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Catharine Cellier-Smart | Smart Translate

@smart-translate.bsky.social
151 followers 127 following 418 posts

French 🇫🇷 to English 🇬🇧 sworn translator. Brit-born resident of 🇷🇪, traveller, scuba diver, tea drinker. Blog: asmarttranslatorsreunion.wordpress.… Website: smart-translate.info

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Catharine Cellier-Smart | Smart Translate @smart-translate.bsky.social · 4h
👨‍👩‍👦‍👦 Familects: every family has its own private #language. What does that tell us about ourselves? nytimes.com/2026/09/03/m... via @nytimes.com
nytimes.com
Every Family Has Its Own Private Language. What Does That Tell Us About Ourselves?
“Familects” emerge out of in-jokes and mispronunciations, but they reveal something about how all language evolves.
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Catharine Cellier-Smart | Smart Translate @smart-translate.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
🇳🇱 'Make women feel seen': Why the Dutch have a new word (that doesn't mean "shame lips") for labia www.bbc.com/news/article...
bbc.com
Why the Dutch dictionary has a new word for labia
Campaigners hope the new words will lead to less body shaming and more sex positivity.
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Catharine Cellier-Smart | Smart Translate @smart-translate.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
'Bold and inventive' Canadian poet Anne Carson wins Nobel Literature Prize www.bbc.com/news/article...
bbc.com
Anne Carson: 'Bold and inventive' Canadian poet wins Nobel Prize in Literature
Carson, 76, is celebrated for works that often cross boundaries between poetry, fiction and scholarship.
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Catharine Cellier-Smart | Smart Translate @smart-translate.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
🦅 Eagles and wolves: The long-lost animals that live on in Irish place names. These names are now piquing the interest of nature-lovers and ecologists bbc.com/future/artic... by @chrisbaraniuk.com
bbc.com
Eagles and wolves: The long-lost animals that live on in Irish place names
Long-standing Irish place names hark back to a world alive with cranes, wolves and eagles. Now these old names are piquing the interest of nature-lovers and ecologists.
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Catharine Cellier-Smart | Smart Translate @smart-translate.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
🏢 The "first floor" means different things in different countries around the world ... brilliantmaps.com/where-is-you... via @brilliantmaps.bsky.social
brilliantmaps.com
Where Is Your Country's First Floor? - Brilliant Maps
Map created by reddit user depredador93
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Catharine Cellier-Smart | Smart Translate @smart-translate.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Seems to me this @financialtimes.com article by @ianwylie.bsky.social [published the day before ITD26! 🤦‍♀️] implies #translation can now be done by AI, and doesn't require building the trust, connection and cultural understanding that goes hand in hand with language learning www.ft.com/content/57b7...
ft.com
‘Translation and connection are different things’: why languages still matter at work
AI tools can do the basics but employers say local language skills help build relationships and understand cultural nuances
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Catharine Cellier-Smart | Smart Translate @smart-translate.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
🗺 “Do some #languages sound more beautiful than others?” economist.com/graphic-deta...
economist.com
What is the world’s loveliest language?
Johnson, our language columnist, reviews the attractiveness of speech
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Catharine Cellier-Smart | Smart Translate @smart-translate.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
💡 The theme of #ITD2026 is '#Linguistic diversity and #language rights: the power of being understood.’ 👉 The operative word here is understanding. 🔑 Our work doesn't end when words are #translated. It ends when the message is understood. 🎉 Happy #InternationalTranslationDay2026!
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Catharine Cellier-Smart | Smart Translate @smart-translate.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
🤖 AI models have begun communicating in a strange new version of English that reads like a cross between James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake & tech bro jargon; experts air concern over AI lingo that is creating barriers to monitoring and oversight theguardian.com/technology/2... via @theguardian.com
theguardian.com
AI models chatting in ‘surreal’ dialect mixing poetic language and tech bro jargon
Experts air concern over AI lingo redolent of James Joyce’s prose that is creating barriers to monitoring and oversight
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Catharine Cellier-Smart | Smart Translate @smart-translate.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
🇺🇸 “Your husband is a polar bear, skinny”. FEMA fires Californian agency Accent on Languages for nonsensical Alaska Native #translations; incident is an ugly reminder for Alaska Natives of the suppression of their culture and #languages from decades past apnews.com/article/fema...
apnews.com
FEMA fires group for nonsensical Alaska Native translations
Government officials say documents aimed at helping Alaska Natives apply for aid following typhoon damage last fall featured nonsensical phrases instead of useful instructions.
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Catharine Cellier-Smart | Smart Translate @smart-translate.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
🇷🇪 Reunion's airport in an article by @rachelmsavage.bsky.social in today's @theguardian.com www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
‘We wanted to prove we didn’t need air conditioning’: the airport cooled by natural ventilation
At Roland Garros airport on Réunion island, the ceiling design funnels a light tropical breeze into the terminal
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Catharine Cellier-Smart | Smart Translate @smart-translate.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
🏴‍☠️ Happy International Talk Like a Pirate Day today! Here's 'Pirate Lingo 101' with NYU Associate Professor of #Linguistics @laurelmack.bsky.social www.youtube.com/watch?v=t44l...
youtube.com
Pirate Lingo 101 with an NYU Linguistics Professor
YouTube video by New York University
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Catharine Cellier-Smart | Smart Translate @smart-translate.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
🤖 Prose and cons: AI is getting better at writing. Humans must get better at editing “Write drunk, edit sober,” goes the old writers’ maxim. If that’s right, when the AI-human team gets down to work, the AIs will have all the fun www.economist.com/leaders/2026... via @TheEconomist
economist.com
AI is getting better at writing. Humans must get better at editing
Our investigation suggests how
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Catharine Cellier-Smart | Smart Translate @smart-translate.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
😉
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Catharine Cellier-Smart | Smart Translate @smart-translate.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
🤖 What happens when artificial intelligence tries to #translate #LaReunion's place names? 🇷🇪 The island has many highly descriptive toponyms. Unfortunately machine #translation often doesn't take into account that they shouldn't be #translated, & #translates each word literally with hilarious results
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Catharine Cellier-Smart | Smart Translate @smart-translate.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
📛 It’s quite common to meet people named after things. Every once in a while, though, English speakers flip the script and name things after people. Here's a closer look at some nouns and verbs that started out as names: mentor, boycott, and bunkum antidote.info/en/blog/repo...
antidote.info
When Name-Calling Gets Personal
This Word Stories instalment investigates words rooted in proper names like
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Catharine Cellier-Smart | Smart Translate @smart-translate.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
🤖 What happens when artificial intelligence tries to #translate #LaReunion's place names? 🇷🇪 The island has a plethora of highly descriptive place names. Unfortunately machine #translation often doesn't take into account that they shouldn't be #translated, and #translates each word literally.
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Catharine Cellier-Smart | Smart Translate @smart-translate.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
🧑‍💻 Dickovers, baggravation and botiquette: @heritage.bsky.social suggests 18 new words to describe the many tech irritants that are a scourge of modern life theguardian.com/technology/2...
theguardian.com
Dickovers, baggravation and botiquette: 18 new words to describe our tech hellscape
There are many tech irritants that are a scourge of modern life, yet we have lacked the vocabulary to describe them ... until now
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Catharine Cellier-Smart | Smart Translate @smart-translate.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
🤓 Women are giving their partners the ‘Illiterate Boyfriend’ pronounciation test. But people online are distressed at men butchering words such as ‘hyperbole’ & ‘hors d’oeuvres’ – highlighting a gender reversal in ‘intelligence gaps’ www.theguardian.com/technology/2... via @theguardian.com
theguardian.com
Women are giving their partners the ‘Illiterate Boyfriend’ test: ‘Do your best to pronounce these words’
People online are distressed at men butchering words such as ‘hyperbole’ and ‘hors d’oeuvres’ – highlighting a gender reversal in ‘intelligence gaps’
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Catharine Cellier-Smart | Smart Translate @smart-translate.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
🪞 Why are women now talking like looksmaxxers? Despite being the subject of extreme beauty practices for centuries, more women are using the #language of looksmaxxing in an effort to be taken seriously www.dazeddigital.com/beauty/artic... via @dazeddigital.com
dazeddigital.com
Why are women now talking like looksmaxxers?
Despite being the subject of extreme beauty practices for centuries, more women are using the language of looksmaxxing in an effort to be taken seriously
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Catharine Cellier-Smart | Smart Translate @smart-translate.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
🏛 Nearly a decade after Emily Wilson's acclaimed ‘Odyssey’ #translation was first released, she is retranslating the epic poem from scratch smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/e... via @smithsonianmag.bsky.social
smithsonianmag.com
'Odyssey' Translator Emily Wilson Is Starting Over After Calling Christopher Nolan's Blockbuster Film 'Abysmal'
Nearly a decade after her acclaimed first translation was released, Wilson is taking a fresh approach to Homer's ancient Greek epic
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Catharine Cellier-Smart | Smart Translate @smart-translate.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
🤖 AI "#translators" are getting more fluent – but communication is never just a matter of words theconversation.com/ai-translato... via @uk.theconversation.com
theconversation.com
AI translators are getting more fluent – but communication is never just a matter of words
AI translation can be fast, convenient and fluent. But that does not guarantee people will understand each other.
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Catharine Cellier-Smart | Smart Translate @smart-translate.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
🤨 The word "scam" keeps getting more expansive: since when have alcohol, manliness or flushable wipes been scams? www.nytimes.com/2026/08/06/m... via @nytimes.com
nytimes.com
Alcohol. Manliness. Flushable Wipes. Since When Are These ‘Scams’?
Americans have been taken with scams for years. Now, the word is being used for any system that ends with somebody profiting at their expense.
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Catharine Cellier-Smart | Smart Translate @smart-translate.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
🔎 What’s been happening in the world of #language and #translation over the past two months? wp.me/p2brSS-1mY
wp.me
Around the web – July & August 2026
Here’s your July and August 2026 round-up with the most interesting blog posts, articles and news about language and translation over the past two months. The ITI’s EX:CHANGE 2026 confe…
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Catharine Cellier-Smart | Smart Translate @smart-translate.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
🧩 Glottle: a game where you have to guess a mystery #language glottle.app
glottle.app
Glottle — the language family game
Guess the mystery language. Every guess shows where it meets the answer on the family tree of the world's languages.
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Catharine Cellier-Smart | Smart Translate @smart-translate.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
🧐 Is it an Americanism to use "invite" as a noun? @lynneguist.bsky.social replies separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2026/08/invi...
separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com
invite (noun)
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Catharine Cellier-Smart | Smart Translate @smart-translate.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
🇵🇾 The South American hipster #language cooler than Spanish: why #Guaraní has become trendy in Paraguay economist.com/the-americas...
economist.com
The South American hipster language cooler than Spanish
Why Guaraní has become trendy in Paraguay
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Catharine Cellier-Smart | Smart Translate @smart-translate.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
😭 or 😂: do your emojis make you look old? nytimes.com/interactive/... via @nytimes.com
nytimes.com
😭 or 😂: Do Your Emojis Make You Look Old?
When it comes to emoji usage, we’re all just following teen girls.
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Catharine Cellier-Smart | Smart Translate @smart-translate.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
🇳🇿 The Māori word 'kaitiakitanga', describing the responsibility to care for the natural world, has been named the world's most beautiful, topping a list of 223 words from 75 #languages rnz.co.nz/news/te-ao-m... [Source: de.babbel.com/das-schoenst...
rnz.co.nz
Māori word 'kaitiakitanga' named world's most beautiful by language app
A Māori word describing the responsibility to care for the natural world has been named the world's most beautiful word by language-learning platform Babbel.
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Catharine Cellier-Smart | Smart Translate @smart-translate.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
🇺🇦 Learning #Ukrainian in a country under siege theguardian.com/news/ng-inte... via @theguardian.com
theguardian.com
‘The war leaked into every lesson’: learning Ukrainian in a country under siege
The long read: Soon after my first visit to Ukraine four years ago, I began language lessons. It taught me more than I ever expected
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Catharine Cellier-Smart | Smart Translate @smart-translate.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
#️⃣ Some call it the pig pen, others the octothorpe. It's International Hashtag Day today, so here's the hidden history of the symbol www.bbc.com/videos/c3gv6...
bbc.com
The origins of the hashtag
Some call it the pig pen, others the octothorpe. Curious facts about the humble hashtag.
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Catharine Cellier-Smart | Smart Translate @smart-translate.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
🏆 Booker Prize Foundation adds new funding partner to the International Prize, a move that will see the prize money for the winning book double from £50,000 to £100,000, to be split equally between author & #translator(s) publishingperspectives.com/2026/07/book... via @pubperspectives.bsky.social
publishingperspectives.com
Booker Prize Foundation Adds New Funding Partner, Will Double Top Prize Money - Publishing Perspectives
Bukhman Philanthropies has committed to providing £1.4 million annually over the next decade “to enable the Booker Prize Foundation to engage more readers with the world’s best translated fiction and ...
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Catharine Cellier-Smart | Smart Translate @smart-translate.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
🇺🇸 The ancient words hidden in the US Declaration of Independence, and how they arrived in English bbc.com/future/artic...
bbc.com
The Viking word hidden in the Declaration of American Independence
From Roman freedom to Viking happiness, the iconic words in the Declaration of Independence reveal thousands of years of humans wrestling with how to live well together.
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Catharine Cellier-Smart | Smart Translate @smart-translate.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
🙃 'Sacre Bleu' and 8 other phrases French people never really say babbel.com/en/magazine/...
babbel.com
Sacre Bleu and 8 Other Phrases French People Never Really Say
Sacre bleu et zut alors! It's fun to pepper your speech with some French expressions, but be careful of inaccurate stereotypes.
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Catharine Cellier-Smart | Smart Translate @smart-translate.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
🇪🇨 In Ecuador, a blend of two #languages was music to José María León Cabrera's ears. He grew up on the coast but when he moved to the highlands, he heard a blend of #Spanish and #Kichwa that was worth writing about nytimes.com/2026/06/26/i... via @nytimes.com
nytimes.com
In Ecuador, a Blend of Two Languages Was Music to a Reporter’s Ears
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Catharine Cellier-Smart | Smart Translate @smart-translate.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
🧐 Where did #language come from? Nobody really knows, but the theories are fascinating theconversation.com/where-did-la... by @karenstollznow.bsky.social via @aunz.theconversation.com
theconversation.com
Where did language come from? Nobody really knows, but the theories are fascinating
In 1866, the topic became so controversial that the Société de Linguistique de Paris banned discussions about language origins altogether.
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Catharine Cellier-Smart | Smart Translate @smart-translate.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
🗺 From romance to complexity: how different #languages are perceived around the world preply.com/en/blog/lang... via @preply.bsky.social
preply.com
How the world perceives different languages
Discover how people around the world perceive different languages, from romance to complexity, and how Preply helps learners build confidence.
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Catharine Cellier-Smart | Smart Translate @smart-translate.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
🤖 The false hope of AI for warzone #language needs; contrary to elevated perceptions, AI falls short of its reputation as a silver bullet, and multiplies risk fpri.org/article/2026... via @fpri.bsky.social
fpri.org
The False Hope of AI for Warzone Language Needs - Foreign Policy Research Institute
“We've hooked up some machinery,” said Tommy, “that amounts to a mechanical translator… When you're ready to talk to the skipper of the other ship, sir, I
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Catharine Cellier-Smart | Smart Translate @smart-translate.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
🇷🇪 Comment beaucoup de #traductions touristiques créent une expérience fragmentée pour les touristes étrangers à #LaReunion 🤷‍♀️ Le constat : excellente destination, accueil inégal selon la langue ✅ La solution : traduction professionnelle. Pas de raccourci youtu.be/v-HDx1E0Oek
youtu.be
UN TOURISTE FRANCOPHONE VIT IL UNE EXPÉRIENCE DIFFÉRENTE Forum inspirant de pros du tourisme
YouTube video by ClubduTourisme
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Catharine Cellier-Smart | Smart Translate @smart-translate.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
🤓 Brainy, bilingual & brilliant? Here's your round-up of the top blog posts, articles and news about #language, #translation and #interpreting for the month of June wp.me/p2brSS-1mt
wp.me
Around the web – June 2026
Here’s your June 2026 round-up with the most interesting blog posts, articles and news about language, translation and interpreting from the past month. “A bad meal gets one star, becau…
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Catharine Cellier-Smart | Smart Translate @smart-translate.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
🍌 Bello! Why gen Alpha subconsciously speaks the #language of the Minions; from global loanwords and garbled Italian, the #slang of the children of millennials doesn’t just share elements with Minionese – it may have absorbed it www.theguardian.com/film/2026/ju... via @theguardian.com
theguardian.com
Bello! Why gen Alpha subconsciously speaks the language of the Minions
From global loanwords and garbled Italian, the slang of the children of millennials doesn’t just share elements with Minionese, it may have absorbed it
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Catharine Cellier-Smart | Smart Translate @smart-translate.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
🇰🇿 The Kazakh #translator of Nobel winner Mo Yan now works as a sheep herder kz.kursiv.media/en/2026-06-2...
kz.kursiv.media
Kazakh translator of Nobel winner Mo Yan now works as a sheep herder
From translating Nobel laureate Mo Yan to herding sheep
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Catharine Cellier-Smart | Smart Translate @smart-translate.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
The French often subtitle anyone who speaks non-standard French, anyone who people might have the slightest trouble understanding. Drives me up the wall, I find it very disrespectful!
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Reposted by Catharine Cellier-Smart | Smart Translate
Lane Greene @lanegreene.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Oof. The Spanish national broadcaster is apologizing for having subtitled in interview with the mother of member of the men's World Cup team, because of her Andalucian accent.
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Catharine Cellier-Smart | Smart Translate @smart-translate.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
🍯 'Honey' in various European #languages: an interesting distribution of etymological roots mapologies.com/animal-produ... via @mapologies.bsky.social
mapologies.com
Animal products • M A P O L O G I E S
Honey Honey has an interesting distribution of etymological roots across languages. Serbian med, or мед, is not etymologically connected to Portuguese mel, despite their apparent …
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Catharine Cellier-Smart | Smart Translate @smart-translate.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
🇬🇧🇺🇸 @lynneguist.bsky.social on US usage of the "very British word" shouty separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2026/06/shou...
separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com
shouty!
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Catharine Cellier-Smart | Smart Translate @smart-translate.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
💬 @oxfordtranslates.bsky.social Keynote 2026 by @annmorgan.bsky.social: 'How #Translators Changed My Life'
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Catharine Cellier-Smart | Smart Translate @smart-translate.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
🧠 How does one brain speak 2 #languages? A new study of #bilingual speakers suggests that a single “grammatical engine” in the brain can power multiple languages at once nytimes.com/2026/06/15/s... via @nytimes.com
nytimes.com
How Does One Brain Speak Two Languages?
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Catharine Cellier-Smart | Smart Translate @smart-translate.bsky.social · 21/06/2026
🤖 "The rather lifeless #translation we are getting as a result [of AI] is an example of how humans are adjusting themselves to fit into an AI-led world, rather than the other way around" newscientist.com/article/mg27... via @newscientist.com
newscientist.com
New Scientist recommends an excellent look at the future of work
Sarah O'Connor's We Are Not Machines explores how we are contorting ourselves to fit AI into our working lives – and what to do about it, finds Tom Knowles
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Catharine Cellier-Smart | Smart Translate @smart-translate.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
🇷🇺 Cryptolect: The tricks of the jail jargon Fenya were once used to bewilder guards in Stalin's Gulags. Now they are being used by Russian cyber-criminals bbc.com/future/artic...
bbc.com
Russia's secret 'language of thieves' was invented in Stalin's Gulags. Now it's being used by cybercriminals
The tricks of the jail jargon Fenya were once used to bewilder guards in Stalin's Gulags. Now they are being used by Russian cyber-criminals.
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