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The Translation of Circumlocution in Arabic Short Stories into English

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

This study aims at identifying and analyzing circumlocution categories and subcategories in the (SL) and their renditions into the (TL).It is based on criteria proposed for inclusion and exclusion of circumlocution.This study is concerned with the translation of literary texts, specifically short stories, from Arabic into English. It draws on four short stories selected from Arabic famous writers and their parallel translations into English. It hypothesizes that Arabic categories of circumlocution are applicable to English categories of metadiscourse, which include textual and interpersonal items. Nida's (1964) model is adopted in this study to judge the appropriateness in translation the study shows that the translators made serious decisions while opting for various techniques such as addition, subtraction and alteration. In this sense, it investigates whether the translators have successfully and appropriately managed to render the concept of Arabic circumlocution into English or not. The main problems that led to the inappropriate translations were also identified. This study concludes that there are lots of similarities between the categories of circumlocution in Arabic and the categories of metadiscourse in English. These similarities are clear when appropriate renditions are achieved.


Hidden Pentagon records reveal patterns of failure in deadly U.S. airstrikes

The Japan Times

Shortly before 3 a.m. on July 19, 2016, U.S. Special Operations forces bombed what they believed were three Islamic State (IS) group "staging areas" on the outskirts of Tokhar, a riverside hamlet in northern Syria. They reported 85 fighters killed. In fact, they hit houses far from the front line, where farmers, their families and other local people sought nighttime sanctuary from bombing and gunfire. More than 120 villagers were killed. In early 2017 in Iraq, an American war plane struck a dark-colored vehicle, believed to be a car bomb, stopped at an intersection in the Wadi Hajar neighborhood of West Mosul. Actually, the car had been bearing not a bomb but a man named Majid Mahmoud Ahmed, his wife and their two children, who were fleeing the fighting nearby. They and three other civilians were killed. In November 2015, after observing a man dragging an "unknown heavy object" into an IS "defensive fighting position," U.S. forces struck a building in Ramadi, Iraq. A military review found that the object was actually "a person of small stature" -- a child -- who died in the strike. None of these deadly failures resulted in a finding of wrongdoing. These cases are drawn from a hidden Pentagon archive of the American air war in the Middle East since 2014. The trove of documents -- the military's own confidential assessments of more than 1,300 reports of civilian casualties, obtained by The New York Times -- lays bare how the air war has been marked by deeply flawed intelligence, rushed and often imprecise targeting and the deaths of thousands of civilians, many of them children, a sharp contrast to the U.S. government's image of war waged by all-seeing drones and precision bombs. The documents show, too, that despite the Pentagon's highly codified system for examining civilian casualties, pledges of transparency and accountability have given way to opacity and impunity. In only a handful of cases were the assessments made public. Not a single record provided includes a finding of wrongdoing or disciplinary action. Fewer than a dozen condolence payments were made, even though many survivors were left with disabilities requiring expensive medical care. Documented efforts to identify root causes or lessons learned are rare. The air campaign represents a fundamental transformation of warfare that took shape in the final years of the Obama administration, amid the deepening unpopularity of the forever wars that had claimed more than 6,000 American service members. The United States traded many of its boots on the ground for an arsenal of aircraft directed by controllers sitting at computers, often thousands of kilometers away. President Barack Obama called it "the most precise air campaign in history." This was the promise: America's "extraordinary technology" would allow the military to kill the right people while taking the greatest possible care not to harm the wrong ones. The IS caliphate ultimately crumbled under the weight of American bombing.


Robot Waiters Take Iraq's Mosulites Back To The Future

International Business Times

From the rubble of Iraq's war-ravaged city of Mosul arises the sight of androids gliding back and forth in a restaurant to serve their amused clientele. "Welcome", "We wish you a good time in our restaurant", "We would be happy to have your opinion on the quality of the service", chime the automated attendants, red eyes blinking out of their shiny blue and white exteriors. "On television, you see robots and touch-screen tables in the United Arab Emirates, Spain and Japan," said Rami Chkib Abdelrahman, proud owner of the White Fox which opened in June. "I'm trying to bring these ideas here to Mosul." The futuristic servers are the result of technology developed in the northern city, erstwhile stronghold of the Islamic State jihadist group.


What's on TV this week: 'Saved by the Bell'

Engadget

This week we'll celebrate Thanksgiving in the US, and nostalgia will be all over TV screens and Peacock resurrects Saved by the Bell with a cast that includes new younger actors and several of the stars from the original show. Other throwbacks include Mad Max on Ultra HD Blu-ray and a Buck Rogers box set, but for something newer you can check out Peninsula, a sequel to the excellent Korean zombie movie Train to Busan as it arrives on Ultra HD Blu-ray. Netflix's latest feature film is Mosul, along with its Hillbilly Elegy movie. Criterion is also releasing a special edition of Netflix's Martin Scorsese feature The Irishman, however it's sadly only available in 1080p Blu-ray without the benefit of 4K and Dolby Vision HDR. For an all-new option, try Superintelligence on HBO Max, where Melissa McCarthy stars as a woman chosen by an all-powerful AI for surveillance via her various connected devices.


Hackers HQ and Space Command: how UK defence budget could be spent

The Guardian

A specialist cyber force of several hundred British hackers has been in the works for nearly three years, although its creation has been partly held back by turf wars between the spy agency GCHQ and the Ministry of Defence, to which the unit is expected to jointly report. The idea behind the new unit is to bring greater visibility and coherence to offensive cyber, a capability that the UK claims to have had for a decade but until recently has rarely acknowledged or discussed. Earlier in the autumn, Gen Patrick Sanders, the head of the UK's strategic command, said the military already had the capacity to "degrade, disrupt and destroy" enemies. Past operations include hacking into Islamic State systems in 2017 to understand how the terror group was operating a low-tech drone capability out of Mosul, which the military claims allowed it to understand how the drones were bought and how operators were trained. Creating a "Space Command" is a promise that was made in the Conservative election manifesto, and comes at a time when major military powers are rapidly showing an interest in space, largely because of the need to ensure the safety and security of satellites on which critical communications and location systems depend. The UK's new Space Operations Centre, based at the RAF headquarters in High Wycombe, comes less than a year after Donald Trump announced the creation of a new space force, arguing that "space is the world's new war-fighting domain," and that maintaining American superiority over Russia and China was "absolutely vital".


Building social cohesion between Christians and Muslims through soccer in post-ISIS Iraq

Science

It has been theorized that positive intergroup relations can reduce prejudice and facilitate peace. However, supporting empirical evidence is weak, particularly in the context of real-world conflict. Mousa randomized Christian Iraqi refugees to soccer teams that were composed of either all Christian players or a mixture of Christian and Muslim players (see the Perspective by Paluck and Clark). Playing on the same team as Muslims had positive effects on Christian players' attitudes and behaviors toward Muslims within the context of soccer, but these effects did not generalize to non-soccer contexts. These findings have implications for the potential benefits and limits of positive intergroup contact for achieving peace between groups. Science , this issue p. [866][1]; see also p. [769][2] Can intergroup contact build social cohesion after war? I randomly assigned Iraqi Christians displaced by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) to an all-Christian soccer team or to a team mixed with Muslims. The intervention improved behaviors toward Muslim peers: Christians with Muslim teammates were more likely to vote for a Muslim (not on their team) to receive a sportsmanship award, register for a mixed team next season, and train with Muslims 6 months after the intervention. The intervention did not substantially affect behaviors in other social contexts, such as patronizing a restaurant in Muslim-dominated Mosul or attending a mixed social event, nor did it yield consistent effects on intergroup attitudes. Although contact can build tolerant behaviors toward peers within an intervention, building broader social cohesion outside of it is more challenging. [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.abb3153 [2]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.abb9990


Top Army modernization priorities are 'on track,' says Army Vice Chief of Staff

FOX News

Fox News Flash top headlines for Oct. 22 are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com "----A 1986 graduate of West Point, Martin deployed to Iraq five times including stints as a company commander during Operation Desert Storm, as a battalion and brigade commander during Iraqi Freedom and he commanded the famed 1st Infantry Division at Fort Riley, Kansas. Martin also served as the commander of the Combined Joint Forces Land Component Command during the pivotal Battle of Mosul, a major multi-national offensive that helped the Iraqi government retake control of the Iraqi city from ISIS forces----" From an Army Report --- MARTIN ARMY BIO HERE --- Warrior: There is a lot of discussion about the Army's Top 6 Modernization priorities:...Long Range Precision Fires, Next Generation Combat Vehicles, Future Vertical Lift, Network, Air and Missile Defense, and Soldier Lethality…. How are they progressing and what sticks out in your mind?


The US has an anti-drone gun that shoots drones at other drones

New Scientist

The US is going to start taking rogue drones out of the air… by launching its own drones to smash into them. Attacks using consumer drones are on the rise. In 2017, ISIS forces in Mosul attacked US-backed Iraqi troops with dozens of consumer drones dropping grenades, and earlier this year a swarm of small drones attacked a Russian airbase in Syria. Such attacks are difficult to counter with existing weapons.


Architect designs reconstruction model for Mosul

Daily Mail - Science & tech

An architect hoping to rebuild war-torn Mosul, Iraq, has proposed a series of stunning 3D-printed bridges that would transform city using its own building debris into construction materials. Architect Vincent Callebaut is the brainchild behind'The 5 Farming Bridges', which features 3D-printed housing units in the form of articulated spiders over the Tigris River. Five 3D printers could construct 30 houses per day, or nearly 55,000 housing units in five years spread over the five bridges. The concept was a winning project of the Rifat Chadirji Prize Competition, 'Rebuilding Iraq's Liberated Areas: Mosul's Housing'. Architect Vincent Callebaut is the brainchild behind'The 5 Farming Bridges', which features 3D-printed housing units in the form of articulated spiders over the Tigris River in Mosul, Iraq The concept was a winning project of the Rifat Chadirji Prize Competition, 'Rebuilding Iraq's Liberated Areas: Mosul's Housing' Mosul, Iraq's second city, was retaken from IS in July after a massive months-long offensive that left the majority of the city destroyed and hundreds of thousands left without a place to live.


Islamic State's deadly drone operation is faltering, but U.S. commanders see broader danger ahead

Los Angeles Times

U.S. airstrikes across eastern Syria have hobbled Islamic State's deadly drone program, U.S. officials say, but commanders warn that proliferation of the inexpensive technology may allow terrorist groups to launch other aerial attacks around the globe. U.S.-backed fighters have reported small drones flown by the militants seven times this month in Iraq and Syria as Islamic State struggles to maintain the crumbling borders of its self-declared caliphate, according to the U.S. military task force in Baghdad. That's down from more than 60 drone sightings earlier this year, especially during the battle for the Iraqi city of Mosul, which was liberated in early July. Dozens of Iraqis were killed or wounded by 40-millimeter grenades and light explosives dropped from remote-controlled devices that one U.S. commander likened to killer bees. The use of camera-equipped quadcopters and model-plane-sized drones, sometimes flying in swarms, had become a signature tactic of Islamic State, much as the growing U.S. fleet of large missile firing Predator and Reaper drones have changed the face of modern warfare.