Maggies Farm: "There seems to be a cultural disconnect"

Via Instapundit:  Austin, Texas city council member offers good advice to kids, catches hell from the left.

"During Austin’s Thursday City Council meeting many students spoke up from several city-funded groups asking for continued support".

It was what Austin City Council member Don Zimmerman said after the group of students addressed the council in Spanish that is sparking a lot of reaction on Twitter. The students were asking for funds to help their after-school program.

I’d ask for everyone here, including the children, when you grow up, I want to ask you to pledge to finish school, learn a trade, a skilled trade, get a college education, start a business, do something useful and produce something in your society so you don’t have to live off others. Thank you.” Zimmerman said. 

Shortly after he made this comment boos could be heard reverberating throughout the audience.

Language barrier story

From the French: Radiation de pavillon

So I like to think I helped a man today better understand a pair of refurbished boats he is in the process of acquiring on behalf of his employer back in Europe. That man is a Frenchman, boat Capitan, who for the last ten years or so, has lived in the Dominican Republic, where he learned to speak Spanish more fluently. The Frenchman spoke little to no English.

Once the boats are finished, the Frenchman's employer is taking them to Morocco. The boats were originally from Panama. The job of refurbishing them has taken several years.

I spent the better part of the day going over the systems with the Frenchman and the electrical systems builder. I was not much help there, I must admit. It helped that the 70 year old Frenchman has spent most of life on fishing boats. So he was already well acquainted with what most of what the equipment does, except for some fancy electronics installed on one of the boats. We are going over those again on Monday.

The biggest glitch, however, was trying to explain to the boat builder what the Frenchman was talking about when he said he is going to need a "radiation de pavillon" (French).

The boat builder insisted that a certified "bill of sale" written on a form provided by the US coast guard was all he has given to new boat owners he has sold boats to for years.

The Frenchman insisted that Morocco would not register the boats without the "radiation de pavillion". After awhile, I kind of figured they weren't getting anywhere, so I told them I would look into where and how the Frenchman could obtain his precious "radiation de pavillon".

"Google translates Russia as ‘Mordor’ and top diplomat’s name as ‘sad little horse’"

Washington Post: Those who tried to use Google Translate to switch Ukrainian into Russian this week may have found an unexpected message in their documents: The “Russian Federation” turned into “Mordor,” and Russia’s top diplomat was translated as a “sad little horse.”

It was unclear whether the cheeky messages were the result of a hack or someone at Google trying to send a message, and the problem was solved by late afternoon Tuesday, Moscow time. But the problem persisted for at least a day, according to Ukrainian media.

A “Russian” was also translated as an “occupant.” No word yet on whether Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has lodged an official complaint over his last name being translated as “sad little horse,” or “grustnaya loshadka.”

"Transgender Woman Says She Was Delayed by TSA for Anatomical 'Anomaly'"

It's the kid school clock story, déjà vu all over again.

"I stepped into the full body scanner, the TSA agent looked at me and pressed the F button," Petosky said in an interview with NBC News via text message. "The scanner picked up an 'anomaly' in my crotch area."

"I said, 'I'm transgender. That's my penis,'" Petosky recalled. "The TSA officer then said something like, 'If you are a man, then go back in the machine and we'll run you as a man.'"... 

According to Petosky, the TSA officer replied, "If you don't want to be run as a man, we'll have to search you. Are you a man or a woman?"

Then he asked her whether she wanted a male or female agent to search her body. 

"I kind of froze. I have never been flagged in the groin before and didn't want to make a female officer touch there, but didn't want a man to do the pat down," she said.

Exactly who am I supposed to be?

Link to video

CuidadoDeSalud.gov: "The website translates "premium" into "prima," but that Spanish word is more commonly used to mean a female cousin..."

"Mirroring problems with the federal health care website, people around the nation attempting to navigate the Spanish version have discovered their own set of difficulties."

The site, CuidadoDeSalud.gov, launched more than two months late.

A Web page with Spanish instructions linked users to an English form.

And the translations were so clunky and full of grammatical mistakes that critics say they must have been computer-generated — the name of the site itself can literally be read "for the caution of health."

"When you get into the details of the plans, it's not all written in Spanish. It's written in Spanglish, so we end up having to translate it for them," said Adrian Madriz, a health care navigator who helps with enrollment in Miami.

"Spanish speakers are typically the ones who need to sign up for health insurance,"