As the analytical tools of archaeology rapidly shift toward the use of non-invasive, digital visualization—including such things as ground-penetrating radar and LiDAR—we’re seeing more and more examples of archaeologists setting off into distant landscapes, drones in hand
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The Mayan Apocalypse nutcases will pass out when they learn that two Russian astronomers have discovered a new and gigantic comet coming in our direction—a huge two-mile wide ball of ice and rock that “may [become] one of the brightest in history.” The comet is now passing by Saturn, gaining speed and becoming brighter by the day. More »
For a country that dominates the Latin American landscape, Brazil hasn’t had much of a presence in Google Street View outside of major cities like Rio de Janeiro or Sao Paulo. A fresh update to Street View coverage has just gone live that fleshes out the the more far-flung corners of the map. It’s now possible to see what it’s like on the ground in much of the southern tip of the country as well as the northern coastline. Further north, Mexicans get their own treat: Google is now providing the panoramic views for ancient ruins such as Chichen Itza and Teotihuacan, just in case you’d rather not try to blend in with all the other tourists. The widened reach is undoubtedly no match for booking a flight and visiting in person, but it will save you the trouble of brushing up on your Portugese or ancient Mayan.
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Google Street View expands to cover swaths of Brazil and Mexican ruins, won’t substitute for a vacation originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Aug 2012 13:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Twenty native speakers of Yucatec, Mexico’s most widely spoken Mayan tongue, met last Thursday to help bring the language to Google, Mozilla and Wikimedia projects. The event, dubbed Mozilla Translathon 2012, was organized to provide translations for Firefox, Google’s Endangered Languages Project, the WikiMedia software that powers Wikipedia and 500 crowdsourced articles, to boot. Finding the right words, however, can often be a tricky proposition. “There are words that can’t be translated,” Mozilla’s Mexico representative Julio Gómez told CNNMéxico. “In Maya, file doesn’t exist. Tab doesn’t exist.” Gómez continues to explain that the group may keep foreign words as-is, or find other terms to represent the same ideas. In addition to software localization, it’s believed that the effort could allow Maya speakers to “recover their identity and their cultural heritage,” according to Wikimedia México president Iván Martínez. If you’d like to peruse wiki articles in the indigenous language, check out the source links below.
Filed under: Internet
Google, Mozilla and Wikimedia projects get Maya language translations at one-day ‘translathon’ originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Aug 2012 06:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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