Flotsam from interesting places

Reblogging things made by more interesting people. I'm into books, sci-fi tv new and old and tabletop RPGs. He/they, demi/grey-a, nerd. Also potentially ranting about geology and environmental stuff from a professionally enraged standpoint

[thefingerfuckingfemalefury]

Parents speak out after their teen died by suicide: Idaho's anti-trans extremism took a toll - LGBTQ Nation

When asked if anyone wanted to harm her daughter, her mother said "The whole f**king country" did.

“The parents go and testify, and we say, ‘Children are going to die,’” she said. “We tell the legislators that, and they dismiss it. I guess they think it’s hyperbole, or they think it’s hysteria, or they think it’s an acceptable outcome, probably some mix of those things

It's quite simple

That's their desired outcome

Transphobes pass transphobic laws with the end goal of our extermination

You can't shame a transphobe into caring about Trans people any more than you can shame a Klansman into being against slavery or shame a Nazi into realising antisemitism is a bad thing

The cruelty and suffering that their ideology causes is the POINT of their ideology

It's not some accidental byproduct.

It's not a bug. it's a feature

[cozy2000]

time to post my favorite far side comic of all time

[i-fuck-audis]

MY FUCKING CAR

[pankendev]

there are places in the world today that are experiencing 40°C for the first time in recorded history. of course there's no way to know whether chucking billionaires into volcanos will appease the sun god but i feel we're doing the scientific method a disservice if we don't at least try

[captain-price-returns]

[cursed-40k-thoughts]

Incredible vehicle spotted in the wild by a friend earlier

[cosmogyros]

The live-TV interpreter who said "Sag mal, wie lange wollt ihr bei dem Scheiß bleiben?!" has made a statement. I admire him hugely for not apologizing for what he said, or even technically retracting it, at any point in this statement. Instead, he takes the opportunity to make a jab at Trump's inability to put a reasonable sentence together:

Jetzt reagiert auch Dolmetscher Frank Deja, der für den Fauxpas gesorgt hatte. "Ich war überzeugt, ich hätte mich stumm geschaltet. Ich habe aber im Eifer des Gefechts die falsche Taste gedrückt. Wir haben als Dolmetscher sogenannte Räusper-Tasten, mit denen wir uns stummschalten können. Dann geht das eben nicht über den Sender – und meine Aussage sollte natürlich auch nicht über den Sender gehen", erklärt er "n-tv". Seinen Zwischenruf solle man nicht als politisches Statement deuten. "Nein, das wäre ganz verfehlt. Die politischen Inhalte sind nicht das Problem", meint Deja und fügt hinzu: "Ich dolmetsche ständig Leute, mit deren politischen Inhalten ich nicht einverstanden bin. Das Problem bei Trump war, dass er auf einmal anfing, frei zu assoziieren oder dreimal hintereinander dasselbe zu sagen. Diesen wirren Gedankensprüngen zu folgen, ist die Schwierigkeit beim Dolmetschen." Er erklärt: "Wenn ein Redner mit geordneten Gedanken redet, dann kann man, sobald der Satz angefangen hat, schon ungefähr erahnen, wie es weitergeht. Man kann auf dieser Welle weiter surfen. Aber bei Trump ist das unmöglich."

(source)

[cosmogyros]

I didn't think I'd have the energy to make a translation, but what the heck, I guess I will.

Background for the non-Germans: a German professional interpreter was live-interpreting the TV broadcast of the Trump inauguration when he suddenly broke off in the middle of his interpreting and said loudly, "Tell me, how long do we have to watch this shit?!"

Of course they immediately cut his mic after that, but it was too late :D

Anyway here's my rough translation of the article excerpt above:

Interpreter Frank Deja, who committed this faux pas, has now made a statement. "I could have sworn I'd muted myself. However, in the heat of the moment, it appears I pressed the wrong button. We interpreters have what's known as a 'cough cut' button on the interpreter console, which we can use to briefly mute ourselves. Then, whatever we say next doesn't get broadcasted – and obviously that sentence wasn't supposed to be broadcasted," he explained to n-tv. His exclamation is not intended to be understood as a political statement. "No, that's not it at all. The political content is not the problem," says Deja, adding, "I often interpret for people whose politics I don't agree with. The problem with Trump was that he suddenly started free-associating or saying the same thing three times in a row. Following these incoherent mental leaps is quite a challenge for an interpreter." He explains: "When a speaker presents their thoughts in an organized way, the interpreter can more or less guess where each new sentence is going as soon as it's begun. You can surf that wave. But with Trump, this is impossible."

[teaboot]

Not to be rhe ten millionth person to say “USAmerican President Donald Trump Is An Incoherent Public Speaker Whose Train Of Thought Can Be Best Described As Scat Jazz” but I just remembered that when he talks at international events it is several dozen people’s job to translate what he’s saying and what he intends to say to world leaders in real time

And I desperately wish to hear how they do it

[teaboot]

If anyone reading this isn’t fluent enough in English to understand the sentences that man says, please know that he has essentially mixed a number of adjectives and topics together in a hat and is pulling them out at random like a horrible children’s game

[teaboot]

Like that waxy jaundiced bitch will straight up be like “J'étais sur internet l'autre jour – internet, la plus grande invention américaine. Et la Chine a “internet aussi. Pas un bon internet, pas comme le mien, j'ai un internet formidable. Les gens me disent : « Donald, ton internet est génial ! » On adore l'internet de Donald. Mais la Chine… Chine, Chine, Chine… Vous savez qu'ils mangent des oiseaux ? C'est terrible. J'adore les oiseaux. La Chine mange des oiseaux. Pas comme nous. Pas comme mes oiseaux. Mais vous savez, c'est comme ça, et c'est terrible. Mais voilà ce que je vais faire : je vais sauver les oiseaux. Je vais sauver internet et sauver les oiseaux. Tous ces magnifiques oiseaux. Pour l'Amérique. Et la Chine va nous détester pour ça. Ils vont nous détester parce qu'on est les meilleurs sur oiseaux”. And people will lose their minds

[angryraptor13]

International translators have had this problem for A While - if they *don't* clean up what he says to sound coherent, they look like they're doing a bad job.

Why is difficult to translate Donald Trump? Trumpslation explained.

Explore Trump translation challenges, tips for interpreters, and 2025 strategies for accurate political translation and Trumpslation success

[teaboot]

oh my god

[freckles-a-constellation]

There was a scandal in Poland because one translator decided to translate him accurately, tone, vocabulary level and word salad tangents and all. Polish conservatives who don't speak English and previously only heard smoothed out translations that sounded coherent and used big words were up in arms about how the translator was "inserting her political agenda", "mocking him", "exaggerating", "purposefully trying to make him look bad" and "incredibly unprofessional". I listened to the translation in question. It was literally just accurate.

[kimbureh]

5. Sensitive and Controversial Language Trump’s speeches occasionally contain misogynistic, sexist, or inflammatory language. Japanese interpreter Tsuruta, for example, faced challenges when translating sexualized remarks, ultimately opting for standard terminology to maintain professionalism. Similarly, Chinese translator Kumiko Torikai found certain lewd expressions ethically challenging, ultimately leading to her retirement. Navigating these situations requires skillful balancing of accuracy, professionalism, and cultural sensitivity, ensuring that the translation is appropriate without distorting the original intent.

I don't know why the authors of PoliLingua act as if Trump's verbal misogyny and racism wasn't very much part of his "original intent".

it only now dawns on me that millions of people on this planet think Trump is way smarter than he is because translators have neglected to relate his violent speech accurately out of misunderstood politeness. Make the ape sound like a ape

[cosmogyros]

We had a mini-scandal in the German translation/interpretation community last year about exactly this – the interpreter for the inauguration got sick of Trump's incoherence and made a remark into his mic that was not intended to be heard (here's my post on it).

[witchofanguish]

[mahead-ithurt]

Always remember that the EU did a study in 2013 about the effects of piracy on media publishers and found that there is no correlation between piracy and sales! (And then they tried to hide that study bc that's not the result they wanted)

So piracy is at worst not even a problem, and at best it's free advertisement.

Source: (the link to the actual study is in the article)

EU withheld a study that shows piracy doesn't hurt sales - Engadget

In 2013, the European Commission ordered a €360,000 ($430,000) study on how piracy affects sales of music, books, movies and games in the EU

[rabbitindisguise]

Plus this one:

Study Again Shows 'Pirates' Tend to Be The Biggest Buyers of Legal Content

A new report out of the UK once again deflates the common narrative that pirates are exclusively looking to obtain free stuff.

[digitaldiscipline]

This is the 85 year old creator of Roger Rabbit:

[akiragatr]

Tumblr is super big on the "I didn't say it was good, I said I liked it" but really need to discover the value in its opposite of "I didn't say it was bad, I said I hated it".

You can acknowledge that something is good, great, a masterpiece even, and just straight-up not enjoy it.

[athelind]

When I first saw A Clockwork Orange in my late teens/early 20s, my reaction at the end was, verbatim, "That it was a Very Good Movie, but I don't know if I liked it or not."

Forty-odd years later, I still hold to that assessment.

[glindapenguin]

There’s also - and this might be unique to social realism films - the category of: this was a beautifully made, excellently acted film on an important subject. I’m glad I saw it, it deserves a bunch of awards, but I never want to watch it again.

[r2x2]

The Amnesty International report that JK Rowling is trying to censor through legal threats.

It can also be found on Google Drive here and on Bluesky here.

[cbarc]

Please save and share this info where possible. This report has since been removed by Amnesty International due to legal threats of libel from JK Rowling. This information is no longer easily accessible.

[queercanelady]

how it is apparently

[kropotkindersurprise]

If you see one of these things, cover your face and tip it over, if you have any paint or tools with you, wreck their cameras. [video]

[iteration-dave]

I’m a Luddite. You should be one too

Why a workers’ rebellion in 19th-century England is relevant in the age of data extraction, gig labour and management by algorithm.

[klymilark]

Appropos of nothing, nail polish comes in very small bottles that will fit in most bags, or pockets, without takingnup significant room, and removing it from many plastic-like surfaces is difficult, since many of those are dissolved in acetone

[pwhlphilly]

Witnessed on of these blocking the curb the other day. A woman in a wheelchair needed the space but the Captialism Robot completely blocked the way. The light changed color.

Luckily the oncoming driver saw this as well, turned on his warnings and pulled up to block her from other drivers.

A man came out of the crowd and literally had to pick up the robot and move it so she could safely access the sidewalk. A woman next to me commented to her friend "well that was nice of him, but now his door dash account will be deactivated because he touched it" as if that was anywhere in the realm of reasonable responses to witnessing one of these things endanger a woman's life. Oh no, his account 🙄 whatever will he do. Fuck these robots, and fuck doordash/ubereats/all these companies taking over public spaces for shareholder gains.

[imsobadatnicknames2]

I know I already made a post to this effect but it's so baffling to me when someone defends the fact that headphone jacks are slowly but surely getting phased out by smartphone manufacturers with some variations of "wireless headphones are more convenient anyway" bc like. If we're talking about convenience what I like about wired headphones is that they conveniently have a single plug that makes the same damn pair of headphones universally compatible with every single audio-output-capable device I own, from my phone and my computer to my fucking gameboy and my casette player, it doesn't get any more convenient than that.

[fuglyjeans]

Have you heard about Bluetooth it's legal now

[imsobadatnicknames2]

Yeah ofc lemme just pair my bluetooth headphones to my gameboy advance and my goddamn casette player why didn't I think of that

[jingerpi]

everyone in the notes arguing about which is more convenient when the options are literally:

headphone jack - you can use wired or Bluetooth, whichever you prefer! convenient for everyone, yay!

no headphone jack - totally fine for people who like Bluetooth! doesn't bother them. completely unusable for any wired things just completely removes the option it's literally impossible for no discernable gain other than profit (no it doesn't make it waterproof)

this isn't a choice between wired or Bluetooth it's between the ABILITY to CHOOSE between Bluetooth or wired in the first place. maybe one option is more convenient For You but removing the option doesn't even help you....

[sawdust-emperor]

Also, BATTERY?????? BLUETOOTH TAKES A BATTERY.

Forget to charge your headphones?? "Awww weh weh weh too fucking bad asshole. Go find a fuckin USB port about it if you even thought to bring a CORD with you for your CORDLESS headphones."

I don't have to test my wired headphones to make sure they still have enough charge, in fact I don't need to worry about charge with the wired ones at all!!

[sometiktoksarevalid]

[tahthetrickster]

[darkspaceboytoy]

Incredibly violent take of mine but I actually don’t think you need to relate to a story in any way to enjoy it. You can enjoy a story even if you can’t point at a character and insert some aspect of your personality or identity into them. In fact I would argue the need for a character like that to be present in every single story you experience is a sign of stunted growth.

[freshgratednutmeg]

@paxdracona 's tags have RESOUNDINGLY passed peer review