Google News Has Russian Army Invading Savannah, GA 413
theodp writes "If you checked out Google-wannabe Cuil, you learned that mapping search results to relevant images isn't a trivial task. But even Big Dog Google isn't immune to embarrassing graphics gaffes. Readers of Google News were shown that Russian troops are thrusting into the outskirts of Savannah, Georgia, thanks to the Google Maps graphic accompanying a story about Russian incursions into Georgia — the nation-state in the Caucasus, not the Caucasian-pride-ridden state in the southern US. Yahoo! Answers also had some fun with the GA-Georgia mix-up — 'I live in georegia but i dont see rusia no where not even sound but they says theres tanks should i be worrie' (Google cache) — before a spoilsport deleted the question."
War (Score:3, Insightful)
What's so funny about an illegal war? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:What's so funny about an illegal war? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What's so funny about an illegal war? (Score:2, Insightful)
Right out there with the Western oh-so-sanctimonious "outrage" at Serbs opposing the Kosovars declaring independence from Serbia. What's good for the goose...
Re:What's so funny about an illegal war? (Score:2, Insightful)
Who put the humor tag on this story? Where's the outrage against Russia's invasion of a sovereign country?
Well, there isn't any way to blame Bush/Cheney/Haliburton/Exxon/Israel/Hitler so no one cares.
No strong condemnation at the UN, no strong condemnation from the "progressive" European capitals either - they're too busy praising the Obamassiah.
Re:What's so funny about an illegal war? (Score:5, Insightful)
Why should all of us be outraged at goings on in the Russian Empire?
Such outrage would be predicated on our individual relationship to the region, if we had a dog in that fight, which side that dog was on, and how much we cared about that dog vs. others.
I, for example, consider that the Ossetia mess will do useful damage to Russia and might wake up a few Europeans to the reality that the Russian is still their historic enemy.
I'm not "outraged" because I figure the Georgian leadership rolled the dice and should have expected a possible negative outcome. (Next time, collapse the Roki tunnel!) I am interested.
Editorializing in summary? (Score:5, Insightful)
Caucasian-pride-ridden state in the southern U.S
I am actually quite amazed that /. would put such an inflamatory phrase like that into a summary. By using the word "ridden" are you implying that being proud of your race is a bad trait? I do believe that while we are at the olympics, many people are 'proud' of their country, heritage or race. However, in light of the olympics, this is a positive thing as we cheer in the name of sport and friendly competition. The usage in the summary, gives the impression that all Georgian's are Klansman. One should note that Georgia has a higher percentage of African Americans (29%) than the US average http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/13000.html [census.gov], and I'm sure they are proud of being from Georgia.
Why not describe other countries that are predominantly Caucasian such as Sweden, or Ireland in the same manner?
Other uses that you should try:
Arab-pride-ridden (Iraq)
Jewish-price-ridden (Israel)
Linux-pride-ridden (./)
Red Dawn (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:What's so funny about an illegal war? (Score:5, Insightful)
What's so funny about an illegal war?
Where can I find a legal one?
Who put the humor tag on this story?
Probably someone who likes word games, or thinks it's funny when AIs get tripped up by ambiguous terms.
Where's the outrage against Russia's invasion of a sovereign country?
Without knowing the background, how do we know that outrage would be appropriate? Now, "oh crap, I hope it doesn't spread" might be appropriate...
Pay Attention (Offtopic) (Score:5, Insightful)
First of all, let's remember that the Georgians and the Russians have been provoking each other for years over this issue. They have both violated the ceasefire and it will probably be a while before we know who violated the ceasefire lines first.
You lament the invasion, and similarly George Bush stated, "Georgia is a sovereign nation, and its territorial integrity must be respected... We have urged an immediate halt to the violence and a stand-down by all troops. We call for the end of the Russian bombings." Mr Putin expressed similar reservations about Iraq in April 2003:
Be sure to watch the media over the next few days - you'll see pictures of dead and wounded, buildings destroyed, and many other realities of war. Now ask yourself why you don't see any of those images from Iraq. Ask why we saw silhouetted shots of helicopters and long views of nighttime explosions instead of what was really happening on the ground.
We can see on both sides that morality is of little importance. Unfortunately, since we have taken Iraq unilaterally, Russia is free to take Georgia unilaterally, and any other province they can get away with. All they have to do is claim that their national security is threatened, which is a more grounded claim. Georgia is on the Russian border, not thousands of miles away, and they are dealing with their own problems in Chechnya.
It is time to give real power to the UN and the ICC in order to avoid more death and destruction. Unless states submit themselves to a common rule of international law, there will never be a chance for peace.
Dear theodp: You're a bigot. (Score:5, Insightful)
You sir, do not have a clue.
I have lived in Georgia for 14 eyars, having previously spent time in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. I can tell you that both northern states are by far-and-away more racist than Georgia. In 14 years, not once (NOT ONCE -- for emphasis) have I heard a white person use the N-word, while in both Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, I witnessed not only frequent use of the word, but also blind, entrenched bigotry. Never have I seen whites and minorities live more harmoniously that in Georgia (the ghettoization of minorities in northern cities is NOT "harmony").
While there are white supremacists in Georgia (whom I have never met), I think it's safe to say they are a complete minority. Meanwhile, your own bigotry is available for all to see in the summary.
Re:Pay Attention (Offtopic) (Score:5, Insightful)
Unless states submit themselves to a common rule of international law, there will never be a chance for peace.
And if the do, you suddenly have a chance to force your morality (drug war, no sex before you're 18, etc) or business model (overbearing "IP" crap) on the entire world, thru a group of rulers who have approximately no connection to reality (because reality is local and everywhere). And there still won't be peace.
Re:A local radio station was having fun (Score:5, Insightful)
And if you'd have followed the story for a bit longer, you'd realize that this was a damn near inevitable outcome of Russia's approach to "protecting" South Ossetia from Georgia. I was always wondering when the war would start. I'm just surprised it happened so quickly.
If you think this is about anything other than Russia's power politics-driven goals, you're a fool.
Re:A local radio station was having fun (Score:5, Insightful)
What Georgia did _was_ an act of war. They invaded a defacto sovereign nation, violating a 1992 accord, and this was an outright violation of international law. They did so by shelling civilians in Tsinhvali.They didn't just violate some hypothetical border. They literally tried to reclaim the entire breakaway province. Some _1500_ innocents have died as a direct result of this aggression. Russian is not "invading the entire country", it is performing a series of preventative strikes (so beloved by the USA) on military bases to _prevent_ further military actions by Georgia and force Georgia so stop the war. Keep in mind that 90% of all Southern Ossetians hold russian citizenship.
Apparently "preventative strikes" on Iraq, Afghanistan and wherever by the USA is perfectly okay even in the name of the so-called "War on Terrorism", yet when Russian military actually tries to enforce a ceasefire and stop the Georgians from cutting the Ossetians to pieces (again, like the tried in the 90s), you get "omghee teh Russians have invaded teh poowah Georgians". What a joke.
Now, while Southern Ossetia is de-jure part of Georgia, it is defacto a sovereign nation. Remember Kosovo? This isn't any different. Except for that a fragile peace has been actively enforced by Russian peacekeepers for more than 10 years while the three sides (abkhazia, souther ossetia and georgia) were failing to reach a consensus. If there was any hope for the creation of semi-autonomous regions within Georgia - that hope is lost. You don't really think the Ossetians and Abhazians are going to want to be a part of Georgia after this? Georgia literally has 0 diplomatic credits now after repeatedly repudating on and violating international agreements.
Re:A local radio station was having fun (Score:5, Insightful)
It is, as the Georgian president has put it, an act of war.
Definitely, and it's completely at odds with arguments Russia had been making about the former-Yugoslavia situation, particularly the independence of Kosovo. They don't want provinces seceding from their mother country because that would legitimise Chechnya's attempts at independence, yet now they interfere when Georgia tries to stop a province from declaring its independence.
Ofcourse South Ossetia wants to join Russia, and Georgia has supported Chechnya (in words at least), so clearly different standards are in order here. On the other hand, I think Saakashvili overplayed his hand quite a bit, and was a fool for antagonising Russia. With a big and autocratic neighbour like that, an uncomfortable friendship works much better than outright hostility.
Reap/Sow (Score:5, Insightful)
Then that Korean fuckwit, with enough military power, can blow you up without asking first.
The UN arrives at international consensus all the time, with very reasonable compromises for both sides, that the populations of both sides often are in favor for. For instance, declaring the Middle East a nuclear free zone for everyone - Israel, the US, and Iran. This is supported by everyone, except the governments of US and Israel. The US doesn't join the International Criminal Court because their first subject may be Henry Kissinger, or even GW Bush. Thus you can't expect the current government elite to make any move that could endanger themselves or their friends.
If you don't believe in law, then fine, we can continue to be an outlaw state, burning and pillaging at our whim. But when you are on the receiving end of the bullet, try not to complain.
Re:aha! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:A local radio station was having fun (Score:4, Insightful)
A lot of people are asserting a lot of things on Slashdot, but none of us actually knows what's going on. Or who really broke the cease-fire first. If you weren't there, don't be so sure about who did what when. The fog of war makes that impossible for anyone to know, let alone an armchair observer half a world away.
Re:A local radio station was having fun (Score:5, Insightful)
"stopping the ongoing genocide" -- that's Russian talking points, just like US invading Iraq for WMD, when will you stop trusting propaganda of people directly involved in the conflict?
"There were several attacks on Georgia, but strictly on military targets." -- I'm also sure that Georgians keep their tanks in the apartment buildings since I've seen some of them bombed by Russian planes.
Re:A local radio station was having fun (Score:4, Insightful)
Learn history. Georgia ALREADY tried genocide in Ossetia in 1992. What makes you think this time is different?
"I'm also sure that Georgians keep their tanks in the apartment buildings since I've seen some of them bombed by Russian planes."
Nope. You've seen several burning and one destroyed building - a collateral damage from destruction of a nearby military base (with ammo warehouses).
If Russia (God firbid) target civilians then losses would have been 100x higher.
Like about 1500 dead in Tskhinvali after shelling be Georgia.
Re:Russians are killing civilians like crazy (Score:1, Insightful)
You do realize that those missile launchers are Georgians firing into capital of South Ossetia? Full of innocent civilians who were sleeping? Those are not precision missiles as well, they are just aimed in a direction and fired. Whatever they hit, they hit. If I'm not mistaken, here in the USA we call that crime against humanity but you would never hear CNN or BBC unless it's somebody that we don't like.
Sorry, propaganda does not work on those who can think for themselves.
So..... (Score:4, Insightful)
"Caucasian-pride-ridden state in the southern U.S."
-----So, Black Pride, Latino Pride, and Asian Pride are O.K., but Caucasian Pride is not?
What the hell? "Caucasian-pride-ridden state" (Score:1, Insightful)
"not the Caucasian-pride-ridden state in the southern U.S" Why is Slashdot posting hate speech on its front page!? Would you say or allow: "the black-pride-ridden city of Oakland California" or the "black-pride-ridden media channel, BET" ... or the "black-pride-ridden organization of the NAACP!?"
Your double standards and hate speech is unforgivable. The editor that picked this article should be fired.
Re:A local radio station was having fun (Score:5, Insightful)
simple question, the guy claims he speaks russian, has friends locally, so he's going to be a ton better informed than your average ./er, what is *your* claim to authority ?
It would seem to me that someone with an ear on the ground is better informed than someone that simply reads the filtered and processed media, which can't help but always paint russia as the boogey man, even if there is no apparent reason to do so. In this particular case it seems that all the hype paints russia as the aggressor, whereas all the more informed sources paint georgia as the aggressor.
The small fact that the US has been quietly (Or not so quietly) bankrolling georgia's resistance to the russians is mostly ignored by US media (but it's all over the news in Europe).
Re:A local radio station was having fun (Score:3, Insightful)
Missing term: De Jure.
Meaning: Ossetia was, as things stood, autonomous from Georgia. However, this was not recognized by anybody that has anything to say about such things (namely, the UN), thus, this whole 'de facto' nonsense means nothing in relation to the Georgian attacks on Ossetia.
Look, afaik, Georgia is doing a lot wrong with this whole Ossetia business, but there's a very distinct line between invading what is, by international law, a runaway province (no matter how 'de facto' its independence may be) and invading a foreign country.
Russia just escalated this into a major shooting war in what is as it stands one of the geopolitically most important yet unstable regions of the world.
Re:Pay Attention (Offtopic) (Score:3, Insightful)
why is nobody mentioning that "Georgia", "North Ossetia", "South Ossetia", "Chechnia" were just administrative districts of Soviet Union, with as much ethnic/national relevance as Vermont has in US ? Then in 1991 Eltsin and his pals split Soviet Union between themselves, and how you have lots of 'sovereign nations' with no legitimacy but what they can acquire and hold by force of arms.
Nobody asked the civilians over whose heads the "Georgians" and "South Ossetians" are shooting at each other whether they want to belong to one state, to another or to none of the above.
Re:Editorializing in summary? (Score:3, Insightful)
By using the word "ridden" are you implying that being proud of your race is a bad trait?
Yes.
It's the height of stupidity to be proud of something which (1) you had nothing to do with and cannot change and (2) which is only relevant to bigots and racists and an irrelevant detail to everyone else--it has absolutely no practical relevance. It's like having pride in your eye color. You should be ridiculed for holding such a position.
So patriotism (there go the Olympics), the aspect of female emancipation that insists that women should be proud to be women etc. are all right out? Is gay pride still OK or are you in the camp of people who theorise that you can't help being a homosexual, because if you are, draw your conclusions.
What's left of a person's self respect? Sorry pal, I respect your opinion, but I'm afraid most people on this planet disagree with you.
Re:aha! (Score:4, Insightful)
You know...this statement strikes me as unusual. If someone had made this type of joke about say, a predominately black city or something being Black-pride-ridden, there'd be calls of racism all over the place with massive outrage, and down-mod points being thrown about like shrapnel.
But, I guess it is ok as long as humor is directed at caucasians or people in the southern US.
Don't get me wrong, I think everyone needs to grow a bit thicker skin, and learn to take a joke, but, it is the double standard of political correctness that 'grinds my gears'.
Re:A local radio station was having fun (Score:1, Insightful)
Over 1500 civilians killed while asleep under the Georgian fire. They used howitzers and Grad on the city blocks. Do you know what Grad does? It levels an area of 50 hectares. Let me reiterate: Georgian army used Grad to level hectares of city blocks with sleeping civilians.
Can you say with a straight face that Ossetians did not need a protection? Be careful dispensing the word fool.
Caucasian-pride-ridden? Go fuck yourself. (Score:1, Insightful)
Seriously, people like you are going to make sure that race is ALWAYS an issue.
Re:aha! (Score:1, Insightful)
There aren't a lot of black groups running around Georgia terrorizing and lynching white folk...
Re:aha! (Score:3, Insightful)
That's the same as the assholes who say all Muslims are evil people whole cut someones head off slowly with a dull knife. The truth is there are whites, blacks, hispanics, and muslims who have done evil things. To group all of one group together because of the actions is a small minority is racism.
And I got news for you, there aren't a whole lot of whites (in groups or not) terrorizing and lynching black folk either, it does happen but it's a small minority.
Racism is racism regardless of who you direct it against.
Re:aha! (Score:3, Insightful)
There's not a lot of white groups running around anywhere in the US, terrorizing and lynching blacks either my friend.
Lynching went out of practice MANY years ago.
Ossetia == Mini-Sudetenland. (Score:5, Insightful)
You just regurgitated the majority of well crafted Russian Propaganda that has surrounded this affair. Allow me to cut this Gordian Knot.
South Ossetia is South of the Caucasus Mountains [wikipedia.org] . Even the BBC seem to have gotten their heads out of there asses about this fact, and have finally shown a topographical map of the region [bbc.co.uk]. Surprise, surprise. It turns out that the only connection between "North Ossetia" and "South Ossetia" is a the Roki Tunnel [wikipedia.org] constructed in 1957. Yet we are all expected to believe that South Ossetia, has a long rich and deep cultural connection to their northern neighbours, and not with Georgia.
Look at the provence's profile [bbc.co.uk]. Most of it lies above 1000m. Total population ~70,000(There are 250,000 Russian's living in London [russianlondon.com]). Do you know what South Ossetia is? It's a mountain slope. I'm a firm believer in self determination, but wars of national liberation over a bushel of villages on a mountain crag is taking it too far. Comparisons to Kosovo are laughable. Kosovo has over 30 times the population and twice the land mass, with most of that actually being below 1000m.
Border populations like the South Ossetian's exist all over the world, and I'm not in favor of national lines being redrawn to accommodate a handful of malcontents. Oppressed populations perhaps, but there is exactly zero evidence of that. Zero. A war over any such region is totally and completely unjustified.
You want to know what South Ossetia really is? It's a mini Sudentenland [wikipedia.org]. Yeah, yeah, Godwin's Law, sue me. It's a good comparison. A very good comparison in fact. South Ossetia is an excuse, and excuse and nothing more, for Russia to put the smack down on Georgia and bring what it regards as a "near-abroad" [wikipedia.org] province back under its boot. And it's not even a very good excuse.
I've been saying the following for a while, with a new sentence getting added every few years or so. The Bear is up. He's out of Hibernation, and has taken a very long piss. He's licked his wounds. He's wolfed down a few morsels. He's been seen marking the trees around his old haunts. He's been heard growling and roaring, and seen pawing the ground. Here's my latest addition:
The Bear has just made his first big kill in a very long time.
The Bear is back, he is On-Form, and the everybody(especially younger types) had better start getting used to it!
Re:Pay Attention (Offtopic) (Score:3, Insightful)
Lol, oh that's awesome.
A friend of mine just got back from Ecuador, which has price ceilings on gas prices there. For some reason, none of the gas stations have any gas. Whose fault was it? George W. Bush's!
In fact, apparently every single problem in South America is the result of Bush's devious scheme to bring down his nemeses - those guys in those countries that... uh... what're their names again?
Re:aha! (Score:1, Insightful)
Yes: Liberals.
Liberals are infamous race baiters: they will throw race around as a tool for their own ends without end.
The irony to me is that they treat blacks in this country as people who just can't make it without Uncle Sam's Liberal help.
Re:aha! (Score:3, Insightful)
So-called 'white flight' is not just rational, it's noble.
(On a site note I hate the term "white flight" because it's inherently racist against whites --- every single race does the same thing (group by like, duh), but when whites do it it's somehow evil.)