provides this “explanation of our search results”:

Sometimes Google search results from the Internet can include disturbing content, even from innocuous queries. We assure you that the views expressed by such sites are not in any way endorsed by Google.

Search engines are a reflection of the content and information that is available on the Internet. A site’s ranking in Google’s search results relies heavily on computer algorithms using thousands of factors to calculate a page’s relevance to a given query.

The beliefs and preferences of those who work at Google, as well as the opinions of the general public, do not determine or impact our search results. Individual citizens and public interest groups do periodically urge us to remove particular links or otherwise adjust search results. Although Google reserves the right to address such requests individually, Google views the integrity of our search results as an extremely important priority. Accordingly, we do not remove a page from our search results simply because its content is unpopular or because we receive complaints concerning it. We will, however, remove pages from our results if we believe the page (or its site) violates our Webmaster Guidelines, if we believe we are required to do so by law, or at the request of the webmaster who is responsible for the page.

We apologize if you’ve had an upsetting experience using Google. We hope you understand our position regarding offensive results.

Sincerely,
The Google Team

It’s an interesting take on the responsibility for information carried within search engine results. Some would argue that forcing Google to remove the offending result from its results would be ridiculous. After all, all that the search engine does (or claims to do) is provide a faithful reproduction of the most popular sites that contain the information that the searcher is seeking. As Google states, even the most innocuous of queries could result in disturbing results. Even in that moral backwater that is Malta jokes about googling “pussy” have made it to the mainstream of mass entertainment that is panto (a forum where we tend to conveniently put aside our scruples just for Christmastime).

Even if we make an effort to avoid lawspeak and examine the issue with the purely deontological approach much favoured by islanders, I do find that Google could have  a case here. The issue would only become a bit more complicated if we were to factor in the question of whether or not Google’s “computer algorithms using thousands of factors to calculate a page’s relevance to a given query” include an algorithm related to payments made to Google in order to move up the search result ladder.

Interestingly the fact that Google has not removed the offensive picture plays on the big brother, voyeurist bug that affects everybody. It means that people who read the BBC article (and others) will immediately google “Mrs Obama” to find out what this is all about. Yes, that includes you.

Big Brother is controlling your search habits.

I spent a day in Brussels this week, mostly lounging around the cafes and eating very homely Italian food while my better half was busy submitting to the exertions of European civil service examinations. Regular readers of J’accuse will be no strangers to my dislike of the city that boasts of being Europe’s capital. I confirm that Brussels is still filthy, its transport is still impossible and there is still not much to charm you into coming back again and again.

Yet I am cursed. Fate seems to throw up the occasional appointment in the city that never ceases to stink and I am therefore condemned to submit to the trials and tribulations that accompany such journeys. To be fair to the city of pissing boys and magnified atoms, much of the blame for my discomfort this time around lay squarely on my knee. The previous weeks’ exertions in the five-a-side football league had proven too much for the assortment of fibulas, tibulas, patellae, quadriceps et al and I was therefore obliged to limp around the smog-infested jungle.

Never mind the kneecaps then, and while I waited with bated breath for the (hopefully) positive outcome of the orals and writtens, I got to meet a number of colleagues and fellow bloggers over a variety of (Belgian) coffees. It’s not like there was nothing to talk about – within two days the European Union would be choosing its first ever President and High Representative – and there was the small matter of who would ultimately make it as Maltese EU commissioner. Would Joe Borg be confirmed? Would another suitably qualified personality be suggested for the post? Or would the Maltese government, like others before it, use the nomination to exile a personality who has become an uncomfortable presence at home? In other words would Malta have its own Mandelson?

At 18.48 Le Monde broke the news. Herman Van Rompuy (Belgium) was designated as the first “President of the EU” while Catherine Ashton (UK) is to be the first High Representative for Foreign Affairs. The Council meeting was widely expected to last into the early hours of morning so the sudden announcement comes as a surprise. As I type (1900) the (TV) BBC is still running a speculative piece that mentions both Rompuy and Ashton as favourites. So are Europe’s first President and High Representative for Foreign Affairs the result of Europe’s greatest quickie?

To be continued. (Refresh page regularly)

UPDATE #1: RTBF Sat (Belgian) TV is still speaking of Van Rompuy as a good candidate and not as a president.

UPDATE #2: It appears that the Irish Prime Minister is raising the Henry Handball issue with Sarkozy during tonight’s meeting. (BBC) Sarkozy has urged the Irish government to keep out of football.

UPDATE #3: Although still using cautious term “to propose” EURONEWS scroll states “EU Presidency to propose Belgian PM Herman Van Rompuy as EU President and British EU Commissioner Catherine Ashton as Foreign Policy Chief – EU Diplomats”. Somehow you suspect that this could be a pre-emptive media measure announcing the choice as a fait accompli before the actual decision is taken. No big surprises if this whole media Breaking News business is part of the wheeling and dealing.

UPDATE #4: Le Mondejust included the article announcing the appointment on their website: click here.

UPDATE #5: BBCWORLD update (TV) Sweden has formally proposed Herman Van Rompuy as first President.

UPDATE #6: Spare a thought for the Kingdom of Belgium – rudderless once again if their PM is whisked off to the head of the Union.

UPDATE #7:  BBCWORLD has announced the appointment as official (although they still use the terms “it appears”) – they’ve just added a roundup of main headlines and are still describing Van Rompuy as frontrunner (we still think the French cheated their way to South Africa)

UPDATE #8: EURONEWS enroll expert Piotr Kaczynski to commenton choices. The interview is on the lines of “unconfirmed reports”. Kaczyinski comments that Ashton would be a weak choice since she has not previously filled the post of Foreign Minister. Ashton is in all probability a good bureaucrat but will she be a good political leader? As for Van Rompuy.. does Kissinger finally get his answer?

—END— MORE TOMORROW–

Dedicated to that hideous excuse for a national coach that is Domenech. Here’s to hoping that the Irish manage to overturn the 1-0 deficit by outmanoeuvering Domenech’s side. We’re still in full Scorpio swing and as everybody who has followed the hopeless coach’s antics knows, he has a particular antipathy for that sign. All the more reason to cheer Traps XI! Go Ireland.

Jack the chaperone leaves for BXL this afternoon and will stay there till tomorrow night. I’m essentially chaperoning the missus as she sits for the last of her fonctionnaire exams (fingers crossed) so I won’t have much to do in the city I love to hate. Which explains this post. Anybody out in BXL willing to share a tea (coffee is horrible in BXL) somewhere around the Rond Pont Schumann just give me a ring – I’ll just be reading books in cafes all morning while the lady sweats it away.

my number (add Lux prefix) is six six one one one one nine seven five

(that should have screwed the spammers)

This article and accompanying Bertoon (click to enlarge in Flickr) appear in today’s Malta Independent on Sunday.

This week’s news highlight tells us that not many Maltese are really in favour of having a lesbian Prime Minister. Also, they’d rather have a Roman Catholic head honcho than one of any other particular faith (I wonder what they would make of a Blairite conversion at the end of the mandate). Once we are talking preferences, it also transpires that we’d rather go for the paler sort of grey when it comes to skin colour – and yes, we do constantly labour under the illusion that we are a Catholic, Latin bunch so much so that we’d rather be led by a leader in our own image (or in that of our mind’s eye) than any other deviant.

That’s just “brill” isn’t it? Just as you were despairing at the incapacity of the Maltese electorate to develop the sort of selective taste that moves beyond partisan parochialism, you are bitch-slapped in the face by a Eurobarometer survey condemning the nation of troglodytes to eternal damnation in the circle of the hypocritically conservative, where there is constant gnashing of teeth and people are bombarded with repeat recordings of tasteless jokes about “fags, faggots and other sorts of homophobia”. (In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve decided to up the ante on the vocab in my articles in order to hitch a ride on the sensational success that rudewordery has around these parts. And yes, I invented “rudewordery”, but if Carroll can have a “jabberwocky” then I can have a “rudewordery”.)

So it is little consolation to know that the majority of the population would be OK with a person of the weaker sex (see that not so subtle deliberate provocation there? Quick write a letter to the Indy) were she to take up office in Castile. The results of the survey should come as no surprise really. When it comes to views on ethnic origin and religious persuasion, all you need to do is to take a quick look at the lyrics of the official hymn of that tolerant party in power and you will find the lovely phrase “ta’ Kattolci, ta’ Latini, Maltin veri nahilfuh” (as Catholics and as Latins, we do swear this as true Maltese). The implication is clear: the true Maltese is Catholic and Latin (Latin? stop laughing at the back) and that’s why Lawrence Gonzi is not gay, black or a Mormon (and Paula Mifsud Bonnici is not a lesbian).