The French Go A Bit Insane Here

Google guilty of libel for satanist rape suggestions

The plaintiff, who has been granted anonymity, sued Google after the tools Google Suggest and Related Searches linked the words ‘rape’, ‘sentenced’, ‘Satanist’, ‘prison’, ‘rapist’ to his name.

In February he was given a three-year suspended sentence for the corruption of a minor.

Puhleeze.

I can’t find Google Suggest in my Google, so I did Related Searches and also the Wonder Wheel.

The Wonder Wheel has me linked to, among others, Roosevelt, Truman, Patton, JFK, Nixon, and Eisenhower. Don’t ask me how or why. I don’t recall meeting any of them — and I think I would have recalled Patton, had I been alive back then!

Should I sue because some idiot might think I was connected to Nixon?

Advertisement

Rats Will Save Publishing!

The Rats Are Alright

This is an interesting but I think ultimately flawed rebuttal to my earlier post: Bookstores Now Selling To The Rats

He states:

Whatever though, these people on one book a year aren’t rats. Their one-or-two-books-, one-or-two-albums-, one-or-two-DVDs-a-year is what keeps everything afloat because they’re legion…which does make them sound a bit like rats I guess, with their power laying in their numbers.

That sounds all swell, until you begin to ask, Why did the music stores disappear? Why did the video stores disappear? Why did Blockbuster just file for bankruptcy? Why are Barnes & Noble and Borders both closing stores?

I think he takes exception to the term “rat,” really. Blame Godin for choosing the metaphor. The fact remains, changing the terminology, that when your best customers leave, you can’t support a business with casual customers.