A Music Video That’s out of This World

The Sky’s Not the Limit

Canadian astronaut, Chris Hadfield, concluded his five month stay in space with style – he filmed a music video of himself covering David Bowie’s hit “Space Oddity”. The 53-year old astronaut can be seen floating in zero gravity on the International Space Station, strumming on his acoustic guitar while he sings. The lyrics are, of course, suited to the occasion.

This is Major Tom to Ground Control
I’m stepping through the door
And I’m floating
In a most peculiar way
And the stars look very different today

For here
Am I sitting in a tin can
Far above the world
Planet Earth is blue
And there’s nothing I can do

Though I’m past
One hundred thousand miles
I’m feeling very still
And I think my spaceship knows which way to go

Stock Market Trends Revealed by Google Search Suggestions

Stock market players could be turning to Google suggest for financial insight in the near future. A recent study conducted by U.S. and UK academics has suggested that there is a connection between the direction of stock market trends and search data.

Can Google Predict Stock Market Trends?

The analysis by researchers from the Universities of Warwick and Boston is the newest attempt to pinpoint online behaviour patterns for the purpose of chartering movements in financial markets. The published results have shown that during the period of the study, Google Trends data was effectively used to gain insight into the current state of the economy. An example given from the findings was the increase of search terms such as “stocks,” “economics” and “portfolios” by individuals during times of global economic stress. The conclusion drawn from the changes in search frequency for the collection of financial terms used (98 in total), is that they could be used as early signals of upcoming stock market trends.

Currency Wars No More

G20 Meeting Calms Fears

After predictions that the deliberate devaluing of the Japanese and Chinese currencies by their leaders would lead to a domino effect across the global market, mentions of an upcoming currency war appear to have ceased.

In February, both Asian nations faced criticism from Western leaders, accused of pushing up the values of other currencies and harming their export market. However, at a recent meeting of the G20 nations, countries kept their currency criticisms to themselves.

Fickle Financials

At least your forex broker can breathe a sigh of relief – it appears that the financial market is not about to implode anytime soon. The Chinese yuan, however, is at a 20-year low to the US dollar, whilst the Japanese yen has dropped below the 100 yen to the dollar mark.

Online Translation: Google Leads the Pack

Search Engine Giant Adds 66th Language

Google’s famous translation service has just added its 66th language – Khmer, the official language of Cambodia. There are around 16 million speakers of the language, but Google had great difficulty in adding Khmer since there are not a lot of web resources available, and the language doesn’t usually use spaces to separate the words.

Google Translate currently supports languages such as Afrikaans, Basque, Icelandic and Lao, which was the 65th language to be added last year in September. Whilst the translate tool can be incredibly useful, it is best to rely on professional translators for business or legal documents, in order to avoid embarrassing gaffes that sometimes occur when translations are left to algorithms and machines.

Humans versus Machines

Indeed, the offices at Google Translate do not contain native speakers of the languages that are featured. Instead, the algorithms examine language patterns already present in existing documents and books. Thus, the more literature available for a particular language, the more accurate the online translation is likely to be.

Turbulent Times for Foreign Exchange

BRICS Ditch the Euro

The BRICS nations, consisting of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, have been unloading their foreign exchange holdings of the Euro over the past two years. In 2012, the combined group of countries dropped almost $46.5 billion worth of the European currency. As a result, the status of the Euro as a world reserve currency has been greatly reduced.

For those with a CFD broker, who enjoy forex trading and playing the stock market, it would be wise to keep an eye on the fluctuating financial markets. Currently, the euro accounts for 24% of the allocated reserves held by 109 of the IMF members designated as developing economies. This is the lowest percentage since the euro was introduced in 2002.

A senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, Edwin Truman, announced that as a result, “The effects of the euro crisis will linger, growth will be slow, interest rates will remain low, and the general attractiveness of euro assets low”.

Joey Barton’s Twitter Jibes Lost on the French

Joey Barton has escaped punishment for his controversial Twitter tirade. The soccer player, who infamously directed a series of offensive tweets at Paris Saint-Germain defender Thiago Silva, has been let off the hook due to a translation issue.

Lenient Ruling for  Soccer’s Most Outspoken Player

Barton attended the CNE hearing yesterday after receiving backlash from Silva and a gay Paris football league for the inappropriate posts. The lenient ruling, which has raised a number of eyebrows amongst the French, has accrued a lot of interest for being the first time France’s FFF has looked into insults made on a social network.

French Unable to Translate Barton’s Foul Tweets

Highlighting the importance of legal translation services for these types of cases, the Joey Barton Twitter court case has prompted CNE to clarify the outcome. The uncertainty over the translation of his remarks led to the French Federation’s ruling, stating that they could not pass judgement until Barton’s Tweets were properly qualified. Laurent Davenas, the president of the National Ethics Commission (CNE), explained the decision saying: “If it had been in French, we wouldn’t have needed to reach an agreement.”

Roman Relics Discovered at London Dig

Over 8000 Artefacts and Counting

It’s time to don your Dickies redhawk action trousers – archaeologists working at the Bloomberg Place excavation site in London have unearthed more than 8000 historical items, including writing tablets, footwear, leather upholstery, pottery, charms, amulets and clothing. Indeed, the site has been dubbed “the Pompeii of the north”, and provides invaluable insight into the Roman occupation of London, which took place from AD 43 to AD 410.

Digging for Treasure

The excavation site is owned by the Bloomberg publishing group, and is the intended location of their future European headquarters. Archaeologists working on the dig expect the final number of artefacts to reach 10000. The items would have ended up in the ground after being thrown into refuse pits, or into the river as offerings. Since the ground remained water-logged over the years, no oxygen could get through to ruin the wood, leather, horn and textile items.