{"id":1453,"date":"2003-04-04T14:58:00","date_gmt":"2003-04-04T18:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.meehawl.com\/Blogfiles-wp\/?p=1453"},"modified":"2003-04-04T14:58:00","modified_gmt":"2003-04-04T18:58:00","slug":"winning-their-hearts-and-minds-through-telepathy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.meehawl.com\/Blogfiles\/2003\/04\/04\/14\/58\/winning-their-hearts-and-minds-through-telepathy\/","title":{"rendered":"Winning their Hearts and Minds… Through Telepathy"},"content":{"rendered":"

So the nervous US\/UK troops manning their checkpoints throughout Iraq are relying on dodgy<\/a> speak-and-spell<\/a> devices<\/a> that freak out the locals and… telepathy? Where are the human translators who could make sense of this mess? These people have watched too much Star Trek with the “Universal Translator” plot device nonsense.<\/p>\n

Why has no one pointed out one of the astonishing facts of this war, that neither the American nor the British troops appear to have translators with them, in a country where they clearly do not understand or speak the language? They can apparently spend enormous sums on high-tech weapons, and but not on recruiting Arabic-speakers … Do they plan to do it by telepathy?Every day troops are faced by the same situation: civilians streaming toward their checkpoints. Clearly they need two vital pieces of “equipment” at every checkpoint – a loud speaker and a translator to talk to people in Arabic.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Phraselators are used to translate English statements across various domains, like medical diagnostics ‘ ‘where does it hurt’ ‘ to military checkpoints ‘ ‘we must inspect your vehicle’ ‘ to prisoner transport ‘ ‘get out of the car.’<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/a>It’s just cost cutting. One of these fancy Phraselators costs around $2000 (maybe the most expensive speak-and-spell ever?) but an experienced Arabic translator might cost more. So some bean counter sat down and decided to spend a little less on this dubious technology in the knowledge that it would lead to slightly more military and civilian deaths through ambushes and misunderstandings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So the nervous US\/UK troops manning their checkpoints throughout Iraq are relying on dodgy speak-and-spell devices that freak out the locals and… telepathy? Where are the human translators who could make sense of this...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t