While surfing, an Adsense add caught my eye; I clicked the link and found this:software to autoblog create splogs. It appears the user selects a keyword (e.g. “lose weight”), then the software surfs the web to articles containing that word and republishes them. In principle, one can use this to create a nice, non-copyright violating aggregator trimming content and letting people click to the source. I suspect the main use will be to “write” full posts that contain a keyword for something marketable, re-publish them, hoping you can make money monetize the blog containing nothing but republished material.
One of the hilarious aspect was the method used to freshen the material to avoid copyright infringement while regurgitating the full post:
If that’s still not enough to impress you, here is another nice feature: With the translation module WP Robot can translate any post it creates before adding it to your weblog by using Google Translate or Yahoo’s Babelfish. By translating the content several times (for example from English to German to English) WP Robot can add instant unique, English content to your weblog!
What fun! Let’s see what Bablefish does to a short snippet of content from Roger’s post which quotes the New York Times:
But some advocates for women’s health tried to pressure The Lancet into delaying publication of the new findings, fearing that good news would detract from the urgency of their cause, Dr. Horton said in a telephone interview.
En français
Mais quelques avocats pour la santé des femmes ont essayé de faire pression sur The Lancet dans retarder la publication des nouveaux résultats, craignant que les bonnes nouvelles amoindrissent l’urgence de leur cause, Dr. Horton ont dit dans une entrevue de téléphone.
To Greek:
Αλλά μεÏικοί δικηγόÏοι για την υγεία των γυναικών Îχουν εξετάσει για να κάνουν την πίεση σε The Lancet μÎσα να καθυστεÏήσει τη δημοσίευση των νÎων αποτελεσμάτων, που φοβοÏνται ότι τα καλά νÎα μειώνουν τα l’ επείγουσα ανάγκη της αιτίας τους, το δÏχ Horton Îχει πει μÎσα σε μια συνÎντευξη του τηλεφώνου.
I don’t read Greek, but I bet it’s already hilarious.
Now, back to English
But have certain lawyers for the health of women examined in order to they in make the pressure in The Lancet delay the publication of new results, that is afraid that the good news does decrease l’? urgent need of their cause, Dr Horton has said in a interview of telephone.
If this software catches on (and I bet it will), bloggers following our trackbacks are going to read some rather hilarious English in the next few months! (Meanwhile, I’m tempted to download the free version and aggregate 20 blogs. The plugin I was using to compile a climate aggregator failed for some reason, and was consuming ridiculous amounts of CPU making constant requests.)
That’s it! The IPCC report was written and translated using this program!
MikeC–
It might be fun to apply the algorithm for creating unique language to the IPCC report!
Reminds me of this old gem: http://translationparty.com/#6860209
Oh, and MikeC, I thought the IPCC reports were pretty well written (at least WG1, I don’t delve too deeply into WG2 or WG3). The TAR WG1 was a great resource as a lit review for the state of the field back in the day when I was first learning about climate science. Kinda makes me wish other fields of science did such comprehensive literature reviews periodically, warts and all.
[edit] another good one: http://translationparty.com/#7202481
Zeke–
I think the writing in the IPCC reports is fine. It certainly doesn’t sound like something that got multiply translated by Bablefish.
Oddly, even though the translating back and forth creates hilarious content, I think this plugin is a nice resource — there may be people who sincerely want to create an agregator in some language to help others follow a topic. For example, I might be tempted to use the plugin to translate some of the foreign language climate blogs for myself and hide the copy-right violation from most of the world using .htaccess. The translations would be imperfect, but I could at least develop some notion what the dutch/swedish/brazilian bloggers who leave trackbacks to my blog are writing.
Of course, my curiosity does not extend to spending $165 for the plugin.
Can’t wait to see how RC posts come out.
I remember a story from when auto-translators were new. “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” came out as “The wine is good, but the meat is rotten.”
Zeke,
I’m sure there are at least a half dozen different languages in the Himalayan region that can use a good translating.
Zeke,
But didn’t the babelfish somehow mangle that iconic temperature chart that was prominent in TAR1 producing a hockey stick? 🙂
Dave,
I don’t think he read too many Climategate emails
“certain lawyers for the health of women examined”
.
Which is an example of why human translators are not in danger of losing their jobs to computers any time soon. To speak is to think out loud, and to think is to speak to one’s self. Until computers think, computer translations will remain uniformly horrible.
MikeC,
I said WG1. Some of the regional scenario sections of WG2 were/are a mess (and its another example of politics in the IPCC; giving regional scenario sections to researchers in those regions who might not always be the most qualified…).
.
Dave Andrews,
The iconic hockeystick is in AR4-1 as well. But lets not refight that battle, shall we? 😛
Zeke, The IPCC report was an advocacy document.
an advocacy document? The most mind-numbingly boring advocacy document ever, perhaps.
No, it was really the world’s longest review paper. I agree with Zeke; if you want to do a lit survey on climate science, the relevant chapter in WG1 is the best starting point.
Also with Zeke, I’ve never really touched WG2 or 3.
This piece…
…led me to believe this blog post was about ClimateDepot.
Neven–
I suspect Morano assembles ClimateDepot manually. It also doesn’t look like a heavily monetized blog or a splog. This postedpost.com which left a trackback on the wp-robot post might be.
You may not like Morano’s site but it’s not a splog.
Easily led then.
For historical comparison, we must not forget Pedro Carolino and his notorious ‘English as She is Spoke.’
Carolino decided to write an English phrasebook for Portuguese students. Unfortunately, he didn’t speak any English. Nor did he have a Portuguese – English dictionary.
He did however, have a Portuguese – French dictionary, and a French – English dictionary. Sound familiar?
To craunch the marmoset –
http://www.archimedes-lab.org/carolino.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_As_She_Is_Spoke
Cue Monty Python – ‘My Hovercraft is Full of Eels’.
Chuckles–
It looks like I hit on the key step of translating through two languages which mangles things more quickly than just translating back and forth from English to French.
Absolutely, don’t forget to add a cite to Pedro Carolino when you write up the paper… 🙂