The best-known German forensic biologist, Mark Benecke, was pinned to the ground and deprived of his camera by five police at Cottbus as he was getting out of a train, reports Berliner Kurier. A station employee at Berlin, it was claimed, (although Benecke had not been in Berlin all day), had mistaken his mobile phone for a semi-automatic rifle. No warning was given.

Kurzes Haar und Dreitagebart. Ein schwarzer Mantel, schwarze Kleidung und ein Holster – “ist fürs Handy!”. So sieht es aus, wenn Mark Benecke (berät die Polizei in komplizierten Mordfällen) durchs Land reist. Das ist vielleicht verwirrend für einen sensiblen Beamten. Eine Angestellte vom Bahnhof Zoo schlug in Berlin Alarm, als der Biologe den Zug nach Cottbus nahm.

But at least it wasn’t the Metropolitan Police.

(Via law blog)

Der Shoposkop-Typtest stellt fest, was für ein Einkauftyp man ist. Ich bin angeblich der häusliche Nerd, will aber nicht unbedingt die sechs Geschenke kaufen, die mir vorgeschlagen werden (OK, einen Julienne-Hobel besitze ich schon, allerdings keinen von Kyocera, das ist nur der Drucker)

Dank an den verkitschten Feingeist bei Wortfeld

The Telegraph reports that there were probably translation errors that may account for discrepancies in the statements of the ‘Tapas Nine’.

“In the early days of the investigation there were dozens of statements being given at what was a very confusing time,” a police source said.

“Obviously the police acted in good faith in their selection of translators but given all that has been said about the various contradictions in the versions of events, detectives are now re-examining the possibility that there may have been some problems,” he said.

Apparently Robert Murat was one of the translators as well as a suspect (although it seems that, under Portuguese law, making someone a suspect does not necessarily mean the person is suspected of involvement in a crime).

Detectives are now said to be questioning the decision to use Robert Murat, 33, as an official police translator in the first crucial week after Madeleine disappeared.

The British ex-pat, who is bilingual, was made an arguido – or formal suspect – on May 14.

(I don’t wish to defend the McCanns, nor to imply that enough money will ever be put into court interpreting and translation to ensure that every case gets good translation)

Thanks to Derek at flefo.

This St. Martin doesn’t look as if he’s going to share his cloak with anyone.

Ratschläge für das Fuerthermare / Advice for visitors to the new thermal baths

Ich bin ganz begeistert, dass es jetzt ein Thermalbad gibt, das ich mit dem Bus in 8 Minuten erreichen kann. Ich möchte nur ein paar Tipps für die geben, die einen Besuch planen. Alle Tipps auf Deutsch in der Fortsetzung unten. Bitte nicht als Kritik auffassen, aber wegen der fehlenden Information vielleicht nützlich. Jedes Bad ist ja gewöhnungsbedürftig.

Das Deutsch ist teilweise korrigiert, auf ein Kommentar hin, enthält aber sicher noch Fehler. Wenn etwas unverständlich sein sollte, bitte fragen.

All the advice is in German in the extended entry. The new thermal baths are, or were, practically free of text and diagrams, so it’s worth understanding the design before you go in.

For pictures of the salt water grotto / Bilder der Lichtinstallation in der Solegrotte hier.

Weiterlesen …

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On November 6, the Jerusalem Post reported on what sounds like a major diplomatic incident arising from a machine-translated email. A group of Israeli journalists were invited by the Dutch foreign minister to visit the Netherlands, and the only journalist who did not speak English sent five questions by email, using Babelfish to translate Hebrew into English.

“Helloh bud, Enclosed five of the questions in honor of the foreign minister: The mother your visit in Israel is a sleep to the favor or to the bed your mind on the conflict are Israeli Palestinian, and on relational Israel Holland,” began the e-mail. It continued with five nearly incomprehensible questions, and several other mentions of “mother.” …

As for the references to the foreign minister’s “mother” – the Babelfish Web site had translated the Hebrew word for “if” (ha’im) as the similar word for mother (ha’ima). Other mistakes included “bandages of the knitted domes” instead of “Dome of the Rock” and one question that read: “Why we did not heard on mutual visits of main the states of Israel and Holland, this is in the country of this.”

Was this reported in the Dutch press? It seems to have caused more problems than I would have expected:

The Dutch Foreign Ministry is considering canceling the entire trip and filling a formal complaint over the incident. The journalists, meanwhile, said that they were currently too embarrassed to continue with the planned visit.

(Via Vivendo y Traduzindo and itnews)