The video ‘A Normal Day’ has been watched hundreds of thousands of times on YouTube.

The German TV program Galileo investigated whether it was faked or not (10-minute video).

The makers were two German students in Bad Ems. They really could carry out the tricks – sometimes after 30 or 40 attempts.

What I want to know is this: the intonation of the woman who describes the story in the program really really really irritates me and it is really really really common on German TV when they’re trying to tell you ‘this is funny’. You wouldn’t hear that intonation when they’re talking about the future of Opel or even the weather forecast. But there are lots of programs where they show trivial items.

When did this sort of intonation start – how do people learn it – is it used in other countries?

(Story tweeted by Jack Schofield (jackschofield – recommended for lots of good links).

It’s been widely reported today that the Federal Court of Justice has overturned the conviction of a man for possessing T-shirts with the words ‘Blood and Honour’ on them. However, the full decision is not online yet.

At all events, the case is being sent back for retrial, so possibly or even probably there will be a conviction.

Blut und Ehre is a slogan of the Hitler Youth. Blood and Honour is the literal English translation, and also the name of a skinhead/National Front organization whose German arm is banned.

The Gera Landgericht (Regional Court) convicted the defendant on the basis of § 86 a of the Criminal Code. Here is the original (from the press release) and Michael Bohlander’s translation (available online and in book form).

StGB § 86 a Verwenden von Kennzeichen verfassungswidriger Organisationen
(1) Mit Freiheitsstrafe bis zu drei Jahren oder mit Geldstrafe wird bestraft, wer
1. im Inland Kennzeichen einer der in § 86 Abs. 1 Nr. 1, 2 und 4 bezeichneten Parteien oder Vereinigungen verbreitet oder öffentlich, in einer Versammlung oder in von ihm verbreiteten Schriften…verwendet oder
2. Gegenstände, die derartige Kennzeichen darstellen oder enthalten, zur Verbreitung oder Verwendung im Inland oder Ausland in der in Nummer 1 bezeichneten Art und Weise herstellt, vorrätig hält, einführt oder ausführt.
(2) Kennzeichen im Sinne des Absatzes 1 sind namentlich Fahnen, Abzeichen, Uniformstücke, Parolen und Grußformen. Den in Satz 1 genannten Kennzeichen stehen solche gleich, die ihnen zum Verwechseln ähnlich sind.
(3) ….

Section 86a
Using symbols of unconstitutional organisations
(1) Whosoever
1.
domestically distributes or publicly uses, in a meeting or in written materials (section 11 (3)) disseminated by him, symbols of one of the parties or organisations indicated in section 86 (1) Nos 1, 2 and 4; or
2.
produces, stocks, imports or exports objects which depict or contain such symbols for distribution or use in Germany or abroad in a manner indicated in No 1,
shall be liable to imprisonment of not more than three years or a fine.
(2) Symbols within the meaning of subsection (1) above shall be in particular flags,insignia, uniforms and their parts, slogans and forms of greeting. Symbols which are so similar as to be mistaken for those named in the 1st sentence shall be equivalent to them.

(3) Section 86 (3) and (4) shall apply mutatis mutandis.

Aufgrund dieses Sachverhalts verurteilte das Landgericht Gera den Angeklagten wegen Verwendens von Kennzeichen verfassungswidriger Organisationen (§ 86 a StGB) zu einer Geldstrafe von 4200 Euro. Der u.a. für Staatsschutzstrafsachen zuständige 3. Strafsenat des Bundesgerichtshofs hat dieses Urteil aufgehoben und die Sache an das Landgericht zurückverwiesen.

It appears that the defendant is guilty of something, but the court thinks the wrong section was relied on: the translation of a slogan is something different from the slogan itself.

Press release of the court (German)

Blood and Honour (Wikipedia)

Charon QC (aka Mike Semple Pigott, I believe) has put a book and materials on contract law online, followed up with one on sale of goods, and one on intellectual property by Peter Groves.

All good stuff. Start with the IP, which is admirably brief.

I have decided to provide a FREE resource for those who are interested in this field. The Contract materials will be supplemented by a series of recorded lectures, and I plan to monitor the net for other free legal resources on Contract Law in England & Wales (Although I will include references to US, Scotland and Common Law jurisdictions where it is helpful to do so) – law reports, news items, article abstracts and the like… this is, inevitably, a work in progress. I have set up a blog (See header) for analysis, articles, news – and I shall start to post the latest cases on Contract and analysis very shortly.

John Bolch, of the Family Lore weblog, has recently escaped legal practice and has started a Family Law Wiki. It’s only just started but looks promising.

Links to these resources can be found in the left-hand column of the Insite Law Magazine.

Charon QC’s blog

Information at Insite Law on today (links omitted):

The Glorious Twelfth is usually used to refer to August 12 , the start of the shooting season for Red Grouse ( Lagopus lagopus scoticus ) and to a lesser extent the Ptarmigan ( Lagopus muta ) in the United Kingdom … perhaps not so glorious for the grouse though…

The German-English translation site Linguee has recently corrected something I have complained about here and here.

This was the fact that the results page did not show the names of the sites referred to. To find that out, one had to click through, which might mean thirty or forty clicks a page.

The reason we need to see the name of the site quickly is because it’s extra evidence that the English comes from a German site, and may therefore be translatorese.

Now, Linguee shows the URL after each hit, which is a great improvement and is a quick response to criticisms.

Admittedly, it does confirm that most of the DE>EN translations are on German sites, a basic fact I was too stupid to realize before. However, a URL containing the name of a big international law or accountancy firm is a good sign that at least the terminology work may be reliable.

Fabio M. Said, in fidus interpres, links to MyMemory, which is like Linguee but covers more languages. It also invites user input (I would not like to upload my private client work) and permits download as TMX, which sounds interesting. However, the memory appears to be very small in comparison with Linguee’s, as far as German-English is concerned. Might be interesting for other languages.

There are a number of sites on the Web that list translation weblogs.

The Polyglot blog has just published its updated long list. What language the blogs are in is not always clear, but it’s easy to click through and check.

Recently, mygengo.com has been adding a page for each of a number of translation weblogs. Here’s the list, and here is the page for Transblawg. This list might be an easier place to start, as it’s growing but not yet as long as the Polyglot one.

As far as my blog is concerned, they have definitely made the effort of reading it and actually point out that a knowledge of German would be useful (because I don’t translate all the German I quote and some of my links are German). They also have tags like ‘German’ so one can narrow down the list, and they supply an RSS link, for example, for each blog.

The London Review Blog has a nice game:

Think of a book. Then imagine someone other than the author who might – or could never – have written it.

Fear of Flying by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Party Going by Marcel Proust
I Married a Communist by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Lucky Jim by Jane Austen

More in the comments.