Iterative Translation Poetry

I follow a couple of tumblr blogs, and today I noticed a post that linked to this blog: Language Log and a post about putting Japanese characters into Google Translate and then repeating them to see how the translation evolves. Here is an excerpt:

ュース repeated gives successively:

Juice
News
Auspicious
Hooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Yooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Yu Susui Suu Suu Su
Yu Susui Suu Suu Suu Su
Susui Suu Suu Suu Suu Su
Susui Suu Suu Suu Suu Suu Su
Susui Suu Suu Suu Suu Suu Suu Su
Susuue with the airport
It is a good thing to see and do.
It is a good idea to have a good view of the surrounding area.
It is a good thing for you to do.
It is good to know the things you do not do.
It is good to know the things you do not mind.
It is a good idea to have a good view of the surrounding area.

I tried this myself, and I got something a lot more melancholy. My repeated characters were:

気いい

My poem is:

Nice
Nice feeling
I do not feel like it.
I do not feel like it.
Good-natured mind I do not like feeling
I do not like myself
I do not have a mind.

It goes on from there with longer translations:

He is good at hearting (sic) I wish I do not have a good feeling
I am a nice person with a good temperament I do not have a good feeling I do not have a good feeling
I am a nice person with a good temperament I do not have a good feeling I do not have a good feeling
I do not have a good heart I want good mind I do not have a good feeling I do not have a good feeling
Good-natured mentality I do not have a good heart I do not have a good feeling I do not have a good feeling I do not have a good idea
I do not have a good heart I am a good person I do not have a good feeling I do not have a good feeling I do not have a good feeling I do not have a good idea

So, if for some reason you are bored and staring at your computer or phone, maybe you will try this and see what you get.

 

 

Experiment

Today, 10 red weather balloons are being launched by DARPA from various points around the country.  Spotting one can win you real money.  But MIT is turning it into a social networking experiment.  So if you click on my link to join and you find a balloon, not only would you get money for spotting the balloon but I would get money for recruiting you and the person who recruited me also would get money.  If you recruit someone who locates a balloon, same deal.

So, what the heck.  I’m on the sofa today (I have a sinus infection and missed two days of school, plus I missed another day for the cold that welcomed the bacteria into my sinuses) but I have friends on facebook and random people who click on my blog, so here I go.  Go look for red balloons!  It will be interesting if someone in my network finds one!

Here’s the link to join my network:

http://balloon.media.mit.edu/pooj/

Here’s what MIT has to say:

Explanation of the project:

As you might have heard, DARPA has announced a network challenge in the vein of the DARPA grand challenge.

In this challenge, participants are tasked with finding 10 red weather balloons distributed throughout the continental US for 8 hours on December 5. The idea is to get this to be a crowdsourcing kind of activity, where people will use social media tools to solve this problem.

Our group, the MIT Red Balloon Challenge Team, based out of the MIT Media Lab, has created a system where you get money not just for finding balloons, but for getting people to join the hunt who find the balloons, or for getting people who get people who find balloons, etc. Here’s an image of the structure:

First you have to sign up, which you can do here http://balloon.media.mit.edu/pooj/. Then you can send invitations to others to join through your own unique URL, crediting you with recruiting them.

While our team is interested in winning the contest, we are also interested in studying information diffusion in social networks. Does Twitter spread information faster than blogs? Is your blog effective at spreading information?

Once you sign up, you can track you impact using a link such as
http://balloon.media.mit.edu/pooj/followers/

and you can spread your influence using a link such as
http://balloon.media.mit.edu/pooj

We could use your help in getting out the word.  If you sign up you will be able to see the impact that you have on getting out the word in real time!

Win money, help science, and help charity!

Kind regards,

The MIT Red Balloon Challenge Team