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Recent Blog Posts
Grand Prix land art
The 2017 Tour de France starts in Düsseldorf, Germany, July 1. On July 2, the second part of the tour passes through the Neanderland. This area, after which the Neanderthal was named, will be showcased via a renowned French artist, Pierre Duc, with the help from students from Düsseldorf and Mettman. Pierre Duc is a “land artist”; to commemorate the tour de France in 2012 he and Thierry Gallibour created the image of a cyclist in a field made from various herbs, straw and wood, and the needle of the rear wheel clock was moving during the passage of the racers and helicopters.
The artists are building a giant Neanderthal wearing a cycling helmet with a speech bubble that says “Ich bin ein Neanderthaler. Et en plus, je parle français!” (I am a Neanderthal and I also speak French). He is supposed to be finished for the “grand départ”. The great work of art is 1,500 m² (16,145.86 ft² or 0.4 acres²) and will be visible from the air. The message is intended to express the importance of the place where the Neanderthals originated. It is also supposed to represent common origins and values, the joy of cycling, and the French influence of the area. The tour helicopters will be filming him and making him world famous. The event will be shown in over 190 countries, thus giving the region a once in a lifetime chance to be seen by the world.
The art can be seen in this German newspaper:
http://www.duesseldorfer-anzeiger.de/die-stadt/ein-riesiger-neandertaler-wird-gruessen-aid-1.6913989
Eco Fashion Show
French eco designer Isagus Toche presented on June 23 her eco-clothing creations as part of an ecological forum in Kiev, Ukraine. Her dresses were all made from recycled material and from simply discarded materials. Unlike other designers that use material that has been recycled, processed or turned into new material, like plastic waste is being turned into usable yarn, Isagus Toche uses discarded items, cleans them and creates her fashion designs out of them.
Jumbled letters
There is a fascinating paragraph with jumbled letters on the internet that you may have run across:
Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.
(According to a researcher (sic) at Cambridge University, it doesn’t matter in what order the letters in a word are, the only important thing is that the first and last letter be at the right place. The rest can be a total mess and you can still read it without problem. This is because the human mind does not read every letter by itself but the word as a whole.)
Father’s Day
Father’s Day has been officially celebrated all over the world for at least the last century and in Catholic Europe since the Middle Ages. There are rumors that it may have been started by a Babylon boy named Elmesu over 4,000 years ago. According to another theory, Father’s Day originated from sun worship by the Pagans.
In the US, the first observance of a Father’s Day was July 5, 1908, in Fairmont, West Virginia, in the Williams Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church South, which is now known as Central United Methodist Church. However, it was not until 1966 until President Lyndon B. Johnson issued the first presidential proclamation honoring fathers, designating the third Sunday in June as Father’s Day. Six years later, the day was made a permanent national holiday when President Richard Nixon signed it into law. The majority of countries celebrate on the third Sunday in June, but many other countries celebrate March 19th (the feast day of Saint Joseph).
Syncing Videos
Translation and recording of videos from English into other languages can become challenging as English uses fewer words than most other languages. The translated text must be short so that recordings can match the length of the English language video. That process often requires rephrasing or paraphrasing to get it just right.
Happy Hump Day
We were recently asked to translate a commercial into Spanish. Part of the text said ‘Happy Hump Day’. Translating that greeting into Spanish caused many headaches. The Spanish language does not use such a greeting at all, and to translate the meaning of it would have made the text too long. We scratched our heads, used all kinds of dictionaries and the help of Google to come up with a solution that would work.
What does ‘Hump Day’ even mean?
The Urban Dictionary’s definition: The middle of a work week (Wednesday); used in the context of climbing a proverbial hill to get through a tough week.
First Nations
Canada’s, as well as America’s, first inhabitants didn’t know how to write. The many different languages were only spoken languages. When schools were introduced and children ordered to attend classes, the language of the teachers was English only. While children spoke their native languages at home, they quickly adapted to English and soon interpreted for their parents and elders. Their command of their native spoken language became less and less.
The primary source of information for historians is traditionally written documents, but there were none. It soon became apparent that these languages and cultures needed to be preserved. Linguists started to interview elders most familiar with their native language and recorded these interviews. If they spoke no English, pictures were used to learn the words, the proper pronunciation recorded and written down as best as possible. These indigenous languages have sounds very unfamiliar to us. To preserve these languages, special alphabets were created to identify such sounds and create a glossary/dictionary.
Earth Day 2017
Earth Day was founded on April 22, 1970. It wasn’t until 20 years later that Earth Day went global. It is now observed by nearly 200 countries and has over one billion participants each year.
The Earth Day Network has brought to light environmental issues around the world. It has been acknowledged as a catalyst for many important laws such as the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act, as well as others.
A March for Science will take place this Earth Day, April 22, 2017 in Washington, D.C., with satellite marches in 425 other locations around the globe. Other Earth Day activities include Earth Day United in Copenhagen, Denmark; Earth Expo in Johannesburg, South Africa; Earth Day Tokyo; Empower Earth Day Celebration in London, and several other parades and celebrations throughout the world.
The police got what?
We all dream of owning a high-performance car or at least driving one every now and then or just being able to drive fast enough that we could outrun the police and avoid that speeding ticket (not that we would ever drive that fast). If you have no chance of driving a super car or a muscle car, maybe you should sign up to become a police officer.
In Italy, the police force has been presented with a new Lamborghini Huracan. Its top speed is 200 mph and it goes from 0 to 62 in 3.4 seconds. This is the latest model and second Lambo car that was given to the police. The first one, a 2009 Lamborghini Gallardo, was often used to transport organs to patients or blood supplies to accident sites, and, of course, to chase anybody who tried to outrun the police. That Gallardo, which was driven for 150,000 kms will now go to the police car museum in Rome.
