Enjoyable cabbages get lost in translation
DO YOU enjoy eating cabbages? Weâre 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 âI enjoy eating cabbagesâ into one. She told it to translate this into Japanese â 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, binarypigeonâs simple statement had turned into: âTherefore, 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.â
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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.
âGardening shop Thompson and Morganâs latest catalogue, Pam Lunn tells us, offers Karaka Black blackberries which it describes as ânon-thornless plantsâ
MEANWHILE, another young reader, 12-year-old Dashiell Lorett, noticed this about pork on the Scottish food website âWhatâs on your plate?â: âMeat 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.â
âWhat goes into the remaining pork-based products?â Dashiell asks. âAliens?â
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 51¶ŻÂțâs London office, stating that Piccadilly line trains head either âNorthâ or âWestâ (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 â 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 â and yes, we were aware of this, but who would admit voluntarily to such a depth of railway-connected knowledge?â
Weâll 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 Kingâs Cross St Pancras stations, you can use either the northbound Victoria line or the southbound Northern line. As Vincent Lugthart says: âWelcome to the quantum tunnels, where you may know where you are, but not which way youâre going.â
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 Kingâs 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 Kingâs Cross is âwestboundâ 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: âThe fastest known pulsar⊠rotates once every 1.5 milliseconds, making it faster than a kitchen blender.â
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 youâre guilty
THE same Sydney newspaper on a teenager who had her provisional driving licence suspended for, among other things, being âeight times over the drink-drive limitâ.
Cathy Milne read this with interest. As a provisional-licence holder herself, she knows that the legal alcohol limit for âP-platersâ 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: âWho should enroll?â The answer is: âPhysicians, Therapists, Psychologists, Psychotherapists, Dentists, Marketing Professionals.â
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