Es ist nicht schwer, mein Blog (ganze Einträge) auf einer anderen Site zu veröffentlichen. Aber ohne Link und ohne meinen Namen ist es mehr als irritierend.

Auf der Site von merlin translations, unter verschiedenen Städte- und Grafschaftsnamen, wird mein Blog sowie die Blogs von anderen auf dieser Weise wiederveröffentlicht. Die Site scheint nur dazu erstellt zu sein, über Google Ads Geld zu verdienen.

The merlin-translations site republishes several feeds without any acknowledgement (I wonder if anyone reads them…) The owner of the domain said this particular site is run by someone else, whom he would contact and request either to remove the link or to add my name and site. Nothing seems to be happening. (The purported email address at hotmail has expired).

Meanwhile I got some spammy stuff probably from Russia, telling me that my site has a serious defect (ein schwerwiegender Designfehler). Of course it has a lot of serious defects, but I didn’t realize that the omission of a favicon was such. I did try out some favicons once, but I didn’t like my results. I am told these people will do me one for 199 euros (I have to provide the logo myself). The serious problem of not having a favicon is that your site fills up with error messages from bots searching for the favicon. It’s all true, folks!

Fehlt die Datei favicon.ico, so kann das Fehlerlog eines Webservers bis zur
Unbrauchbarkeit mit Fehlermeldungen vollgeschrieben werden, da bei jedem Seitenaufruf versucht wird, sie zu laden.
Gut, dass wir den Fehler auf Ihrer Homepage entdeckt haben.

Good for who? A search for Frank Baader IT-Consulting reveals other recipients.

Not all of us who did German at King’s College London are as cheeky as Rory Bremner.

Bremner: Hi Margaret? Hi, it’s Gordon.
Beckett: All right, Gordon, what can I do for you?
Beckett [actually Bremner]: Have you spoken to Tony about next week or not?
Beckett: No, I haven’t actually, no.
Bremner: Cos obviously he’s going to get Alan [Milburn] back in, and Stephen [Byers], and I don’t know how you feel about that. Cos obviously we’re going to have to talk about the reshuffle over the weekend.

The Independent collects some other hoaxes in the article, for instance to Jacques Chirac, Fidel Castro and the Queen.

Here are some sentences for foreigners travelling on British railways – waiting for a translation into German – Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Polish have already been supplied.

Published by kapow

Trains are delayed because of the severe weather.
Trains are delayed because the hot weather has buckled the tracks.

Translations by Salford Translations Ltd.
Via Oversetter, who posted this before there had been another train accident on defective track.

Heutzutage kann man die neuesten Berühmtheiten auf der Richterbank in den USA auch gleich auf youtube schauen.
(Suche: Larry Seidlin)

From the Times Online: Tearful judge tipped for TV stardom after Anna Nicole show

Judge Seidlin, who paid his way through law school by driving a New York cab, is a native of the Bronx. He might have left that neighbourhood but it has certainly not left him.

Barking out pronouncements in his Florida courtroom in the thickest of New York accents, he nicknamed lawyers after their home states: “California, this doesn’t concern you!”; “Houston, I thought you were leaving!” “Texas” caused a stir on Thursday when he collapsed. The judge shouted: “He’s a diabetic. I can tell by his colour.” He offered to buy him some orange juice and fished out his credit card.

Youtube video of week
Tearful ruling

I am busy at the moment, so here is a quick plug for and reminder of the Kauderwelsch books – choose one of 110 languages for 7.90 euros, and it will tell you how to behave in the country and give you phrases in such a way that you understand the grammatical constructions. So if you know German and want a quick glimpse of one of those languages, this is a good way to get it.

Here’s the publisher, Reise-Know-How-Verlag. And here are the Sprachführer – select a language and have a look.

You’re a Tyrannosaurus Rex!
You can’t stop talking about the “good old days” of the past. While you remember everything being so much better and more glorious back then, you’ve got to realize that times have changed! It’s time to move on, time to bring in the new technology and advancements! Still, there is some charm to your olden out-dated ways. Children seem to love you, for example, as do some historians and scientists. And you should really eat something… your bones are starting to show.

Take the Animal Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

I’m not so sure my bones are showing.