#Paper summary

[ourwitching]

 Figure 1: Six articles and the type of web archiving and replay performance metrics that they ...

[pastellus]

Classics: What is Lost in Translation

There's a lot of discourse on the faithfulness of retellings, but today I want to talk about the sources themselves. A lot of us engage with the classics in languages that are far from the ones that they were originally written in, and to do so we must do so through translations.

Translators are incredibly skilled people. When it comes to Greco-Roman works, most of them are Classicists who have dedicated their lives to the study of these. But, we should remember that no translation is perfect, by virtue of being translated. What does this mean? It is very rare, even in languages that are related to one another (think Romance languages, like Spanish, French, and Italian) for a word to have a direct translation that carries over every meaning and connotation of the original. This means that while there may be an apt word to take the place of the original, certain meanings can be lost in translation, especially when translating literature, where the choice of word in itself is an artform that can convey much more meaning than what's evident (wordplay, implications, rhyme, etc.). A translation should convey all of the original meaning of the work being translated, but what is the best way to do this? Is it through coming as close as possible to word-for-word faithfulness as we can, or by taking some liberties in favour of trying to expressing what the original author conveyed? This is a question that has been a topic of debate for as long as translations have existed, and people are divided on the answer still. Personally, I stand at a middle ground: faithfulness to the text is important, but oftentimes, it can result in us missing a lot of meaning, so a degree of liberties taken is acceptable if it does result in conveying that meaning. Let's also keep in mind that translations can become dated overtime! Language evolves as time passes, and with it, the meaning of words changes. Such being the case, what conveyed a certain meaning to someone a century ago may no longer do so for the modern reader. This also why translation from an older form of a language to its modern one may result in a loss too. Are all translations bad, then? Not at all! If you want to engage with a piece of literature that isn't in your language, you can and you should! The classics are classics for a reason, and I personally believe that everyone should know these works because they're wonderful and there's so many incredible translations of them out there! So, mainly, I just want people to be aware that not everything that we see in a translation may be entirely faithful to the source; we may never know exactly every single thing of what Homer intended to convey, because we're not his original audience, engaging with his work at the time that it was written, and in the language that it was written. Some translations come much closer than others and are praised as much more faithful, and you can find a ton of discussions online where the virtues and faults of one translation vs another are compared. I would love for people to be encouraged to look into different translations of works that they enjoy, because it's fascinating to see the differences in choices made by one translation and another. Translation is an art in its own accord, it takes incredible skill, and when reading a translation we're not just engaging with the work of the original author, but with the interpretation of a certain translator — viewing the classics through their eyes.

[eaterofdust]

Toothless: comparison and art study

There is something to be said for the Toothless's of the non-book HTTYD with each being different from each other. The Animated Toothless is iconic in it's design, a cat-like predator which takes only one look for the viewer to know that he is fast. The Live Action Toothless is still cat-like, and yet... too human-ish, like the eyes of HTTYD2 Hookfang. It is the unholy offspring of HTTYD3 Toothless and baby Godzilla. The Live Arena is spikier and bulkier, with a more reptilian and classical dragon appearance and yet is recognisable all the same.

Action Toothless is most bland in colours, with an incredibly unrealistic nearly pure black hue and lack of patterns. The Animated version fares better, with a faint blue hue (which is lacking in these images but real all the same) and patterns across his back and wings. Finally, the Arena Toothless. He has pink around his maw and toes, and though lacking in patterns continues the blue hue.

Interestingly, both Arena and Action Toothless lack the exaggerated scales on their ear plates, instead having a more striped texture like a horn of some sort.

Neck wise, Action Toothless is the outlier, an 'S' curve to it whereas the other two- while still having a mammalian posture- are far more reptilian in their slant. For all three, they have exaggerated scales around the spines that begin only around the shoulder area.

For faces, Animated Toothless is certainly the most complex, a flat shape that slips into a slope at the bridge of the nose and a (mind you, flexible) beak shape at the end of the nostril. His spines begin at the "front" of his eye corners and ends at the end of them (please note the third eyebrow is also error, to which I apologize greatly). Arena Toothless has a rounded flat shape, bulging out at the bridge of the nose, and having a far more exaggerated shape and yet removing the beak element to it. He has the primary row of head spikes, starting from the start of the bridge of his nose and ending at his ear-plates. His secondary row of spines, hardest to see, starts at the front of his eyes and ends at the end of his slight head indent. The third row of spines start at the beginning slant of his brows and ends at his primary ear-plates. Action Toothless also loses the slight beak, instead having the shape but with lips. He has the least flat head and the most visible brows. His spikes begin between his eyes and ends at his first ear-plates. Action Toothless is the only of the free to have more than 4 protrusions to each side of his head.

There is little to be said on head shape: Animated is somewhere between a U and a V depending on expression, vaguely snake-like; Action is a lot blunter and thicker, with more defined cheekbones and having a narrower top. The Arena is merely speculative, but likely is a oval of some kind with the same general shape.

It's fairly obvious that Action Toothless is attempting to appear less dangerous and much cuter. Such a head shape is poor for his aerodynamics, as his original head shape gave him the arrow/jet-like physics, but this lesser head shape will result only in creating more drag for the dragon who's main (if only) hunting tactic is to dive at speeds to break the sound barrier.

Posture has previously been discussed for necks, but in terms of body shape they all follow the trend of a larger chest and thinner lower body (Do not ask what happened to Animated's tail. Please.) Arena has the thickest and shortest tail, held in a dinosaur position. His wings are small, curved with fin-like secondary wings. Action Toothless has a more sloped back, and a tail consistently held low to the ground. His wings are smallest, secondary wings mimicking that of the third movie with how they are nearly folded. Animated Toothless (only from the first movie as GOTNF does use a separate model) has the longest, thinnest tail that is usually either in contact from the ground or held up. His wings and secondary wings overlap each other slightly, with the thickest connecting skin to the body.

Looking closer at the wings of the Toothlessi, it's perhaps equally surprising as not that the Animated's are the most realistic*. All the wings have connecting tissue between wing arms, creating a near flat point until fingers begin to diverge. Arena Toothless has a bulky shoulder joint, and two claws that disrupt the general shape. He has 4 wing fingers, at least 2 of which seems to be fairly straight, and a wavy texture to his webbing. Action Toothless has an oddly thin forearm, 5 wing fingers (which is most realistic as they are fingers- something that Hookfang's design tried to mimic but failed) with the primary being far, far shorter than the secondary, making his wings also appear significantly smaller than they truly are. Said wing fingers are also thick, though not pictured here. The Animated Toothless has 6 fingers, the primary being longest and surprisingly thick arms!

*Fun Fact: The Live Arena Plush has his wings and is actually capable of gliding! It is quite enjoyable.

All Toothless designs contain heavy scale coverage of both front and back legs, and spikes to the front. Interestingly, the Animated Toothless is the only one to be plantigrade rather than digitigrade, as well as appearing to have a slight webbing to his joint though this is equally as likely to be a meshing error. Both Action and Arena go for sharp claws atop paws rather than the flexible and dulled claw of the animated toothless, and thick plating to his rear legs. Both Arena and Animated appear to be stockier than the Live Action, which has lankier, thinner legs.

There is little else to be said between designs. For Hookfang, I brought my own most pressing issue, but Toothless? There is nothing to be said for his head has already been examined.

The only real difference between Animated and Arena Hiccup is their shirt, otherwise a ditto. Action Hiccup differs in that he wears two shirts (see multiple sleeves), lacks a boob window and has a hood. Oh wait, no, the fur of his boots is also a different colour. With such a variation to the designs, it would simply take too long to compare everything and so I shall end on this:

Arena Toothless leans into being a powerful dragon, Animated Toothless leans into being elegant and the Action Toothless was bred into domestication over the time of Vikings to now.

There is such a lack of difference between the Hiccups there is nothing to be said- which seemingly most of the other teens do not follow in.

[batghostgirlfan]

Tfa Autobots get Mind controlled/Possessed Poll summary

Ratchet is mind controlled by the Ice crown

Bumblebee is mind controlled by Pecharunt

Prowl is possessed by the Shadow queen

Bulkhead is possessed by Undergrowth

Sar Sumdac is possessed by The Core

Optimus Prime is the only one who isn’t possessed/Mind controlled and now has to figure out how to save the others

Good Luck, you’ll need it.

Thank you all for Voting

[pjsk-story-summaries]

Hey everyone!

I just wanted to take a moment to give you all a super heartfelt thank you for being patient with updates from this blog. I know it's been pretty quiet recently- life ultimately always will come first, and while I truly have been enjoying what I do recently, it has left me with very little time to sit down and write summaries. Thank you all so very much for being understanding of this, and still showing support anyways!

My spring break is coming up soon, so I'm hoping to take some of that time to get a few new summaries out. In the meantime, if you'd like to help contribute in any way, you are more than welcome to collaborate on requests in our discord or submit a summary through the google form! Links to both are in the pinned post <3 With love, and see you soon, Mod Acey :3

[ooftale]

I DONT THINK IVE EVER SHARED THIS HELP 😭 im doing it now

[daylikescookies]

some of my favorite projects from 2024!

[artbenbeau]

I can confirm that 2024 was, in fact, a year.

Thank you all so much for the support, I hope I can make some cool stuff next year too.

[cali-kabi]

~ Here’s my art summary of 2024 some irl stuff has been stressful for me for certain parts of the months and another thing- ;0; I appreciate those who supported, reblogged, and commented on my arts throughout this year thank you so much ;w; 🌟💫💜

What happened this year happened frequently to me don’t know if it happened to anyone else but have you ever made gift art for someone and they start ghosting ignore you, yep that happened to me 😢 makes me feel like my art or me isn’t worth anyone’s time.. like that’s so rude don’t know why some people do that. I hate rude people >< Another thing since the a/i situation I haven’t been that confident to make much comics this year either I been scared worried anxious that my style is eeehhh 🤷🏻‍♀️ sorry for venting that what this year stressed me out about I hope 2025 is better for me and I have confidence to do more stuff with my arts ;-;💖💦

[thebearme]

Happy 2025

[hadleysmis]

“All Armenians know the name Victor Hugo thanks to Les Misérables— a delectable book that every last one of our peasants and the humblest of our village schoolteachers have read and reread and that has become like a second gospel for our people.”

- Arshag Chobanian (1902)

[The first Armenian translation of Les Misérables created a] "Hugolatria that bordered on mania," taking hold of many Armenian readers and writers and leading them to treat Hugo like a kind of oracle."

- Not the original person who said the terminology, but I got it from Manoukian's 2022 paper

[ourwitching]

 ACM Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces (IUI 2023) marks the 28th annual gathering of th...

[septiseph]

this year's art summary!!

yeah I'm still using the same template I've been using since 2013 for consistency

I rarely fully colored my fanarts this year… life is hard and this is a busy year for me _(:3」 ∠)_

[emryspaperart]

an ao3 themed costume (full of merlin fic) and some of the paper lemon branches i made to go on the hat. the party theme was folklore & fairytales.

[camelots-daffodil]

If scientific databases had a filtering and search system half as good as AO3 everyone’s lives would be significantly improved

[outfoxt]

Another Käärijä Research Project

aka: käärijä style-shifting project

as a preface, here are my (non) qualifications for this project and the circumstances under which it happened:

I am a linguistics student, and this past semester I took a course on sociolinguistics. the goal of this project was to become familiar with the concept of and analyze style-shifting (it's more commonly known as code-switching online but theres a difference and this is style-shifting), specifically by analyzing the speech of one person. We had the option to study oprah or to have someone else approved by my prof, so you know I had to ask my prof if I could study jere. This project is solely my intellectual property; even though I had a tutor help me a lot, everything written in this paper and on this post was my work alone.

now, on to the actual findings! the full paper and transcripts will be linked at the end :D

the actual variables (words or sounds) that I studied were the pronunciation of r, and use of the word "the".

to make things a lot easier from the get-go, i'm going to introduce you all to one of my favorite websites, ipachart.com (the international phonetic alphabet [ipa] chart is a big chart with an entry for every sound that exists in a language. this handy dandy website has an audio recording for each one of those sounds).

go to this website, and then scroll down to the table. go to the column labeled "post alveolar" and then click on ɾ and ɹ. those are the sounds i studied in this paper! ɾ is the finnish r and ɹ is the american r :)

so basically what i did to find instances of my variable was i just looked up a bunch of esc interviews and listened out for use of the different r sounds. i also transcribed the entire dinner date live because i love torture apparently :) the specific interviews and lives/stories are in the bibliography of the paper :p

after i transcribed all the interviews and lives/stories i went through and highlighted every instance of the r sound. then i calculated the ratios of ɾ to ɹ based on the context they were spoken in. the two contexts i looked for were formal contexts (sit-down interviews) and informal contexts (literally anything else).

i found that jere uses ɹ WAY more often in formal contexts than he does in informal contexts, and the same in reverse with ɾ.

i then went back to the transcripts and looked for all instances of the word "the". i also looked for instances where i thought it should be present, but was omitted. i calculated the ratio of present vs omitted "the"s in formal vs informal contexts and made some charts.

the graph with the smaller black section is "use of 'the' in formal settings" and the one with the smaller green section is "use of 'the' in informal settings" (the images are transparent, sorry)

i found that jere uses "the" WAY more often when in formal settings! there were also some instances where he added a "the" where it was unnecessary, which is studied at length in this wonderful paper by @alien-girl-21

something i also noticed that i elected not to study because this paper took enough energy on its own was that in formal contexts, whenever the "or" sound came in the middle or at the end of a word, jere wouldn't pronounce the r. it stuck out to me mostly because i heard words like "performance" turning into "perfomance", which i thought was an interesting quirk.

unfortunately i was somewhat limited by both my brainpower and capacity to do more work on this paper in the relatively short timeframe i was given (2 weeks) and the fact that i was given a 5 page MAX for this paper (not including a bibliography). i had a lot of fun doing this though and am definitely planning on studying jere for for academic credit again in the future if given the chance!

also i would like it to be known that i spent an hour searching for that 5 second clip of the urheilucast where jere said that he used to sell kitchens and understands english better than he can speak it.

link to a google drive folder with the actual paper i wrote and the transcripts of the interviews with notation:

please feel free to send me asks and dms with questions or comments about this paper! i absolutely love rambling about linguistics :3!!