Wednesday, March 29, 2023

Elon Musk's new Twitter plans got absolutely wrecked by the dictionary - indy100 - Dictionary

Burn [noun]: a cutting remark intended to embarrass or humiliate someone —used chiefly in the phrase sick burn.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary Twitter account did exactly that in response to Elon Musk changing Twitter’s verification rule.

Last Week, Twitter announced that starting April 1, legacy verified users would be losing their blue checkmarks and have to subscribe to Twitter Blue to keep it.

“On April 1st, we will begin winding down our legacy verified program and removing legacy verified checkmarks,” Twitter Verified wrote.

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Musk added, “Any individual person’s Twitter account affiliated with a verified organization is automatically verified.”

The news was met with mixed reactions, with some believing it makes verification obsolete while others think it is democratic.

Getting in on the debate, Merriam-Webster dictionary decided to troll Musk by tweeting about a joke verification program.

“People who subscribe to Merriam-Webster Red™ will get exclusive access to the real definitions,” Merriam-Webster tweeted on Tuesday.

People responded to Merriam-Webster's troll of Musk positively.

Later on, Merriam-Webster tweeted, "It has been brought to our attention that we've been giving everyone the real definitions since 1828. Merriam-Webster Red™ has been discontinued."

The legacy Twitter verification program's departure has been part of Musk’s plan since he acquired Twitter last year.

He said removing legacy verification was “more about treating everyone equally” because “there shouldn’t be a different standard for celebrities [in my opinion].”

As part of the new verification system, Musk also said that beginning April 15th, “only verified accounts will be eligible to be in For You recommendations.”

He said this was the “only realistic way” to prevent “advanced AI bot swarms” from taking over.

Additionally, voting in polls will require verification as well.

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Olean Rotary provides dictionaries to local students | Cattaraugus County | oleantimesherald.com - Olean Times Herald - Dictionary

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Olean Rotary provides dictionaries to local students | Cattaraugus County | oleantimesherald.com  Olean Times Herald

Merriam-Webster dictionary mocks Musk's Twitter Blue subscription - New York Post - Dictionary

The definition of trolling.

Merriam-Webster made a snide jab at Elon Musk’s Twitter Blue on Tuesday by announcing the launch of a mock subscription-only service labeled “Merriam-Webster Red.”

“People who subscribe to Merriam-Webster Red™ will get exclusive access to the real definitions,” the online dictionary mocked in the joke tweet.

The dictionary alluded to Musk’s controversial Twitter Blue subscription service, which provides patrons the coveted “verified” blue check mark for a fee.

Merriam-Webster’s sarcastic tweet has been viewed over 3.6 million times as of Wednesday.

In a follow-up tweet about two hours later, Merriam-Webster continued the gag by claiming that the phony subscription service had been shuttered.

“It has been brought to our attention that we’ve been giving everyone the real definitions since 1828,” Merriam-Webster noted, stating the obvious.

Merriam-Webster's tweet
Merriam-Webster jokingly called their fake subscription service “Merriam-Webster Red.”

“Merriam-Webster Red™ has been discontinued.”

Musk’s Twitter Blue, which came out in November, allows users to pay $8 monthly or $84 annually for certain perks. Subscribers to the service get the highly sought-after blue checkmark badge, half the number of advertisements and have priority in search, according to Musk.

The billionaire has faced an onslaught of criticism ever since purchasing the social media giant for $44 billion in October.

Merriam-Webster's tweet
Musk has faced an onslaught of criticism ever since he bought Twitter in October.

About 75 percent of the company’s workforce were either laid off or quit in rage due to Musk’s mercurial management style.

Merriam-Webster’s critical tweet comes after it was revealed that only paying subscribers of Twitter Blue will soon be able to vote in polls or appear on Twitter’s “For You” recommendations tab.

Musk announced on Monday that high-profile Twitter users who have had a blue checkmark next to their name as a status symbol will be forced to pay up to $11 a month to keep it.

Merriam Webster dictionary on a table next to an iPhone
Merriam-Webster’s social media team has poked fun at other notable people before, including former President Donald Trump.
Getty Images
Elon Musk
Musk has said that requiring everyone to pay for the check mark was an equalizer.
REUTERS

“It will be glorious,” he tweeted Monday, responding to a Twitter user who noted that Saturday, the deadline that Musk set for verified users to either pay or lose their legacy status, is also April Fools’ Day.

The plan has received pushback from many, including prominent personalities like Monica Lewinsky, who says Musk’s new system enables pranksters to pay for a blue check mark to impersonate her.

She asked, “what universe is this fair to people who can suffer consequences for being impersonated? a lie travels half way around the world before truth even gets out the door.”

Twitter with screen reading "verified account"
About 75 percent of Twitter employees have either been laid off or quit since Musk’s takeover in October.
ZUMAPRESS.com

Musk has said that requiring everyone to pay for their blue check marks — including celebrities — was “more about treating everyone equally.”

Merriam-Webster has long teased prominent figures on social media, including former President Trump, who once mistakenly wrote “smocking” instead of “smoking” in a 2018 tweet.

“Today in Spellcheck Can’t Save You: ‘Smocking’ is a type of embroidery made of many small folds sewn into place,” Merriam-Webster tweeted in response, linking to the entry for the word in the dictionary.

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Tuesday, March 28, 2023

Gabriel García Márquez overtakes Miguel de Cervantes as most translated Spanish-language writer - Euronews - Translation

Move over Cervantes – there’s a new knight in town.

The Instituto Cervantes, which promotes Spanish language and culture around the world, has announced that Gabriel García Márquez, the author of 'One Hundred Years of Solitude' and 'Chronicle of a Death Foretold', has overtaken Miguel de Cervantes to become the most translated Spanish-language writer of the century so far.

Not that you should crack out the violins or attack any windmills in his honour, mind you – Cervantes remains the most translated writer in Spanish over the past eight decades, with 'Don Quixote' still standing as one of the best-selling novels of all time, alongside 'The Count of Monte Cristo' by Alexandre Dumas and J. R. R. Tolkien’s 'The Lord of the Rings' trilogy of books.

The news of García Márquez’s new literary dominance comes as the Instituto Cervantes puts together its new Mapa Mundial de la Traducción (World Translation Map), which will be unveiled at the IX Congreso de la Lengua – the ninth National Spanish Language Congress in Cádiz.

The institute’s new tool, created in collaboration with the Spanish government’s directorate for Books and Reading Development and the National Distance Education University’s Digital Humanities Laboratory, uses metadata to get a clear picture of which Spanish-language writers were being most widely translated into different languages and to trace the history of translations in Spanish between 1950 and 2022. By tracking trends in the translation, the World Translation Map highlights the authors who have made the biggest impact on global readership.

According to the data from 2000 to 2021, Gabriel García Márquez, Isabel Allende ('The House of the Spirits'), and Jorge Luis Borges ('The Aleph') are the top three most translated Spanish authors, with Peruvian Mario Vargas Llosa ('The Time of the Hero') following closely behind.

Carlos Ruiz Zafón ('The Shadow of the Wind'), Arturo Pérez-Reverte ('The Club Dumas'), Luis Sepúlveda ('The Old Man Who Read Love Novels'), Roberto Bolaño ('The Savage Detectives'), and Javier Marías ('A Heart So White') complete the list of ten most translated authors.

Getting into the nitty-gritty, the new data shows that García Márquez dominates in Arabic and Portuguese, Allende, Vargas Llosa, and Ruiz Zafón are the most translated authors from Spanish to Swedish, while García Márquez, Pérez-Reverte, and Borges take the top spots for translations into Russian.

Cervantes is only the most translated Spanish author in Chinese, while Franco-Chilean writer and avant-garde filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky ('El Topo') tops the French language list.

While Allende is the most translated Spanish author in Italian, English, and German, women are very under-represented on the map.

Its top 10 female authors are: Allende; María Isabel Sánchez Vegara ('Little People, Big Dreams'); Saint Teresa of Ávila ('The Interior Castle'); Laura Esquivel ('Like Water for Chocolate'); Alma Flor Ada ('Where the Flame Trees Bloom'); Anna Llimós Plomer ('Make it with Plants'); Almudena Grandes ('The Ages of Lulu'); Paloma Navarrete ('Other Frontiers, Other Realities'); Sister Juana Inés de la Cruz ('Pawns of a House'), and Zoé Valdés ('Café Nostalgia').

The World Translation Map will be unveiled on Wednesday at the National Spanish Language Congress. The event starts today and lasts until 30 March.

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