Tuesday, April 28, 2015

A few thoughts

For what they're worth...

First, I am sick to death of people saying violence doesn't solve anything. Of course it does. We might not like the solution or the manner of arriving at it, but it does. American Revolution, anyone? Russian Revolution, Spanish Civil War, Viet Nam, Boston Tea Party? For crying out loud, what a stupid thing to say.

And related to that, if the only violence you condemn is the rioters, you support the murders by police officers.

Secondly, following from that, I am amazed at the number of people who qualify their condemnation of the riots by saying that "of course police who break the law will be punished" (sometimes "should"). In what reality? The Wall Street Journal (how's that for sourcing?) says that there were at least 2718 "justifiable homicides" (defined, oxymoronically, as killings that no cop was indicted for) and 41 officers actually charged (they don't say how many were convicted) between 2004 and 2011. In Maryland alone 109 people have been killed in the past four years, more than 30 in Baltimore. (That's "at least" because police forces aren't actually required to keep track and report those killings.) So most cops who kill aren't punished. The overwhelming majority aren't even indicted. Mostly they're barely even investigated, just getting a few days of paid leave suspension.

Thirdly, I'm sickened by the number of people who think that a criminal record - particularly one held by a black man in a deeply poverty-stricken neighborhood - is grounds for execution. Apparently, for some folks, a 12-year-old boy brings on his own death by not obeying a cop fast enough. Running away from cops because you're terrified of a notorious "rough ride" is not grounds for death. (By the way, harking back a paragraph, Baltimore's police chief claims he never heard of "rough rides", aka "screen tests", even though the city's been sued over them in the past. So yeah.

Fourthly, I'm tired of media who spend all their time chasing ratings by emphasizing the reactions and ignoring the causes. "Equating broken windows with broken spines" is harsh but fair, as they say.

Another thing is all the people asking "why do they destroy their own neighborhood?" Well, why do white people destroy theirs to celebrate football games? Unfair? Then ask yourself this: in what meaningful way is Mondawmin Mall "theirs"? This is old, but might be of interest.

And finally, Freddie Gray is just the last straw: Last year "the Baltimore Sun published a searing 2014 article documenting recent abuses that are national scandals in their own rights. ... $5.7 million is the amount the city paid to victims of brutality between 2011 and 2014. And as huge as that figure is, the more staggering number in the article is this one: "Over the past four years, more than 100 people have won court judgments or settlements related to allegations of brutality and civil-rights violations." What tiny percentage of the unjustly beaten win formal legal judgments?"

More than that, of course, is in play. It's not just brutal policing to keep people down. It's the place they're being kept down in. From Forbes: "About a quarter of Baltimore residents live below the poverty line. The unemployment rate in zip code 21217, where the riots broke out on Monday, was 19.1% in 2011."

Rioting is never "right". But sometimes - to paraphrase MLK - it's the only voice that people have.

If we don't want riots, we have to stop lying about fixing the system. Because you can only keep the lid on so long before the pot boils over.

....... Okay, so more than a few. Also: note to self: stop reading the comments on Facebook. And newspapers, too, for that matter.

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Sunday, April 26, 2015

The Week in Entertainment

A rather crazy couple of weeks at work, so not a lot here ... the dvr is piled up, but I didn't get to any of it.

DVD: Finally got around to Scott & Bailey series 4. Very enjoyable, though I am going to miss Gill (assuming there's a fifth season, that is). Good character development. Series 2 of Der Kommissar und das Meer, also very good. Also a few eps of an extremely funny German series called Crime Scene Cleaner (Der Tatortreiniger) - the one with the man who axe-murdered his wife was hilarious, and the one with the psychotherapist was pretty damned funny, too.

Read: A whole bunch of Charles Stross's "Laundry" novels and some novellas, too.

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Things can be tricky even when they don't look it

At SLON.ru, Oleg Kashin has an article called Почему Россия проиграла войну на Украине, or Why Russia has lost the war in Ukraine.*

The article itself is fascinating, but I'm just interested here in one little phrase: не чета. Чета is couple or pair, often referring to a married couple. Не чета in the negative means 'not a pair'; not a match is how it's usually translated. But there's a problem with that ... See how he uses it, talking about Putin's calling the dissolution of the Soviet Union "the greatest geopolitical disaster of the 20th century":
Может быть, Путин имел в виду несколько локальных войн, которыми сопровождался распад СССР – Карабах, Приднестровье, Таджикистан, Абхазия? Войны – это плохо, но в ХХ веке было много других, гораздо более кровопролитных войн, то есть в этом случае катастрофу распада СССР никак не назовешь крупнейшей. Распад Югославии тоже никому не придет в голову называть геополитической катастрофой, хотя уж там-то воевали не чета даже Карабаху.

Maybe Putin had in the various regional wars which came along with the fall of the Soviet Union - Nagorno-Karabakh, Transnistria, Tajikistan, Abkhazia? Wars are bad, but the twentieth century had many others, much bloodier; that is, in this situation you simply can't call the dissolution of the Soviet Union the worst. Nor has anyone ever been tempted to calls Yugoslavia's collapse a geopolitical disaster, though the fighting there was no match even for Nagorno-Karabakh.
That seems a bit odd in English, doesn't it? A isn't a disaster, nor is B even though it's not as bad as A.

The problem is that although literally не чета means "not a match", Russian and English approach that concept from different angles. In English, "you're no match for him" means "he's better than you" (or, if what you're measuring is the bloodiness of wars, "Yugoslavia's no match even for Karabakh" means "Yugoslavia's less bloody even than Karabakh"). But in Russian, it means "you're better than he is" (or, "Yugoslavia's bloodier even than Karabakh").

You look at a Russian-English dictionary (such as Multitran and you get "no match". That is right in one way and yet totally wrong where it counts - in what it actually means. But if you go to Russian-Russian sources and get a definition, you'll get Не чета кто-что кому-чему (разг.) - не ровня,лучше кого-чего-н. в каком-н. отношении. Ne cheta kto-chto komu-chemu, someone-something is no match for someone-something (colloquial) - not equalling, better than someone-something in some quality. The Russian dictionary tells you what the translation means - and in this case, tells you (if you are a native speaker of English, any way) that the translation is wrong.

I tell my students to use Ozhegov or some other Russian defining dictionary rather than relying on translating dictionaries, or at least to go to Ozhegov when something seems a bit hinky in your translation.

Unfortunately, they don't always listen...


* He concludes thus:
Политическое и военное поражение России на Украине (а зафиксированное в Минске требование «особого статуса отдельных районов» – это уже поражение) – это только следствие смыслового и ценностного поражения, случившегося тогда же, еще прошлой весной. Государство начинается не с армии и не с аппарата, а с идеи, со слов. «Мы пришли в Донецк, чтобы…» – а дальше тишина, дальше сказать просто нечего и приходится нести ахинею про хунту и бандеровцев – впрочем, и эта ахинея теперь звучит все тише или вообще не звучит.

Этот год показал, что удел России – вечно пережевывать советскую победу 1945 года и радоваться кадыровскому миру в Чечне, любая дополнительная идея обрушит Российскую Федерацию. Именно поэтому война за Новороссию быстро превратилась в войну ни за что, а войну, которая ведется ни за что, выиграть просто нельзя – особенно если противник воюет за родину. Время переписать черновики будущих президентских посланий. Крупнейшая геополитическая катастрофа – это не распад СССР, бог бы с ним. Год украинской войны показал, что сама Россия теперь – крупнейшая геополитическая катастрофа, которая всегда с тобой.

The political and military defeat of Russia in Ukraine (and the demand put on the record in Minks for "the special status of specific regions" is a defeat already) is just the consequence of the defeat in meaning and values which took place back in last spring. A state begins not with an army and not with institutions but with an idea, with words. "We came to Donetsk in order to..." - and the rest is silence, there is simply nothing further to say and they are forced to carry on with their drivel about a junta and Banderist fascists - drivel that is, by the way, heard less and less now if it's heard at all.

This year has shown that it is Russia's fate to relive forever the Soviet victory in 1945 and rejoice over Kadyrov's peace in Chechya; any other idea will tear down the Russian Federation. And that is why the war for Novorossiya quickly turned into a war for nothing, and a war which is waged for nothing simply cannot be won - especially if the enemy is fighting for their homeland. The time has come to rewrite the drafts of future presidential Messages*. The worst geopolitical disaster** was not the dissolution of the Soviet Union, let that go. The year of the Ukrainian war has shown that Russia itself is now the worst geopolitical disaster, and one that is always with us.

* Russia equivalent of the State of the Union address
** An allusion to Putin's statement in Minsk that "for the EU, the time has come to rewrite the history of Crimea before someone else does it for you"

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At 11:08 PM, April 26, 2015 Anonymous Kathie had this to say...

Likewise, I sometimes get my best help from a Portuguese-Portuguese dictionary. Occasionally I then need to cheat by copying/pasting the definitions into Google Translate, but shhhh, don't tell anyone ;-)

 

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Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Who asked whom, Bing?

What the hell, Bing?

see text«Я в берлоге», — Евгений Плющенко попросил общественность забыть про него
"I'm in a den," the public has asked Evgeny Plushenko to forget about him

Come one, Bing. This is straightforward. Masculine noun, masculine verb, feminine noun. Subject-Verb-Object. For crying out loud. (Plus, in yours, who's "him"?) Interestingly, Bing does get the aspect right - perfective Russian verb becomes English perfect.

Google seems to get it more correct but it makes a crucial mistake: it's not "it" he wants them to forget, it's "him". The translation sounds like he's asking the public to forget about his going into the den.
"I'm in the den," - Yevgeny Plushenko asked the public to forget about it

My translation: "I've gone to ground," Yevgeny Plushchenko has asked the public to forget about him. (I could be talked into "holed up" or "hiding out" in some contexts, but here Plushenko wants to be left alone as he prepares for the World Championships and then probably the Olympics; he's not retiring, he just doesn't want to be a distraction... or distracted himself.)

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At 2:40 PM, April 22, 2015 Anonymous Kathie had this to say...

Google Translate also often confuses pronoun genders, being apparently unable to differentiate between the female and male given names to which they refer in context. I've accumulated quite a few of these howlers on my list.

Another error that Google Translate sometimes makes is translating subject-after-predicate construction (more common in Portuguese than in English) as the direct object -- again something that's obvious in context to the human translator.

Have you asked those knowledgeable in other languages if they too encounter these problems with translating software?

P.S. Plushenko had a lot of back trouble at the Sochi Olympics, so is likely healing and rehabbing in hopes of competing again at the 2018 games. He's also married, with a couple of small children (IIRC), so may be enjoying family life staying home, instead of being on the road so much, as he was when actively competing.

 

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Monday, April 20, 2015

Vote for the Hugos

Have an opinion about the current Hugo kerfuffle? (A few things to read if you don't but think you might want to: John Oneil, Deirdre Saoirse Moen, George R.R. Martin, Annie Bellet, and John Scalzi.) You can still join and vote for only $40.

I'm not really a big con goer (been to three in my life), and I've never voted for the Hugos. Till this year.

sasquan banner

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Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Bing: A twofer

Dear Bing: I accept that you can't deal with productive morphology, so повиганяємо (two prefixes! the horror!) is beyond you. But you really can't turn "with God's help" into "God". Seriously. Stop.

З Божoю допомогою повиганяємо ту нечисть! with Bing translation God poviganâêmo the vermin!

Поганяти means to drive on, to lash, to spur. Виганяти means to drive out. So повиганяти has the sense of vigorously or enthusiastically driving out. The ємо ending is the first person plural, we will drive out.

З Божoю допомогою means "with God's help". Bing's translation, such as it is, sounds like an exhortation to God: God poviganâêmo the vermin!

Google's a little better here... or is it? Their "Bozhoyu help take away that abomination!" at least preserves the 'help', though they don't recognize the instrumental case of Бог, God, and ignore the preposition. However, they still don't provide the correct form of the verb, rendering it as an infinitive complement to 'help', and making it sound like an imperative rather than an assertion.

The correct translation is: "With God's help, we will drive out the vermin!" (Or 'scum'.)
«Нас называли оккупантами». E1.ru о возвращении из Донбасса в Россию уральских добровольцев with Bing translation
'We were called by the occupiers.' E1. ru for the return of the Donbass region in Russia Ural volunteers
And then in the Russian one, Bing apparently doesn't know that verbs of naming take instrumental complements. They weren't called BY the occupiers; they were called occupiers. Also, the preposition o isn't ever "for". Ever. It's "about" or "on". And из? You can't leave that out. And в with accusative isn't "in", it's "into, to". And once again Bing completely ignores the meaning of the genitive case: of the volunteers. OF THEM.

In this one, Google's worse. They give us: "We called the occupiers." E1.ru about the return of the Donbass in Russian Ural volunteers

Yes, they get that E1.ru is reporting ON the return. But they not only also mishandle из (from) (though in their own way), they top it off by turning Russia into Russian. And they can't handle the naming-verb's instrumental either, so they just ignore it. AND turn "us" into "we"!

It's not "E1.ru for the return of the Donbass region in Russia Ural volunteers", and it's certainly not "E1.ru about the return of the Donbass in Russian Ural volunteers", it's "E1.ru ON the return FROM the Donbass (region) TO Russia OF Ural volunteers".

"They called us occupiers." E1.ru reports on the return to Russia from the Donbass of volunteers from the Ural.

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At 1:49 PM, April 15, 2015 Anonymous Kathie had this to say...

In Portuguese:
"chamar" = to call [the occupiers]
"chamar DE" = to call [us the occupiers]
"chamar-se POR" = to be called by [the occupiers].

By now you seem to be accumulating enough examples that you can sort them by categories for a talk or a paper on the topic. My collection of Google atrocities now runs to 30 pages, and continues to grow with new and old errors alike (Google's people apparently can't or won't correct the latter). Meanwhile, our jobs are safe.

 

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Tax Day

Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society. - Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

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At 6:08 PM, April 19, 2015 Anonymous Mark P had this to say...

I think I might have mentioned the bumper sticker I saw that said, "Freedom isn't free" on one line, and then on the second something like, "So stop complaining and pay your taxes."

 

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Monday, April 13, 2015

Birds in Oregon

A week on the North Central Oregon Coast, in Lincoln City. My friend's working on her master's, so we didn't do a whole lot as compared to some other years. But we did do some things, and I did get some pictures. Here are the birds I saw - most of them. Also saw some eagles and a really nice red-tailed hawk, but no photos. As always, select a photo to enlarge.

A goose, and some gulls, and a crow in the background. (Also seals)



A bunch of gulls



A crow on the beach



Another crow



A turkey vulture



A pretty juvenile gull



A white-crowned sparrow



A different white-crowned sparrow singing



A house, or English, sparrow



One of many buffleheads on the bay



Another bufflehead



There were hundreds of gulls at the bay. Most are Western gulls, but not all. and the pale one might be an Iceland though I'm doubtful - and puzzled.



The little gulls I believe are Ringbilled



This guy was being harassed on the beach by crows - who very often don't like it when ravens hang around.



The crows were annoyed because the raven was finding food to eat



The raven flying off with his booty.



At Cape Foulweather we saw this juvenile peregrine falcon.



He watched us for a while and then he turned around and kept an eye on us while watching the area.



Down at Yaquina Head there's an adult pair of peregrines nesting on the cliff face right by the interpretive center. Here's the male keeping watch.





And here's the female on the nest, tucked in the back of the ledge. You can't see her unless she stands up on the nest.





When we were whale watching we passed this boat surrounded by gulls.



In the crowd around that fishing boat were also some pelicans.



There were also common murres, which you can see here, too, flying in front of the zodiac. In front of it is a pelagic cormorant.


Here's another murre.









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Sunday, April 12, 2015

The Week in Entertainment

All I did was read this week - Heartache, the latest 20-Sided Sorceress book; the author said she "was angry, but now I think I understand what they felt" - "all the authors that ever made me cry" - especially "Joss Whedon, the worst offender". Let me tell you, she really took a leaf out of Joss's book with this one. Also read her Witch Hunt which was really much less good, kind of blah, in fact. Also Donna Leon's Falling in Love, a Brunetti novel and good. The Language of the Dead, which was a good mystery but oddly, even irritatingly, written; I don't know if that's the author or the translator.

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Saturday, April 11, 2015

Bing for comparison

Petro Poroshenko posted today on the anniversary of Lech Kaczyński's death. He generally has an official English version with his posts, but that doesn't stop Bing from (ever hopeful!) offering to translate for you.
ПП: П'ять років з дня страшної авіакатастрофи під Смоленськом, внаслідок якої загинув великий друг України Лех Качинський з дружиною та інші сини і доньки польського народу.
Неможливо забути цю страшну трагедію та змиритися з нею.
Завжди пам'ятатиму дружбу та допомогу, яку демонстрував Лех Качинський нашій країні. Він був щирою людиною та відповідальним політиком.
Світла пам'ять.
It is five years today since a dreadful catastrophe near Smolensk took lives of Ukraine's great friend, Lech Kaczyński, his wife and several other Polish dignitaries.
This tragedy will never be forgotten.
I remember Lech Kaczyński as a person who always demonstrated great sympathy and support for Ukraine. He was an honest man and a responsible politician.
Rest in peace.
PM: today marks five years since the terrible plane crash in Smolensk, which was a great friend of Ukraine Lech Kaczyński with his wife and other sons of Polish people.
It is impossible to forget this terrible tragedy and put up with it.
Always will remember the friendship and assistance, which demonstrated the Lech Kaczynski our country. He was a sincere person and a responsible politician.
Light memory. - Translated by Bing
You may note some oddities in Bing that don't seem reflected in the English of the official post. Poroshenko's translator knows about register. We don't generally say things like "others of Poland's sons and daughters" (yes, Bing - and daughters!), and "rest in peace" is the standard phrase, not "bright memory". But please notice Bing's standard horrible grasp of inverted word order: which demonstrated Lech Kaczyński vs. which Lech Kaczyński demonstrated. Also note that Bing just blithely ignores the verb загинув (perished) and translates змиритися (to become reconciled to) as "put up with" - sometimes that works, but not here. Also, the dative case means a preposition in English: TO our country (or "for"), not "demonstrated our country" - with a different verb you could get away without one ("showed our country", but verbs aren't plug-and-play; even with the same meaning they often have different grammatical requirements).

(Here's my much more literal translation for you: 
It is five years since the day of the terrible plane crash near Smolensk, as a result of which perished Ukraine's great friend Lech Kaczyński with his wife and other sons and daughter of the Polish nation.
It is impossible to forget this terrible tragedy, or to become reconciled to it.
I will always remember the friendship and assistance which Lech Kaczyński showed to our country. He was an honest man and a responsible politician.
May his memory be bright.)

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2 Comments:

At 1:36 PM, April 11, 2015 Anonymous Kathie had this to say...

On the bright (ha!) side, it looks like there'll be less Russian (especially idioms and slang) for Bing to have to translate now.

"Russia just made a ton of Internet memes illegal":
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2015/04/10/russia-just-made-a-ton-of-internet-memes-illegal

 
At 1:47 PM, April 11, 2015 Blogger The Ridger, FCD had this to say...

They just have to host them outside Russia.

 

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Thursday, April 09, 2015

Not just for him

This, by the way, is a crappy headline. Elizabeth Warren: The headline implies that she's talking about him, making some statement about how he's a special case, possibly implying she doesn't think what he did is so bad.

FALSE.

She doesn't "support the death penalty" FULL STOP. For him or anyone.

MoJo, I'm disappointed in you.

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Wednesday, April 08, 2015

Definitely don't use Bing for conversations!

see textBing utterly fails to follow the pragmatics of the conversation. Okay, Russian can omit lots of words - more, really, than English - but Bing doesn't even attempt to employ basic cohesive techniques. Also, there is room for translating ее нет as "it doesn't exist" - the pronoun could barely possible be referring to the information - but the next sentence is definitely "who" not "what", so the speaker didn't think so. (Bing also fails utterly to grasp the function of the dash.)
— А вы работали над информацией про убитую девочку?
— Ее нет
— Кого нет?
— Девочки
— Не погибла?
— Нет
— А как же так, передали же?
— Вынуждены были передать. Сами понимаете.

Как вслед за «распятым мальчиком» появилась «расстрелянная девочка». Расследование Би-би-си о пропагандистском фейке «ДНР»:


You worked on the information about the dead girl?
Is It not
-Who doesn't?
-Girls
Is Not lost?
-No
And how have the same?
— Were forced to pass. Understand yourself.

As following the 'crucified boy "appeared" rasstrelânnaâ girl ". Investigation into the BBC's propaganda fejke "DNI":
Google is marginally better:
- And you were working on information about a dead girl?
- It does not exist
- Who is not?
- Girls
- Do not died?
- No I Am Not
- And how is it transmitted the same?
- They were forced to pass. You know.

As after the "crucified boy" came to "shoot the girl." Investigation BBC BBC propaganda about Fake "DNR":
Once again, we get terrible do-support syntax ("do not died?"), and I have no idea why Нет, no, is translated so emphatically (No I Am Not) by Google.

Neither of them can handle the summary either, though they mess it up differently (neither can handle the non-declined BBC, and neither can keep the preposition where it belongs: rassledovanie BBC o propagandistskom fejke DNR = investigation OF BBC ABOUT propaganda fake OF DNR, or with more appropriate English pronouns, Investigation BY the BBC INTO the propaganda fake OF/BY the DNR). Both select nominative plural "girls" as the translation of Девочки, totally ignoring the negation and singular verb and pronoun, pointing (for a person, anyway) to the genitive singular "the girl". Here's my translation:
"Did you work up the information on the murdered girl?"
"She doesn't exist."
"Who doesn't?"
"The girl."
"She didn't die?"
"No."
"Then why on earth did you broadcast that she did??"
"We were forced to. You understand."

How, following the "crucified boy", there was the "girl shot to death". The BBC investigates propaganda fakery from the DPR.

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2 Comments:

At 10:56 AM, April 09, 2015 Anonymous Kathie had this to say...

FYI, this news story was carried on BBC World overnight. Of course, they have their own translators/interpreters ;-)

 
At 1:25 PM, April 10, 2015 Anonymous Kathie had this to say...

Speaking of Russia/Ukraine, did you miss this article?
"Free speech or hate speech? Lisitsa and the TSO":
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/style/wp/2015/04/09/my-bloody-valentina

 

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Monday, April 06, 2015

Suzette Haden Elgin

Somehow I missed seeing this. Suzette Haden Elgin has died.

I read her books and enjoyed them very much, from the Ozark trilogy through Native Tongue to the "Verbal Self-Defense" books. She will be missed.

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At 10:07 AM, April 23, 2015 Anonymous Adrian Morgan had this to say...

As I said in the comments on the Language Log post, I read her blog for a while (along with many other linguistics blogs that I gradually whittled down to my favourites).

I was always mildly curious about the Verbal Self Defense books (or "book", as I didn't know there was more than one). However, I got the impression that they were most relevant for transient encounters, whereas my experience of life is that the people who hurt us most are those closest to us. Would be interested to hear more about your perspective on them.

 

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Sunday, April 05, 2015

The Week in Entertainment

Film: Selma. Oh, man, what a great film. A little hard to watch, but then that year - those years - were extremely hart to live through. Highly recommended.

DVD: Finished the second season of Longmire. Pretty good, still. The Book of Life, an interesting animated film by Guillermo del Toro. I enjoyed it, especially the sections being played out by the wooden dolls - such an interesting look.

TV: Nothing, since I spent Saturday in a plane and a car. My DVR queue will be waiting next week. Probably nothing this week, either.

Read: Finished The Turnip Princess. The Wizard Returns, the third "Dorothy Must Die" prequel, along with the second book, The Wicked Will Rise. I have to say, the prequels add a lot to the story but they really should be read in the order she wrote them - Dorothy Must Die; No Place Like Oz; The Witch Must Burn; The Wicked Will Rise; The Wizard Returns - because the prequels have spoilers in them, given that the main books are in Amy's first-person narration. That said, do read them!

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That Jewish baker

He will not have to make an anti-Semitic hate-speech cake ... unless he cheerfully makes racist, anti-Muslim, or ant-Christian cakes.

The Jewish or Muslim deli owner? He will not have to sell ham sandwiches ... unless he sells them to Jews or Muslims.

That homosexual baker? He won't have to frost a cake saying gay marriage is a sin ... unless he writes hate speech about straights on cakes he sells to other gays.*

If you sell a product, you have to sell it to everyone. If you don't sell it to anyone, that's fine.

I would ask why that is so hard to understand, but the truth is, I don't think it is. I think there's a segment of the political landscape that profits on whipping Christians up into a frenzy over their supposed victimization. After all, the religion began as a persecuted minority sect and it still teaches that ... hang on. Why aren't Christians happy that they're being "persecuted"? Didn't Jesus teach that meant they were blessed? But I digress.

Civil rights are not that hard to grasp. And neither is the difference between "Congratulations" and "Go to Hell."

* That video thing making the rounds of conservative sites? False equivalency. Making a cake that says "Congratulations Brian and Peter!" is not the same as making a cake that says "Gay Marriage Is Wrong".

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Wednesday, April 01, 2015

Bing...


«Если изучить последствия действий Москвы, томожно придти к выводу о том, что Россия на самом деле кажется относительно слабым и сдержанным государством, пытающимся установить «гегемонию» на постсоветском пространстве»
"If you examine the implications for action Moscow, tomožno to come to the conclusion that Russia actually seems relatively weak and kept by the State, is attempting to" hegemony "in the post-Soviet space."
In this case, we have the English original:
When we consider the outcomes of past episodes of Russian aggression, however, a very different conclusion appears warranted: the Russian state actually appears to be both a relatively weak and restrained power that struggles to assert hegemony in post-Soviet space.
Now, there are some differences in the Russian translation and that original - the Russian doesn't have "a very different conclusion", just a "conclusion"; "both" is missing; it's not "past episodes of Russian aggression" being studied, just "Moscow's actions"; and (of course) "hegemony" isn't in scare quotes.

But even so, I think you can see where Bing goes badly wrong. First, it translates последствия as "implications" rather than "outcomes" (or "consequences"). It doesn't know what to do with томожно - which fair enough is slangy - but still just то можно (it's possible). It goes with "seems" for кажется, a verb that very often means, as here, "is". It makes "hegemony" into a verb, completely ignoring the verb установить. And it fails totally with слабым и сдержанным государством, choosing to interpret this not as two attributive adjectives modifying "power" but rather as a predicate adjective ("seems relatively weak" and a participial phrase ("kept by the State") - and mistranslated сдержанный to boot; it's not "kept" but "kept in check, restrained, curbed, held back".

ps: my translation of the Russian would be
If you study the consequences of Moscow's actions, then it's possible to come to the conclusion that Russia is in fact a relatively weak and restrained government that is attempting to establish a "hegemony" in the post-Soviet space.

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