I once mentioned the Merriam-Webster online visual dictionary.

There’s now a German-English version online, the same material apparently.

This is provided by Pons.

The FTD article on Leo I mentioned recently also referred to the Pons free-of-charge dictionary that has been online since October 2008. It has a section called Open Dictionary to which registered users can contribute. The company hopes this will encourage print sales.

I was wondering what the wording would be if they unlocked this sign:

Ice is now 10 cm thick (the Elfstedentocht requires 15). Town employees clearing snow so it doesn’t freeze and make skating impossible:

Goalkeeper (ice hockey goal marked by boots):

The FTD has an article on Leo (= Link Everything Online) and Hans Riethmayer, the computer scientist who founded it at Munich Technical University in 1992.

Leo left the university and became a GmbH in 2006. Maybe that was when it removed its pages from Google linking.

The Financial Times Deutschland is interested in new businesses that succeed where traditional businesses fail. Leo earns 500,000 euros per year if all its banner advertising is taken.

The quality has improved.

Heute schenken Nutzer ihnen Vokabeln. Eine Tunnelbaufirma schickt ihr Glossar, der Verband der Nähmaschinenindustrie seine Fachbegriffe, nun kennt die Seite auch Stichmuster auf Englisch. Riethmayer hat Übersetzer eingestellt, die alle neuen Begriffe prüfen. “Zugegeben, unsere Qualität war am Anfang mäßig, weil Informatiker sich um die Inhalte gekümmert haben. Aber wir wurden immer besser.” Und die Rivalen immer unruhiger.

What I find interesting are the discussions about problem words. Click on Forum at the top left to find them. Or if you enter a problem word, you will get links to previous discussions. Here is a discussion on Hundekotaufnahmepflicht.

Of course, you have to work out whether to trust the suggestions.

(Thanks to Herbert for the link)

Many signs of beaver damage, as reported in local rag – apparently the beaver, unlike the muskrat, is welcome:

Joshua Rozenberg in der Telegraph beschreibt sein Schreiben als “Journalismus, nicht Bloggen”. Seinen Vertrag hat die Zeitung jetzt beendet, er wird aber nächstens auf der eigenen Website weiterschreiben.

Besonders interessant: Rozenberg erwähnt eine neue Art einstweilige Verfügung in England, die jede Erwähnung ihrer selbst verbietet (siehe letztes Zitat).

Joshua Rozenberg writes of law in 2009.

As already noted, he regards his writing as journalism, not blogging. He writes that blogging is largely opinion and journalism news.

Now to the nitty gritty:

I have had the misfortune to have been the last full-time, legally-qualified legal correspondent employed by both the BBC and The Daily Telegraph. There is now less coverage and analysis of law, politics and other demanding topics in the mainstream media than there was even a decade ago. …

In recent years we have seen the creation of an impressive trade press, chronicling the success or otherwise of lawyers and their practices. But the serious general reader looking for rigorous reporting has had to turn to the internet. As newspapers have shrunk, their on-line coverage has expanded.

Although this may not been immediately obvious to website readers, none of the stories and commentaries I have published on www.telegraph.co.uk/law since September 2008 has appeared in print. This is the last of them: the Telegraph has terminated my contract. But I plan to resume these reports, before long, on my own website — www.rozenberg.net — unless, of course, somebody makes me a better offer in the meantime.

He also refers to a new type of injunction that may not be mentioned. I haven’t yet traced the blogger who did mention it:

And blogging is also a way of by-passing the normal constraints of journalism. For example, it is now possible for the courts to issue an injunction which bans any public reference to its existence. I cannot tell you whether I have ever seen such an injunction — or at least, one that may still be in force — because to do so would be to breach it. But a very well-read blogger has recently done just this. If I were to link to that blogger’s website, I would be at risk of putting the Telegraph in contempt of court and I have no intention of doing this — tempting though it might be to test the law.

Donzdorf am 1. Januar.