Does Google = God? 294
lgreco writes "In an op/ed for the NYT, Thomas Friedman wonders "Is Google God?" Interesting article that disseminates things mostly known to and hopefully well understood by the Slashdot readership. The fact that such commentary made it to the NYT op/ed pages is remarkable." It's the NYT, so a free registration is required.
Karma whore coming through.... (Score:0, Informative)
User: freepass
Password: freepass
Re:Google IS God (Score:4, Informative)
the broken link ware useless, anyway, so try here [google.com]
sorry for any confusion caused.
Article via CNN (Score:5, Informative)
This is a fluff article. (Score:5, Informative)
Google Search (Score:4, Informative)
some of the winners:
Google is God, Don't Piss Her Off
All Things Spiritual - Home of Google God! Pictures of Angels
Cold Fury: Good God Google
and last but not least: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Panopticon [oreillynet.com]
Summary (Score:5, Informative)
I thought this article was supposed to be about Google and God, but it was more about wi-fi and how wi-fi combined with Google will allow you to "find anything, anywhere, anytime". But it THEN goes on about how broadband adoption will allow al-Qaeda will be able to more easily send recruitment videos using video-on-demand. Of course, it mentions 9/11, as expected. It also says that America has to take "it" seriously. Oh, and it states a couple of interesting statistics. Yay. There, now you don't need to RTFA.
Re:Google IS God (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Is Thomas Friedman a simplistic hack? (Score:5, Informative)
One thing you must understand about Friedman is that he is a journalist originally schooled in Middle-Eastern studies, who served as a correspondant to Lebanon during the Beirut war, and as a correspondant to Israel during the first Intifadah. These reports earned him two Pulitzer prizes during the 1980s, and are summarized in From Beirut to Jerusalem. Quite simply, it is a excellently-crafted book which has deep insights into the mindsets of the Middle Eastern peoples, developed over years of education and years more direct first-hand reporting experience during some of the most tumultous events in the Middle East in recent history. (Not that the book is without its limitations; many times his own bias as an American Jew shows through. But it is still excellent.)
Since that time, Friedman has been moved out of Middle Eastern reporting, and has gone on to other duties at the NYT. From that reporting came his two most recent books, including The Lexus and the Olive Tree. His insights in these works are not as near as deep as in From Beirut to Jerusalem, and I did not care for them much at all.
However, you are completely off-base if you think that Friedman is a hack. In essenece, you are taking quotes completely out of context, and seem to forget that pages and pages of interpretation and elucidation surround those flashy quotes. To take another example, in From Beirut to Jerusalem, he describes his first-hand witness of the aftermath of the massacre at Hama in Syria, where Assad slaughtered tens of thousands of his own people. (A story he broke, incidentally, as the first international correspondent to arrive at the scene.) In 30 pages of text, he describes in great detail the historical background of modern-day Syria, leading up to the slaughter at Hama, and his own first-hand account of what he saw there. His punchline -- describing the rules of Middle Eastern politics as "Hama Rules" or "no rules at all", is a distinctive stylistic flourish to summarize a concept, based in fact and in interpretation. One may dispute the universality of such claims, but in no way can one dispute the strength of Friedman's knowledge of the history of the region.
When the insight is deep (as is often the case in his writing on the Middle East), then the impact of the writing can be powerful indeed. In the case of his more recent writings, where he is (as he himself admits) writing as a non-expert, the impact is far less substantial.
Re:Hitchikers Guide 2 Galaxy (Score:5, Informative)
Be sure to check out an Entry for Earth [bbc.co.uk].
Many thanks to the BBC for keeping this running.
Cartoon about Friedman and Google (Score:3, Informative)