Translators and national security

An article in the New York Times suggests the FBI is still underperforming in its translation project management... And there's worse! See fired FBI translator Sibel Edmonds denouncing incompetence and corruption at the agency on CBS's 60 minutes. Then compare and contrast with the case of Katherine Gun, the GCHQ whistleblower whose anti-war leanings got the better of her non-disclosure obligations.

Are the terrorists failing?

Looking at the gruesome images of beheadings and suicide bombings in Iraq, it's easy to think that the Islamic holy warriors are winning. But a new book by a distinguished French Arabist named Gilles Kepel argues the opposite case.

In praise of attrition

Tired of trite analysis of war in an election cycle? Ralph Peters' study in intellectual machoism from the illustrious US Army War College Quarterly is a refreshingly good read. Even includes a dig at defence contractors and their "endless blather about network-centric warfare..."

Jargon and why we outsiders love to hate it

Here's a discussion published in the ITI Bulletin about business jargon and how to deal with it in translation. I was actually looking for Chris Durban's Onionskin, but ITI and ATA seem to be keeping tabs on their copyright. If memory serves, NY agency Accurapid used to publish Onionskin in their Translation Journal, but no more... Check out the journal anyway, it's full of good stuff. Including a new experimental blog that has the potential to grow into (yet another) translator forum...

Detect. Decide. Shoot. Survive.

The online version of the Journal of Electronic Defense was replaced in June 2004 by eDefense. Membership seems to be free. Short article about French naval NCW quotes Valéry Rousset of Thales on the dangers of the OODA loop becoming Observe, Overreact, Destroy, Apologise...

dtSearch meets its match?

The free version of Copernic Desktop Search will be joined later by paid versions with extra features. Thanks to Woody's Office Watch for this latest nugget! It constantly updates the index when your PC is idle, but the output window is less usable than the excellent and more customisable dtSearch, especially with pdfs.

Lots happening in Google's space too, with new stuff from Amazon, Ask Jeeves and others, according to the BBC.