The BP Oil Spill Isn't the Biggest and BP Pays Google to Get Upperhand on What We Know

GOOD: The folks at Fast Company have come up with this excellent graphic of the scope of the oil spill (click here for full size).

The graphic shows that the current spill is still about 100 million gallons behind the Ixtoc I spill from 1979, but that its clean-up costs have already exceeded even the Exxon Valdez spill and its environmental costs probably will as well.

Also From Sociological Images
Information is Power: BP Pays Google to Get the Upperhand on What We Know

I’m not suggesting that this is surprising or that BP is uniquely evil in doing this.  I’m simply pointing out that money buys the power to shape the distribution of information.  Many of you have commented that “sponsored links” are ads and just skip right over them.  But others might not.  The link and the shading is very subtle.  Even if a person sees the phrase “sponsored link,” they might interpret it to mean that Google thinks it’s a good link, one they sponsored.  Not everyone is a sophisticated consumer of the internet.  And, even if they know it’s an ad, not everyone is as suspicious of ads, nor of companies, as some.  So I think buying the ad will, in fact, make it so that more people will be exposed to BP’s version than otherwise.  And that’s all I was trying to say.  It’s just a simple example of the relationship between power and knowledge. - Sociological Images

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