December 29th is the feast day of minor Scottish saint, Onan, who, despite his name, isn't the patron saint of anything in particular... #OldWeirdScotland

We are now at 75k signatures, with many messages of support on Instagram, Facebook and here. This is a genuine groundswell of love over hate, and a call to focus on the real harms faced by women and girls. Thank you all who’ve signed and shared. Let’s keep it going 💜 notinourname.org.uk

I'm sure that there will come a time when some company somewhere makes an AI product that I will trust to do something more ambitious than create a spreadsheet. But I doubt, I very much doubt, that there will ever come a time when an AI can do what humans do better than we do it.

To say that AIs can replace human translators is to say that AI can replace human painters and sculptors and singers and poets. It's to assume that AIs as they are currently made and will be made for the foreseeable future can surpass humans in those things which require a soul.

Translators work hard to make sure that the translated words, sentences, paragraphs, chapters, etc, not only convey the author's meaning, but also the author's *style.* Translators are alchemists. They are artists, and poets, and researchers, and editors. They are magicians and wizards.

AND ANOTHER THING, WHILE I'M AT IT: ENOUGH WITH THESE BULLSHIT CLAIMS THAT AI CAN REPLACE HUMAN TRANSLATORS!!! Translation is *not* the science of finding the perfect definition of a word from a foreign language and putting that definition into the text. Translators translate, of course. But!

Today's random #German word of the day is this. 📢 m.dict.cc/deutsch-engl... ... named after Pope Silvester I who died on this day in 335. Btw, this isn't uniquely German: 🇮🇹 Notte di San Silvestro, 🇫🇷 Réveillon de la Saint-Sylvestre, 🇵🇱 Sylwester, 🇨🇿 Silvestrovské oslavy #LearnALanguage

A good reminder that when you purchase an ebook or movie, you're usually just purchasing the license to have it in your library. You do not own it. The provider can alter or remove it at any time. If physical is available, buy that. If not, well, enjoy it while you can.

On December 27th we enter the dark heart of liminal week, the one-week period from December 25th through January 1st during which no new venture can be started, rules are stubbornly difficult to follow, and trying to hold on to routine only squeezes it out through your fingers. Be safe out there.

Speakers of languages that have formal/informal ways of addressing others (e.g. French vous/tu) and a culture of progressing through familiarity from the former to the latter: Does it ever go backwards? Could someone revert to formal 'you' as a signal of an ended friendship?

With another influx of users, a nudge to remind people to use alt text

I've found this to be true for the translation industry too. Making friends and supporting each other (building a network of amazing people) can open potential doors, but it takes years to build up those relationships. Fellow translators aren't competition, they're colleagues and friends.

I mean, you shouldn't laugh...

Does anyone else spend this time of year having no bloody clue what day of the week it is?

The two main genders are faceless dolls and skellingtons. [Currie Kirkyard]

Happy Christmas everyone, just remember, you'll get to stage 4 soon enough

Frohe Weihnachten to all the deadpan absurdists out there.

Happy Christmas! How cool is this?! I've tried to identify the languages in the alt text... can anyone confirm those I'm not sure about? Or indeed correct any of the others? #langsky #xl8

Unless the inlaws do something really surprising in the next few hours, I’ve survived #whamageddon for the fourth year in a row!

These visits by ghostes koude have been three emayles.

A day late, but it made me snort!

To all who celebrate:

Some of you have forgotten that only three years ago you were perfectly capable of writing a text, writing an email, telling a bedtime story to a child, and it should worry you that powerful companies have convinced us we can’t do things we’ve been doing since the dawn of time.

1) What's in a Prague 4 Street Name, day 267: Údolní, built in 1925.

1) What's in a Prague 4 Street Name, day 266: Aksamitova, built in 1932.

1) What's in a Prague 4 Street Name, day 265: Zálesí, built in 1925.

1) What's in a Prague 4 Street Name, day 264: Talafúsova, built in 1935.

1) What's in a Prague 4 Street Name, day 263: Na výstupu, built in 1925.

Welcome to the BookSkyGram! 📸 a tidied up feed of only photo or video #booksky posts. 1️⃣ save/heart/pin the feed if you're enjoying it 2️⃣ repost to help us find more bibliophiles 3️⃣ use 📚💙 in your photo/video posts to show up 4️⃣ more book feeds 👉🏻 booksky.club/list FAQ 👉🏻 bit.ly/bookskyFAQ

Please share. Thanks

Source: thequeerwithoutfear on tumblr

My first batch of Christmas cookies, all boxed up and ready to go to the lucky recipient. #bakingsky #cookieparty 🧁🍜

A little thank you 🐾🤍

The out of office is now on! 😀

#xl8 #literarytranslation 🌐 💙📚

Coming up Buchanan Street, quickly, on a sharp winter evening a young man and two girls, under the Christmas lights… —Edwin Morgan, “Trio” published in CENTENARY SELECTED POEMS, @carcanet.bsky.social 2020 #poem #poetry #Christmas #Glasgow www.carcanet.co.uk/cgi-bin/inde...

*pathetic voice* anyone?

This definitely has not just happened again. #amtranslating #xl8 🌐

#xl8 🌐

People in and near Glasgow, I’m thrilled to participate in this panel on Scottish Speculative Fiction next month at Waterstones Glasgow Argyle Street! Tickets available via link: www.waterstones.com/events/an-ev...

We live in tense, exhausting times. That’s why choosing kindness matters - giving credit, sharing admiration, saying thanks. Criticism is lazy comfort. Creation is risk. It’s easier to criticise than to create. I’d rather celebrate what’s good than tear down what isn’t.

I'm spending today, & probably some of tomorrow, working on a summary of this book. Instead of the usual chapter summary, I'm summarising by character, as the story is told through their eyes. Literary translator pals: is this a good idea? I'm suddenly not sure... #literarytranslation #xl8 🌐 💙📚 🇨🇿

I'm spending today, & probably some of tomorrow, working on a summary of this book. Instead of the usual chapter summary, I'm summarising by character, as the story is told through their eyes. Literary translator pals: is this a good idea? I'm suddenly not sure... #literarytranslation #xl8 🌐 💙📚 🇨🇿

1) What's in a Prague 4 Street Name, day 262: Psohlavců, built in 1933.

1) What's in a Prague 4 Street Name, day 261: Věkova, built in 1933.

Wie geht's? www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

And I may not sign even then!

1) What's in a Prague 4 Street Name, day 260: Pikovická, built in 1991.

1) What's in a Prague 4 Street Name, day 259: Kamenitá, built in 1925.