On Saturday, The News Observer out of North Carolina reported that a Google search for Republican state Senator Trudy Wade was returning a photo of the senator in the Knowledge Panel (the box on the right hand side of the search results) that had the word “bigot” on it. After the story made national news, Google apologized, and said this photo was showing up because the engine was grabbing a photo posted by a man named Matt Comer. This all happened just a few days after Google was criticized for including the word “nazism,” under the “Ideology” description in…
Celebrate similarity
In 2002, during a performance of “Anna Stesia”, Prince said, “‘We should champion our diversity…’ Ha!” “We should champion our similarities. We should meet on a higher level. Instead of looking at white, black… rich, poor… young, old… Differences. Differences. ‘Diversity.’ Let’s meet somewhere higher.” You can’t get through a week without seeing a “celebrate diversity” sign or hearing someone talking about the importance of diversity. It’s never made any sense to me. Why aren’t we celebrating the things we have in common? The things that unite us? People keep trying to break us down into groups: white, black,…
The minty taste of victory
The kid and I have taken to playing backgammon. After a marathon session of games, we were looking for ways to liven it up. We decided to dive into our stash of Mint M&M’s (you should always store at least 10-15 bags from their Christmas season availability so you have them throughout the year), and use them in place of the regular game pieces. Nothing makes victory taste so good as eating the game pieces as you take them off the board. And to add even more variety, you can vary the colors: The only downside is that once…
Don’t consider the source
Consider the content of what is being said. Considering the source is one of the greatest wedges dividing our society. It allows us to avoid the merits of an idea by destroying the reputation of the source. Instead of stopping and considering the idea or information being shared, people are becoming way too quick to dismiss what they’re hearing because of who’s saying it. Think what you want of Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton (just to pick two examples), but there’s a reason they say the things they say and do the things they do. (And you’re not them,…