1. A Bunch of Monkeys

Comment #45659 by Alina on May 28, 2007 at 6:39 pm

As a German I can tell bouwe and anyone interested that most attempts of Americans, Australians and British people to say Nietzsche are inadequate and often quite hilarious, but the same goes for Descartes, Voltaire, voila, locus coeruleus, Euler (especially Euler) and probably any foreign name with more than one syllable. This can occasionally be really funny when I get reactions like "I knew that, but nobody else would understand if I said it correctly" or, from teachers, "The students need to know the spelling more than the pronunciation. Er, could you tell me how it is pronounced correctly?"

I'm sure we are not made (by evolution, to be precise) for pronouncing words of a foreign language correctly if we learn the word or language after a certain age. So if the English tell the Americans they don't pronounce it right (or vice versa) is really rather pointless.

As to the discussion whether Nietzsche was an ape or a monkey, he himself wouldn't have understood the debate.
The French only have the word singe and the Germans the term Affe. We say Menschenaffe (human-ape) when referring what you seem to call apes in contrast to monkeys, but not in common speech. Then of course in your language there are also the words simian and anthropoid, if you want to continue this some more, it seems to be amusing to many, even though I'm not sure why...

2. Der Digitale Planet (lecture)

Comment #45190 by Alina on May 26, 2007 at 6:46 pm

Jared Diamond in German:

Am Anfang moechte ich einige Worte auf Deutsch an meine deutschen Zuhoerer richten, und besonders an meine bayrischen Zuhoerer (laughter). Ich freue mich riesig wieder in Muenchen zu sein. Im Jahre 1961 zog ich als Student hierhin um ... angeblich um Biochemie am Max-Planck-Institut an der Goethestrasse zu studieren. Aber ehrlich gesagt, eigentlich um Muenchen zu erleben. Das heisst, Musik zu spielen, ins Konzert oder in die Oper zu gehen, Bier zu trinken, Knoedel zu fressen (laughter). Im ?gebirg zu wandern, ...
..and science. (Obviously there is a short 1-5 second or so skip in the audio to the English, omitting the rest of the German and some of his English sentence.)

My attempt of a translation:
At the beginning I want to direct a few words at my German audience in German, especially to the ones from Bavaria. (The lecture was in Munich) I am very happy to be back in Munich again.
I moved here as a student in 1961 to... supposedly to study Biochemistry at the Max-Plack-Institute in the Goethestrasse (location). But really I wanted to experience Munich. I mean playing music, to go to a concert or the opera, to drink beer, eat (literally, guzzle down) dumplings (local dish). (His colloquial "guzzle down" causes more laughter, obscuring the next sentence. He continues to list his favourite hobbies when in Munich, including going bushwalking in a local mountainous area. Then there is the fault in the audio.)

Can somebody PLEASE get the whole file including the German introduction and the discussion afterward working? Thanks heaps!

3. Der Digitale Planet (lecture)

Comment #43198 by Alina on May 20, 2007 at 7:12 pm

I speak German and would love to translate any German in the introduction or otherwise. However, I experience difficulties when trying to play the video even though I do have realpayer... I got the impression that the audio begins with Douglas Adams, ie it is incomplete?

4. God Exists. A Formula Proves it.

Comment #38003 by Alina on May 6, 2007 at 3:53 pm

I think we should point out that Tipler is a respectable physicist - not this Frank Tipler, but Paul Tipler who published Physics for Scientists and Engineers. It is a real shame how Frank can become more famous than Paul, who with his colleagues helps thousands of students every year to actually understand physics.

The only thing that really shocked ME about the story was the name Tipler - I'm rather used to news stories like these. Luckily a quick check on first names provided relief.