Nicaragua Raids Costa Rica, Blames Google Maps 285
Garabito writes "An error on Google Maps has caused an international conflict in Central America. A Nicaraguan military commander, relying on Google Maps, moved troops into an area near San Juan Lake along the border between his country and Costa Rica (Google translation of Spanish original). The troops are accused of setting up camp there, taking down a Costa Rican flag and raising the Nicaraguan flag, doing work to clean up a nearby river, and dumping the sediment in Costa Rican territory."
Re:Yeah... (Score:5, Insightful)
The main amusement here is that A)Google gets mentioned by name and B)the ease of use of a mass-market civilian product leads a military user(who presumably has access to better information, from some sort of national mapping/geospatial intelligence/GIS wonk service; but probably with a lousier interface) to rely on it.
Re:Yeah... (Score:-1, Insightful)
Not every country considers war that important to waste so much money as the americans do. Even less so when it's entire population is just 6 million.
Re:A simple resolution (Score:3, Insightful)
The blog post you link doesn't mention that Excel did it because it had to be compatible with Lotus 1-2-3, which introduced the bug.
I realized your post (and that blog post you link) is debating whether the ISO standard should've reflected this in the first place. But intimating it's Microsoft's fault is disingenuous.
Re:Yeah... (Score:1, Insightful)
Which is a good thing considering how messed up the world would be if every country cherished war like the US does. :p
Re:Yeah... (Score:3, Insightful)
but it amazes me how a military force from one country can take action based on information from a free service offered by a company in another country.
Something tells me you haven't traveled to many 3rd world countries. Google has probably dodeca-tupled the intelligence gathering capacity of most 3rd world countries.
Re:Yeah... (Score:5, Insightful)
What's that on that flagpole? (Score:5, Insightful)
Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)
Looks to be an advertisement bing vs google (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Court martial? (Score:4, Insightful)
No, the stupidity is in not recognizing that this google maps story is just BS and they have every intention of seizing this island.
Re:Yeah... (Score:1, Insightful)
you don't have to be of any party affiliation to be tired of the pointless fucking wars the US has been waging for 40 years, and I haven't even been alive that long.
Re:By some measures, the world's most violent coun (Score:1, Insightful)
There is. Get an account and volunteer for metamoderation.
Re:Yeah... (Score:3, Insightful)
"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results". - Albert Einstein
Re:doing work to clean up a nearby river? (Score:5, Insightful)
Which suggests that the "Google Maps" explanation is probably a BS excuse for accidentally-on-purpose dumping stuff in Costa Rica.
Re:Yeah... (Score:2, Insightful)
You can go back another 200 years. The US has never not been at war, or some military adventure. Actually the US has always been a just been a continuation of European expansion throughout its history.
Re:Yeah... (Score:3, Insightful)
I'd mod this insightful. You'd think that if they were properly trained soldiers they would have the wherewithall to check a real map once they saw a Costa Rican flag. That would've set off all sorts of bells for me. Not sure what they were doing depending on Google Maps in the first place though.
The fact that they took the Costa Rican flag down and replaced it with their own though makes me wonder if this was a "mistake". Sounds like they raised a middle finger along with their flag.
Re:Yeah... (Score:3, Insightful)
I used to be of the same mentality as yours, but then I learned more about why there are people like that.
Unfortunately, there are also people who fake a lot of things and lie in order to get benefits. That is a real shame because you take away from many things that money is needed for, and also those people who are legitimately hurt or unable to work as a "normal person" and don't have another source of income.
One thing I tell people, is that not all people in Skid Row are crack heads. You see families and better than homeless dressed people out here. These are people who have lost their jobs, then their homes, and finally their ability to get work.
Re:Yeah... (Score:3, Insightful)
WTF did the IS do with Somalia? The genocides in Rwanda and Durfar? Oh yeah, we let it happen.
We invaded a country for no actual reason whatsoever, in hopes of political benefits, oil, family grudges, and/or posturing. None of which are worth the slightest loss of life, American or otherwise. Why invade Iraq, and not step for actual atrocities like the ones you mention? Oh, there is no money in it, no mythical glory.
There is no glory in being the aggressor. I am proud of America, but it is damn hard to be proud of our actions sometimes. Sometimes I wonder if we are the bad guy, the international Skeletor. Questioning our policies is NOT anti-American. Being against some of the boneheaded stuff we do is also not Anti-American. There is no shame in saying "Hey guys, you might be doing something stupid.".
Just because other people are sometimes stupid or wrong doesn't mean they lose the right to question others. There is something strange in that. We can be evil as long as we aren't as evil as someone else? This makes no sense to me.
"Yes I'm stupid, but thats okay because I'm not as stupid as you! nyah nyah nyah!" Meanwhile everyone walks off a cliff, but at least we get the distinction of walking off a slightly lower (yet equally fatal) one.
Re:Yeah... (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm not saying anything extreme and ridiculous like that we don't need a military, or our troops don't need body armor or something, just that we go to excess in the name of funneling money into defense contractors currently).
What I find interesting is that you guys spend absolutely insane amount of money on big shiny toys like F-22, but your basic Army stuff - like the standard infantry rifle - still has known problems compared to most other designs in service of other countries, and, despite those problems being well known [murdoconline.net] for a while now, and several attempts to do something about it, there is still no fix in sight.
It's almost as if big military projects are primarily about what you call "pork barrel spending", rather than about making your soldiers safer...