Enjoyable cabbages get lost in translation
DO YOU enjoy eating cabbages? We鈥檙e not sure whether the teenager known online as binarypigeon does, but her mother tells us that when she wanted to test the limitations of online automatic translation systems, she typed the phrase 鈥淚 enjoy eating cabbages鈥� into one. She told it to translate this into Japanese 鈥� and then translate the resulting phrase back into English, and then translate that to another language, and then back to English, and so on.
After approximately 20 such translations, binarypigeon鈥檚 simple statement had turned into: 鈥淭herefore, that is eaten because of possibility of fact of thing of possible possibility, designated that and that of a certain specification regarding that reason being shown it becomes, is inferred or as been, because either one types, whether it has been shown the fact that possibility should do my cabbage to that of the reason of this type, either one should enjoy some dependence of the range hypothesis our appointments which are shown, whether, these of appointment of the appointment which is shown are done.鈥�
Advertisement
In the light of this, Feedback hopes that international bodies like the United Nations will continue to rely on human translators rather than mechanical ones for a while.
鈥淕ardening shop Thompson and Morgan鈥檚 latest catalogue, Pam Lunn tells us, offers Karaka Black blackberries which it describes as 鈥渘on-thornless plants鈥�
MEANWHILE, another young reader, 12-year-old Dashiell Lorett, noticed this about pork on the Scottish food website 鈥淲hat鈥檚 on your plate?鈥�: 鈥淢eat from pigs goes into our bacon butties, ham for our packed lunch, pork roast for our Sunday dinner and many of the other pork based products that we eat on a regular basis.鈥�
鈥淲hat goes into the remaining pork-based products?鈥� Dashiell asks. 鈥淎liens?鈥�
North meets south heading east
FULLY half a dozen readers responded to our observation that there is a sign at Holborn underground station, round the corner from New 杏吧原创鈥榮 London office, stating that Piccadilly line trains head either 鈥淣orth鈥� or 鈥淲est鈥� (4 September). This, we said, implies an uncomfortably sharp bend in the middle of the station.
Several readers asked whether we were aware of the history behind this 鈥� that once upon a time, the Piccadilly line coming from the north divided at Holborn, with one branch heading south and the other turning west. The southern branch was subsequently closed, leaving only the bend behind 鈥� and yes, we were aware of this, but who would admit voluntarily to such a depth of railway-connected knowledge?鈥�
We鈥檒l get our anorak in due course, but first, fellow railway enthusiasts might like to know about a further quirk of the London underground system that our correspondents have pointed out. When making the one-stop trip from Euston to King鈥檚 Cross St Pancras stations, you can use either the northbound Victoria line or the southbound Northern line. As Vincent Lugthart says: 鈥淲elcome to the quantum tunnels, where you may know where you are, but not which way you鈥檙e going.鈥�
Even stranger, John Davies points out, is the fact that a short walk from Euston to nearby Euston Square station allows you to make that same journey to King鈥檚 Cross on the eastbound Metropolitan line. This fits with the direction indicated by the geographically accurate street map, but the inference that parallel universes contain a further line on which the journey to King鈥檚 Cross is 鈥渨estbound鈥� is irresistible.
We could say a lot more about this fascinating topic, but for some reason the editor thinks we should stop here.
last month in The Sydney Morning Herald quoted George Hobbs, an astronomer with the Australian research organisation CSIRO, as saying: 鈥淭he fastest known pulsar鈥� rotates once every 1.5 milliseconds, making it faster than a kitchen blender.鈥�
Scott Hawker wonders what brand of kitchen blender Hobbs is referring to, and what sort of fruit cake it would make.
Eight times zero means you鈥檙e guilty
THE same Sydney newspaper on a teenager who had her provisional driving licence suspended for, among other things, being 鈥渆ight times over the drink-drive limit鈥�.
Cathy Milne read this with interest. As a provisional-licence holder herself, she knows that the legal alcohol limit for 鈥淧-platers鈥� in New South Wales is zero.
WHY do so many people succumb to the blandishments of marketing? David Sharman thinks he has the explanation. The web page on the course at Bucks County Community College, Pennsylvania, asks: 鈥淲ho should enroll?鈥� The answer is: 鈥淧hysicians, Therapists, Psychologists, Psychotherapists, Dentists, Marketing Professionals.鈥�
FINALLY, for a chance to win some life-saving lingerie, visit our competition page at www.bit.ly/bracomp. Chicago trauma researcher Elena Bodnar won the 2009 Ig Nobel public health prize for inventing a brassiere that doubles as two protective facemasks in an emergency. Tell us your own best idea for multifunctional clothing and you could win a Bodnar bra.