My Five #153

Five things worth sharing from the last week or so, brought to you by a different member of the Browser Media team every Friday.

This week’s My Five is by Ali.

1. Japanese manga cartoon in Facebook racism row

So a bit of a serious one to start with but manga cartoonist, Toshiko Hasumi, started a social media outpouring after posting this character, created to look like a six year old Syrian refugee, on Facebook.

The wording reads,

“I want to live a safe and clean life, eat gourmet food, go out, wear pretty things, and live a luxurious life… all at the expense of someone else. I have an idea. I’ll become a refugee.”

Following criticism from various pressure groups and online petitions, she has now taken the offending picture down but still claims it makes a valid point. Facebook itself received pressure to remove the image but it said that the picture didn’t violate community rules.

2. New Facebook buttons revealed

The announcement of an unlike button on Facebook was met with some trepidation but yesterday the company announced a series of emoji, designed to allow users to convey more emotions than before. The iconic thumbs up Like will still exist but it will be joined by love, laughing and four others. Like – a lot!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fWNb6T46Mk

3. Standard cameras ditched for iPhones at Swiss TV station

Swiss TV station, Léman Bleu has switched using standard television cameras for iPhones according to recent reports. The move will enable the station to be both more responsive and to save money The station only airs for a few hours a day so reporters will be able to create more content for a digital audience this way too. Other Scandinavian stations have apparently made this move too but US Charlotte’s Fox46 reverted back due to quality issues.

4. Don’t give up on Rel=Author just yet

Back in August last year, Google announced that it was stopping showing authorship results in Google Search and would no longer be tracking data from content using rel=author markup. For the uninitiated, authorship is a way to link your content to your Google+ profile, or the more cynical might say, a way of Google promoting it’s own social platform. One of the benefits of rel=author tag was that it conveyed trust as it helped users determine which results were authentic, which in turn improved click through rates.

Either way, it was pulled mid 2015 so those little head and shoulders shots of authors that previously showed up in SERPS disappeared. However, the SEO rumour mill is suggesting that if more webmasters were using authorship then Google may decide to use it again in the future. The search giant advised us not to remove author mark up just yet. A case of watch this space…

5. An American tourist’s observations about England

The web loves a good list and Scott Waters was unintentionally thrust into the media spotlight this week with his hilarious list of observations of our little island and its inhabitants. My favourites are ‘Scotland, Wales, Ireland and Cornwall really are different countries’ and ‘Cake is one of the major food groups’. Here’s the full list courtesy of BuzzFeed:

I was in England again a few weeks ago, mostly in small towns, but here’s some of what I learned:

• Almost everyone is very polite
• The food is generally outstanding
• There are no guns
• There are too many narrow stairs
• Everything is just a little bit different
• The pubs close too early
• The reason they drive on the left is because all their cars are built backwards
• Pubs are not bars, they are community living rooms.
• You’d better like peas, potatoes and sausage
• Refrigerators and washing machines are very small
• Everything is generally older, smaller and shorter
• People don’t seem to be afraid of their neighbors or the government
• Their paper money makes sense, the coins don’t
• Everyone has a washing machine but driers are rare
• Hot and cold water faucets. Remember them?
• Pants are called “trousers”, underwear are “pants” and sweaters are “jumpers”
• The bathroom light is a string hanging from the ceiling
• “Fanny” is a naughty word, as is “shag”
• All the signs are well designed with beautiful typography and written in full sentences with proper grammar.
• There’s no dress code
• Doors close by themselves, but they don’t always open
• They eat with their forks upside down
• The English are as crazy about their gardens as Americans are about cars
• They don’t seem to use facecloths or napkins or maybe they’re just neater then [sic] we are
• The wall outlets all have switches, some don’t do anything
• There are hardly any cops or police cars
• 5,000 year ago, someone arranged a lot of rocks all over, but no one is sure why
• When you do see police they seem to be in male & female pairs and often smiling
• Black people are just people: they didn’t quite do slavery here
• Everything comes with chips, which are French fries. You put vinegar on them
• Cookies are “biscuits” and potato chips are “crisps”
• HP sauce is better then catsup
• Obama is considered a hero, Bush is considered an idiot.
• After fish and chips, curry is the most popular food
• The water controls in showers need detailed instructions
• They can boil anything
• Folks don’t always lock their bikes
• It’s not unusual to see people dressed different and speaking different languages
• Your electronic devices will work fine with just a plug adapter
• Nearly everyone is better educated then we are
• If someone buys you a drink you must do the same
• There are no guns
• Look right, walk left. Again; look right, walk left. You’re welcome.
• Avoid British wine and French beer
• It’s not that hard to eat with the fork in your left hand with a little practice. If you don’t, everyone knows you’re an American
• Many of the roads are the size of our sidewalks
• There’s no AC
• Instead of turning the heat up, you put on a jumper
• Gas is “petrol”, it costs about $6 a gallon and is sold by the liter
• If you speed on a motorway, you get a ticket. Period. Always
• You don’t have to tip, really!
• Scotland, Wales, Ireland and Cornwall really are different countries
• Only 14% of Americans have a passport, everyone in the UK does
• You pay the price marked on products because the taxes (VAT) are built in
• Walking is the national pastime
• Their TV looks and sounds much better then ours
• They took the street signs down during WWII, but haven’t put them all back up yet
• Everyone enjoys a good joke
• There are no guns
• Dogs are very well behaved and welcome everywhere
• There are no window screens
• You can get on a bus and end up in Paris
• Everyone knows more about our history then we do
• Radio is still a big deal. The BBC is quite good
• The newspapers can be awful
• Everything costs the same but our money is worth less so you have to add 50% to the price to figure what you’re paying
• Beer comes in large, completely filled, actual pint glasses and the closer the brewery the better the beer
• Butter and eggs aren’t refrigerated
• The beer isn’t warm, each style is served at the proper temperature
• Cider (alcoholic) is quite good.
• Excess cider consumption can be very painful.
• The universal greeting is “Cheers” (pronounced “cheeahz” unless you are from Cornwall, then it’s “chairz”)
• The money is easy to understand: 1-2-5-10-20-50 pence, then-£1-£2-£5-£10, etc bills. There are no quarters.
• Their cash makes ours look like Monopoly money
• Cars don’t have bumper stickers
• Many doorknobs, buildings and tools are older than America
• By law, there are no crappy, old cars
• When the sign says something was built in 456, they didn’t lose the “1”
• Cake is is pudding, ice cream is pudding, anything served for desert is pudding, even pudding
• BBC 4 is NPR
• Everything closes by 1800 (6pm)
• Very few people smoke, those who do often roll their own
• You’re defined by your accent
• No one in Cornwall knows what the hell a Cornish Game Hen is
• Soccer is a religion, religion is a sport
• Europeans dress better then the British, we dress worse
• The trains work: a three minute delay is regrettable
• Drinks don’t come with ice
• There are far fewer fat English people
• There are a lot of healthy old folks around participating in life instead of hiding at home watching tv
• If you’re over 60, you get free tv and bus and rail passes.
• They don’t use Bose anything anywhere
• Displaying your political or religious affiliation is considered very bad taste
• Every pub has a pet drunk
• Their healthcare works, but they still bitch about it
• Cake is one of the major food groups
• Their coffee is mediocre but their tea is wonderful
• There are still no guns
• Towel warmers!
• Cheers