Credit: commons.wikimedia.org

America’s next president could be eased into office not just by TV ads or speeches, but by Google’s secret decisions, and no one—except for me and perhaps a few other obscure researchers—would know how this was accomplished.

Research I have been directing in recent years suggests that Google, Inc., has amassed far more power to control elections—indeed, to control a wide variety of opinions and beliefs—than any company in history has ever had. Google’s search algorithm can easily shift the voting preferences of undecided voters by 20 percent or more—up to 80 percent in some demographic groups—with virtually no one knowing they are being manipulated, according to experiments I conducted recently with Ronald E. Robertson.

Given that many elections are won by small margins, this gives Google the power, right now, to flip upwards of 25 percent of the national elections worldwide. In the United States, half of our presidential elections have been won by margins under 7.6 percent, and the 2012 election was won by a margin of only 3.9 percent—well within […]

2 Comments

Credit: Reuters/Jose Manuel Ribeiro

Geography is hard. Even for those of us who grew up eating every meal over a Rand McNally world map placemat, there are a lot of terms to remember. And confuse. Often, it seems people may not be aware they are using a specific term incorrectly—hence the overwhelmingly positive reception to Terry Blas’s recent illustration explaining the difference between “Hispanic” and “Latino.”

As such, Quartz has compiled this handy dictionary of commonly misused and mixed-up geographical terms. Never get caught confusing “Guyana” and “Guinea” again!

Hispanic vs. Latino

“Hispanic” refers to anyone with ancestors originating in a Spanish-speaking country. This includes Spain, despite the fact that it’s in Europe, and even the tiny African nation of Equatorial Guinea. “Latino” refers to anyone with ancestors originating in Latin America or the Caribbean—this includes non-Spanish speaking countries like Brazil and Barbados.

England vs. Great Britain vs. The United Kingdom vs. The British Isles

England is a constituent country of the United Kingdom, homeland of the English language and […]

1 Comment