Spotted this morning in the bowels of Bristol’s tawdry temple to consumerism, Cabot Circus.
In the words – and with the intonation – of the former editor of the Daily Telegraph, Bill Deedes: “Shome mishtake shurely?”
No further comment is necessary.
Although it may not be hitting the headlines in the way it was a couple of years ago, Capita Translation & Interpreting’s cack-handed execution of its interpreting contract for courts and tribunals with the Ministry of Justice continues to waste public money, as well as delay and deny justice (contrary to one of the few clauses of Magna Carta still in effect. Ed.), as evidenced by this cutting from the latest edition of Private Eye.
Hat tip: Sarrf London.
Softpedia reports that the Calibre eBook reader, editor and library management package has been updated to version 2.23.
The full list of changes since the last release can be seen in the changelog.
One of the major changes is the updating of the Qt cross-platform application framework bundled with Calibre to 5.4.1. This fixes various minor bugs, most notably improving text rendering on machines running Linux.
Furthermore, the new release of Calibre now allows users to add an empty ebook in various formats to existing book records. What is more, the ability to create additional empty formats to the ‘Add empty book’ command has been implemented.
Calibre 2.23 is available for download for Linux, Mac OS X and Windows.
If you’re on a Linux machine like me, your easiest way to update Calibre to the latest version is via the command line by running the following command as root:
wget -nv -O- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kovidgoyal/calibre/master/setup/linux-installer.py | sudo python -c "import sys; main=lambda:sys.stderr.write('Download failed\n'); exec(sys.stdin.read()); main()"
This sets the process in motion and you’ll have the new Calibre installed in no time.
In what appears to be a last-ditch swipe against foreigners, motorists who don’t speak either English or Welsh and want to use DVLA’s translation service will pick up the costs under changes announced on 25th March 2015 (the day before Parliament was prorogued. Ed.) by Transport Minister Baroness Kramer.
Transport Minister Baroness Kramer said: “The vast majority of calls to DVLA are either free or charged at local rate. However, it is only right that the cost of using translation services is paid for by those who use them. The change will help encourage individuals who don’t speak English very well to learn the language and also help when accessing government services.”
Under the changes, those who need a translation service will need to call the premium rate numbers, which will be publicised by DVLA closer to the implementation date of 29th April.
The numbers will be available from 8am to 7pm Monday to Friday and from 8am to 2pm on Saturday. Calling these telephone numbers will cost £1.03 per minute from a landline and may cost considerably more from a mobile.
All other public calls to DVLA contact centre are either free or charged at local rate.
Hat tip: Yelena McCafferty.
When venturing out onto Stapleton Road earlier today, an unusual sight met my eyes – an open-air church service for Good Friday, the Christian holiday commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his death at Calvary.
Seeing the service in progress prompted me to look at the etymology of Good Friday. From whence does it originate.
According to Wikipedia, the etymology of the term “good” in the context of Good Friday is disputed, with some sources claiming it is from the senses pious, holy of the word “good“, whilst others contend that it is a corruption of “God Friday“. The Oxford English Dictionary supports the first etymology, giving “of a day or season observed as holy by the church” as an archaic sense of good and providing examples of good tide meaning “Christmas” or “Shrove Tuesday” and Good Wednesday meaning the Wednesday in Holy Week.
In German-speaking countries Good Friday is generally referred as Karfreitag (Kar from Old High German kara ‘bewail‘, ‘grieve‘, ‘mourn‘; Freitag for ‘Friday‘): Mourning Friday. The Kar prefix is an ancestor of the English word care in the sense of cares and woes; and thus mourning. The day is also known as Stiller Freitag (Silent Friday) and Hoher Freitag (High Friday, Holy Friday) in German-speaking countries.
No Peanuts for Translators has posted a petition on Change.org to collect signatures for an end to copyright rustling – the deliberate deprivation of intellectual property rights for translators of literary works. Under copyright, literary translations are considered to be derivative works and their authors are entitled to royalties.
The text of the petition reads as follows:
Recent research shows that translators’ copyrights are “rustled” one third of the time in trade and commercial publishing—and eighty percent of the time in university-press publishing.
Simply put, copyright rustling happens when a book publisher takes something from a translator that rightfully belongs to the translator alone: copyright to his or her work.
Some of the biggest copyright rustlers in 2014 also happened to be some of the biggest publishers of translations in English—Europa Editions, Atlantyca, New Vessel Press, Gallic Books, Columbia University Press, Skyhorse Publishing, Yale University Press, Bloomsbury, Routledge, and others. (See Copyright “Rustling” in English-Language Translation: How Translators Keep (and Lose) Rights to Their Work—Data from Translations Published in 2014; http://tinyurl.com/lzpz2cm.)**
Copyright rustling is not inevitable. It is not “standard industry practice.” It is not necessary for the translator-publisher relationship to function nor does it help publishers “afford” to publish translations.
Let’s cut through the nonsense. Copyright rustling is a symptom of translators’ lack of negotiating power and of publishers’ willingness to exploit that weakness to their own advantage.
No Peanuts! calls upon all publishers of translations in English:
* Take copyright off the table. Negotiate fair terms with translators for licensing the use of their copyright, but recognize that the translation belongs to the translator who is allowing you to use it.
* Take copyright off the table. Recognize translators’ legal and moral rights to their intellectual property.
* Take copyright off the table. Stop coercing translators by making copyright transfer a take-it-or-leave-it condition of publishing contracts.
Mutual respect always. Copyright rustling never!
(Learn more about this issue on the No Peanuts! blog: https://nopeanuts.wordpress.com/resistance/stop-copyright-rustling.) Or write: nopeanuts.fortranslators@gmail.com.
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** At the close of the campaign, a copy of the petition & signatures will be delivered to the following publishers. If you’d like to contact them directly in the meantime, their addresses are listed in Copyright Rustling: http://tinyurl.com/lzpz2cm. Atlantyca, Bloomsbury, Cambridge University Press, Cistercian Publications, Columbia University Press, Duke University Press, Europa Editions, Fordham University Press, Gallic Books, Glagoslav Publications, Hackett Publishing, HarperCollins, Harvard University Press, Ignatius Press, Karnac Books, New Vessel Press, Palgrave/McMillan, Princeton University Press, Routledge, Rowman & Littlefield, Skyhorse Publishing, Stanford University Press, SUNY Press, Syracuse University Press, University of Chicago Press.
Sign the petition and help prevent fellow linguists being ripped off.
Yesterday I received my poll card from Bristol City Council cunningly inviting me to put a cross on pieces of paper in the forthcoming general election and council election both being held on Thursday, 7th May.
Spot the proofreading howler on the back of the poll card!
Professional Interpreters for Justice (PI4J) is an umbrella group an umbrella group representing over 2,000 interpreters on the National Register of Public Service Interpreters (NRPSI) and 300 British Sign Language (BSL) interpreters.
It has been campaigning since the Ministry of Justice signed an agreement with ALS (later Capita Translation & Interpreting) for the provision of interpreting services for courts and tribunals on the basis that reliable communication provided by qualified professional interpreters and translators is an essential resource which ensures that justice and human rights are upheld for non-English speakers and deaf people. This is put at risk if standards are dropped and quality is sacrificed for profit.
To highlight the threats to justice and human rights by cost-cutting on the provision of interpreters in the justice system and against the background of the forthcoming general election, PI4J has published a 7 point manifesto (PDF), as follows:
In a supermarket somewhere in the UK…
Using tongs would have been more hygienic in my opinion. 🙂
From Cassetteboy.
What the Conservatives and UKIP would really like to say given a free rein.
No further comment necessary! 🙂