Crime Under the Spotlight at 13th Translation Conference

Source: Peter Facey

Translators, writers and scholars have until the 15^th of June to submit proposals and papers for the 13^th Translation Conference which will be taking place at the University of Portsmouth.  The theme for this year’s conference is “Translation and Crime”.

The 2013 conference, set to take place on the 9^th of November, will focus on translation as it relates to crime: within the justice system, fiction and forensic linguistics amongst other areas.

Two plenary speakers have been confirmed:

Dr Karen Seago is the Director of Translating Popular Culture MA at the University of London. According to the university website Dr Seago holds an MA in English and German, as well as a PGCTS in German.  Seago teaches translation theory and sits on the editorial board of the Journal of Specialised Translation.

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

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.

Singapore: The IP Hub of the Future

Source: Chensiyuan

The Government of Singapore wants companies from across the globe to view it as the ‘go to’ destination for the registration and management of Intellectual Property (IP), as well as for IP dispute resolutions.

According to the Singapore Ministry of Law there has been a worldwide rise in patent and trademark filings, particularly in Asia. As such the Singapore Government identified IP as a new growth opportunity for the country, and convened the IP Steering Committee in May 2012.  After consulting over 200 IP professionals from more than a 100 organizations, said committee submitted its Master Plan in March 2013; the plan has since been accepted by government and will now be enacted.

The Master Plan

The ten year plan identified three strategic outcomes and two supporting enablers needed to achieve them, if Singapore is to become an international IP hub.

The Smart Home of the Future Is Here

Source: Pellesten

For most people the concept of a smart home implies a house with a number of cool features like a lighting system that can be activated by clapping one’s hands. Ion Cuervas-Mons thought bigger and, together with colleagues from the Think Big Factory (which he leads) has created a working, almost fantastical smart home called Openarch.

It’s a kind of magic

Openarch truly is the smart home of the future, offering a number of av services; a flick of the wrist can display internet pages or a cityscape (with sound effects) on the living room walls, a digital alarm clock on the bedroom wall can be switched off with a wave and the day’s schedule appears.

The smart home system works from a central console in the living room but lights, music and the internet can be activated or shut down by a movement within two meters from any wall.

UK Government Introduces ‘Help to Buy’ Mortgage Scheme

Source: Alan Cleaver

In another effort to help people buy houses (and boost the economy), Chancellor George Osborne recently announced an extension of current mortgage guarantee schemes FirstBuy and NewBuy, during the 2013 Budget Speech. Here’s a quick recap of the ‘Help to Buy’ scheme.

‘Help to buy’

Taking effect in April 2013, the three-year ‘help to buy’ scheme basically comprises of two parts: government will offer buyers of newly built home equity loans of up to 20% of the property’s value. These loans would be repayable once the property is sold and, according to the Financial Times Advisor, government will allow lenders to determine their own interest rates on the loans.

The second leg of the scheme is that Government will provide ‘mortgage guarantees’ to incentivise lenders to make loans available to buyers with small deposits.