Yesterday, I learned that the threat to rename the Gulf of Mexico I heard about long ago, actually happened. A friend told me that it happened, and I looked it up on Google Maps and sure enough, it was renamed. I was in disbelief, and literally had to see if this was a dream, so I tested my dream by trying to fly and couldn't fly and then I realized it was true, and not a dream. Dead serious.
I've been off news feeds for years now (soo much happier) and really am shocked such a stupid thing was done.
Then they told me that this idiot was trying to rename Lake Ontario too. I was like "that will never happen".
Now, today I hear here that the idiot actually did follow through with this threat to rename Lake Ontario. What a sad mental state of affairs for that individual.
I'm not sure people actually understand why this is just sad.
It is not that I am against a nationalist and populist renaming, it is that these renames have a clearly negative impact.
They deny the identity of the local people who lived there before us (Ontario meaning "sparkling lake" in Iroquoian; Mexico being a Nahuatl expression).
They undermine the diversity and richness of the names we use. Do we really want everything to be "of America"?
That doesn't make America greater; it just makes it dumber, and boring.
I liked Bill Maher's response to it. He should have also mentioned the 650 things that were renamed from 2020 to 2024 for purely political reasons.
Apple is renaming the lake on Apple Maps too. So, 100% of those people who switched to MapQuest are still adding to AppleGoogle's revenue which must be disappointing to them, but if this somehow leads to popular support for a new platform or even more-web-fewer-apps, I'll be super glad for that.
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[ 4.0 ms ] story [ 31.2 ms ] threadYesterday, I learned that the threat to rename the Gulf of Mexico I heard about long ago, actually happened. A friend told me that it happened, and I looked it up on Google Maps and sure enough, it was renamed. I was in disbelief, and literally had to see if this was a dream, so I tested my dream by trying to fly and couldn't fly and then I realized it was true, and not a dream. Dead serious.
I've been off news feeds for years now (soo much happier) and really am shocked such a stupid thing was done.
Then they told me that this idiot was trying to rename Lake Ontario too. I was like "that will never happen".
Now, today I hear here that the idiot actually did follow through with this threat to rename Lake Ontario. What a sad mental state of affairs for that individual.
It is not that I am against a nationalist and populist renaming, it is that these renames have a clearly negative impact.
They deny the identity of the local people who lived there before us (Ontario meaning "sparkling lake" in Iroquoian; Mexico being a Nahuatl expression).
They undermine the diversity and richness of the names we use. Do we really want everything to be "of America"?
That doesn't make America greater; it just makes it dumber, and boring.
Maybe every month it gets a new name based on a global vote. I bet the names would be great!
Land of the orange.
Home of the rapists.
Google: How the GNIS Lake Ontario/Lake America name change in the U.S. will appear in Maps
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49495947
Apple is renaming the lake on Apple Maps too. So, 100% of those people who switched to MapQuest are still adding to AppleGoogle's revenue which must be disappointing to them, but if this somehow leads to popular support for a new platform or even more-web-fewer-apps, I'll be super glad for that.