Google Investigated

The BBC reports that a European Investigation will be launched over complaints about Google.

EU launches antitrust probe into alleged Google abuses

The European Commission has launched an investigation into Google after other search engines complained that the firm had abused its dominant position.

The EC will examine whether the world’s largest search engine penalised competing services in its results.

The probe follows complaints by firms including price comparison site Foundem and legal search engine ejustice.fr.

What we are talking about here is search results. You enter a search on Google and ten results come up on the first page. There are often thousands and, on occasion, millions of hits. The order of these hits is vital to web site success. If you are selling something, for instance, like coffee and your search result puts you at 213, you’re not going to sell very much coffee.

Google’s competitors are alleging that the company manipulates its search results to make competitors, well, less competitive. They allege that their place in the hierarchy, say fifteenth in a search, would be seventh if the “real” results were posted.

This is the kind of problem you can expect with a company that controls a very large part of the market and has components that compete with other companies that use the Internet.

James Pilant

It’s All Bad… (via The Truth About PR…if Any?)

I really enjoyed the author’s take on the PR industry. At this point, I wanted to quote from the article but don’t let me spoil. Enjoy!

James Pilant

  In research for this blog I came across a very interesting idea from J. Parsons, writer of Ethics in Public Relations. In his book, he delves into the contradictions which lie in the PR industry in regards to lying, misleading and withholding truths. In one chapter he notes Thomas Birch, a professor at the University of Oregon who suggested that ‘To lie to someone is to lead them to act in a manner in which they would not have acted had yo … Read More

via The Truth About PR…if Any?

The Examined Life – Martha Nussbaum

In this brief (7:54) video, Ms. Nussbaum explains her view of the idea of the social contract and, of course, the examined life.

The social contract is a vital concept in business ethics and ethics in general. The theory underlies much of our modern political thought but the business implications are staggering.

So, currently I’m working on this concept. Journey along with me if you like. It’s good to have intellectual company.

James Pilant

Aristotle For FUN!

If you have been to my blog for the last few days, you will find that I am investigating the beginnings of ethics. You can blame this on Chris MacDonald, who runs an excellent web site called Business Ethics Blog. I like his ethical analysis of various societal ethical problems (the Gulf Oil spill, etc.) and feel that my analysis is more plebian(a kind way of saying – not as good). So, I am going to study ethics in more detail and with more care. I’ve had classes and I have actually read a good number of the ethical philosophers. Unfortunately I was neither looking for the philosophers’ perceptions of the business world or how to analyze using their rules. I’ve got a general idea about the rules, but that is not enough, so I am working on the subject.

I’ve been listening to lectures on the internet from You Tube on this subject carefully skipping anything from the Hoover Institute or the National Review.

Sometimes when you are browsing on the web, you are incredibly lucky and find something wonderful.

I did. I found a lecture on Aristotle by a fellow named Mark Steel. Have you ever wanted to attend a serious course taught by a stand up comedian? Well, this is it. You get laughs and a lot of fascinating information. Further, I liked his analysis of the Aristotle’s teachings.

So, if you want a good laugh, a good time and some knowledge of classical philosophy. This is where to go!

James Pilant

P.S. I’ve posted the first one of three ten minute sections. The second two are on the right side of the page when you bring up the first one. I’d put them all up but my WordPress account is not putting them up the way I want.

By the way, if you think I intend to get good with the purpose of out pacing Chris MacDonald, you are entirely mistaken. On an academic plane, he is better than me. I really occupy a different niche in the business ethics blogging. On academic matters, I learn from him.

Leslie Nielsen – Rest In Peace

Nathan Heller writing for Slate eulogizes the comic actor, Leslie Nielsen. Here’s a sample from what he wrote.

Nielsen, by then a veteran of the very genre films the Zuckers were lampooning, was an ideal conduit for this sort of parody. Retaining a ’60s-TV-style polish and white-bread masculinity, he was both what the directors once called “oblivious to the comedy” and a key part of its aesthetic. And unlike many B actors who tried to leap the chasm from bad drama to good comedy, Nielsen nailed the landing. If the success of Airplane! redounds mostly to the movie’s writing and directing, the humor in The Naked Gun, its first sequel, and Police Squad (the early-’80s TV show that served as a testing ground for this material) rested largely on Nielsen’s shoulders. The films’ extended parody of noir procedurals depended on his wizened, faux-debonair polish and inveterate lack of self-awareness—in short, his ability to channel a screen ethos from the time of Cary Grant and Cavett.

I have already written about my regret at Nielsen’s passing. I always felt that he was a gentleman who I would have loved to chat with.

But I have an ulterior motive. As an “older” American, I’ve had the pleasure of seeing films like “Airplane,” when they came out. They were raw and exciting and I remember them with great pleasure. I want to recommend to “younger” Americans (pretty much, all of you) to take a look at Nielsen’s work, his legacy and profit by the work of a comic genius.

James Pilant