Monthly Archives: October 2009

multilingual telephone

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I’m doing a little experiment with online translators and taking you with me.  Because I can.

Your browser may have a hard time displaying some of the text below.

I’m starting with this quote from Pulp Fiction, “Hamburgers. The cornerstone of any nutritious breakfast.”  I’m going to put that through a series of translations using Google and ultimately back to English just to see what I get.

English: Hamburgers. The cornerstone of any nutritious breakfast.

English to Spanish:  Hamburguesas. La piedra angular de todo desayuno nutritivo.

Spanish to Dutch:  Hamburgers. De hoeksteen van een voedzaam ontbijt.

Dutch to Portuguese:  Hambúrgueres. A pedra angular de um café da manhã nutritivo.

Portuguese to Bulgarian:   Хамбургери. Крайъгълният камък на питателна закуска.

Bulgarian to French: Hamburgers. La pierre angulaire du petit déjeuner nutritif.

French to Vietnamese:  Hamburgers. Nền tảng của bữa ăn sáng bổ dưỡng.

Vietnamese to Hindi: हैम्बर्गर्स. एक पौष्टिक नाश्ता के फाउंडेशन.

Hindi to Thai: Hamburgers. มูลนิธิอาหารเช้ามีคุณค่าทางโภชนาการ.

Thai to Swedish:  Hamburgare. Foundation näringsriktig frukost.

Swedish to Greek: Χάμπουργκερ. Ίδρυμα θρεπτικό πρωινό.

Greek to Norwegian:  Hamburgere. Stiftelsen næringsrik frokost.

And finally, Norwegian back to English:

“Hamburgers. Foundation nutritious breakfast.”

Wow.  I’m impressed.

Another Fix

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This one almost slipped past me – there’s a short prequel to J.C. Hutchins’ amazing 7th Son trilogy.  It doesn’t appear to be available through the iTunes store, so you’ll have to download each file separately.

7th Son: 7 Days is a audio prequel anthology to J.C. Hutchins’ thriller novel, 7th Son: Descent. Set two weeks before Descent’s extraordinary events, the series reveals the lives of seven seemingly unrelated men, and their everyday challenges.

In the world of 7th Son, “everyday challenges” are far from ordinary. Each of these seven stories stars a unique John Michael Smith. Witness criminal profiler Dr. Mike’s quest to hunt an unstoppable serial killer. Watch blue-collar musician John realize a lifelong dream. Ride shotgun with USMC captain Michael on a dangerous black ops mission in the Middle East. Behold the worldwide influence of deranged computer hacker Kilroy2.0 … and more.
7th Son: 7 Days represents the creative reboot of the popular 7th Son thriller series. Designed to tightly integrate with 7th Son: Descent’s print novel storyline, 7 Days is a perfect introduction to the 7th Son universe. Meet the Beta clones … before they knew they were clones.

Watch Tower

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Finally, what we’ve all been waiting for – a story to top my wildly popular Door-to-door ADT sales post.

As I pulled on to my road I could see taillights in my driveway.  Very strange. I muted the lecture I was listening to, Tools of Thinking by Professor James Hall, and slowed down.  I pulled in and stepped out of my car.  An older lady with what I think was an Eastern European accent stepped out of the passenger side with a couple of books in her hand.

Oh, this should be fun.

“Hello. You are living here?”

“Yes.”

“I would like to talk to you about the Watch Tower.”

“We’re atheists.”

“Oh, okay.  I put something on your door. You can throw away.  Thank you.”

Wait just a minute.  What just happened?  That’s it?  Is she just a bored lady looking for conversations with people who already agree with her?  What about my eternal soul?