"Quanta...like spit in the dust of a baseball field" - Cody

March 07, 2005

On the ghostblog "Watch List," there can be no peace

For piece of mind, I have to post something so I'll share a tidbit that my sister sent me today. I think it's going to kick-off a series of translation-based prose pieces.

Background: my sister works for an environmental planning firm. She manages a mitigation project for a golf course that was built on tiger salamander habitat. The tiger salamander is an endangered species in California. Her client (the golf course) installed triangular ramps that allow the salamanders to crawl out of a roadway on the property (this assumes that 1. the salamanders are smart enough to find the ramps and 2. that they want to leave the roadway, as if they had some instinctual fear of being run over). Part of managing this project requires my sister to communicate to the golf course staff on proper procedures for encountering the salamanders and how to refrain from accidentally killing the salamanders (a big no no).

So she printed up some cards to distribute to the golf course staff on the proper salamander encounter procedures. Since many of the staff are Spanish speaking, she translated the procedures. As a double-check to make sure she had done this properly, she fed the Spanish into Babelfish and this is what she got:

California Tiger Salamander Reporting Procedures 1) you do not move nor headresses the salamander; in order to work in the zone. 2) Apunta the date, the locality of the salamander, the time of observation, the condition of the salamander, and the circumstances in that you found it. 3) Avisa Joe Root. If not this available one, warns Roger Harris AT LSA Associates; (510) 236-6810. "California to tiger salamanders" lives in CordeValle. A photo of "tiger can be found to salamander" alongside opposite of this card.

Thanks to Kristina for harassing me about the vacuum that quanta has been. I'll try to keep it full.

Posted by cbsisco at March 7, 2005 08:31 PM
Comments

Another translation from my sister:

The rapists can even receive jailed fines and being if the damage caused to the salamander of the tiger is without wanting and if the rapist is unconscious of the law.

Posted by: Cody at March 26, 2005 10:09 AM
Cementhorizon