The title of this article implies they changed it before being forced/asked. As stupid as the whole thing is, the executive order was signed. This article is just about how the government’s own maps aren’t updated yet.
This wasn’t a case of Google updating based on a mere suggestion or guessing at what our mad king wants. It’s still silly, it’s still petty, but this article reads (and is titled) like clickbait to me. Instead we should focus on the absurdity of the EO.
Interestingly, Executive Order 12770, signed in 1991 by President George H.W. Bush, established the metric system as the official system of measurement in the USA.
Google still defaults to miles for some reason.
I get that these cases have their differences, but I think it’s reasonably thought provoking and worth at least a single moment of attention if we’re already on the topic.
Not really. Metric Conversion Act Of 1975 would be a better reference, but it didn’t go that far, only saying that Metric is preferred, and the choice is voluntary.
The EO you referenced is about what units the federal government uses, not setting an official system of measurement for the entire US.
That's exactly what every executive order is: it's what the federal government uses. It's not binding for anyone else. It doesn't have the power of law. Google is under absolutely no obligation to do this. They do it explicitly to appease Trump.
The EO changes the official name of the geographical feature as recognized by the US government.
All the large map providers ingest a data feed from the USG (and other governments for other localizations) which names various geographical and place entities. That data goes through a pipeline (basically a CI pipeline) to build the map artifact and tiles served to users.
Google just has a particularly good and low latency pipeline. Google got there in a couple days. Apple will get there in a week or two. The USGS will get there in god-knows-when. Mapquest has said they’re not going to update the name, which presumably means their pipeline is old and creaky.
The article itself even acknowledges that the USGS GNIS database has already been updated to reflect the change. Unless someone at Google manually edits the entity, it will be automatically renamed with no human input (although, for very large, highly visible entities the validation stage may block the build and flag it for manual review)
It's an executive order, not a law. There is absolutely no reason for Google, MapQuest or anyone else to change the name of the lake in their map. Google chooses to do so, MapQuest chooses not to. That says nothing about the speed of their pipeline, and everything about their desire to appease the government.
Your own response isn't even internally consistent.
> The USGS will get there in god-knows-when.
> The article itself even acknowledges that the USGS GNIS database has already been updated to reflect the change.
Yes, both USGS and the Department of the Interior's executive leadership have been replaced by this Administration with Trump lackeys who fell over themselves to boast in a memo just how quickly they'd made the change.
> Mapquest has said they’re not going to update the name, which presumably means their pipeline is old and creaky.
it's actually the same thing - T's EO only governs how the Fed Gov references Lake Ontario on its maps; it doesn't force private companies to use the name (it has no authority to do so)
Because when the orange one is gone, people will remember what a supremely supine bastard you were, and now you're no longer protected, will punish you hard.
When he's gone we can just undo it as easily as he did it. And tear down all of his other tributes to himself.
If we don't want idiots to do idiotic things we probably shouldn't make it possible/legal in the first place. But the corruption and malfeasance goes way beyond Trump so here we are.
Are you sure about that? People mildly criticised Charlie Kirk after his death and lost their jobs, there's a whole outrage over renaming streets and tearing down monuments to confederates and racists. Those same people are going to be predictably upset by any attempt to undo the man's "legacy" once he kicks the bucket.
What we actually need to do are things like ranked pairs voting, a recall election dynamic for president/congress/judges, constitutional amendment to enshrine splitting executive power into agencies with heads elected separately from the president, get rid of the electoral college, take out the supplicating trash from the Supreme Council, criminal trials and unjust enrichment clawbacks, and so on. The whole point of the names are to be stupid petty distractions, don't let yourself be distracted.
Trump is irrelevant. What really matters was done by Project 2025, that will not be undone anytime soon, that is if democrats can even gain federal power again due to election interference or whatever they will do with ICE if they lose an election again.
My concern is that the orange one and his tribe may never leave at this point. The voters seem totally immune to reflection and the party has accumulated so much power, festered so much rot, and replaced so many government officials it feels like no election will ever be fair again. Even if one is, the pendulum will just swing right back to them the next election.
And SCOTUS is compromised. They're letting them redistrict based on political party to dilute opposition. They're allowing Trump to politicize the post office to potentially delay mail in ballots so they won't be counted. They're allowing Republicans to mass revoke voter registrations and sell that data.
And now ICE, Trump's personal, unaccountable Gestapo in training, is getting access to voter roles. What will they possibly use that for if not to influence the voting process?
It's a good thing SCOTUS ruled that POTUS is entirely immune to all consequences and can pardon himself. I'm sure that won't empower a coup.
This wasn’t a case of Google updating based on a mere suggestion or guessing at what our mad king wants. It’s still silly, it’s still petty, but this article reads (and is titled) like clickbait to me. Instead we should focus on the absurdity of the EO.