Foreign Exchange Translations, Inc. has recently launched a blog aimed mainly at translators working in the health care field, but there’s stuff there of general interest, as well, such as the intriguingly titled post "Catch two pigeons with one bean"  and the announcement of a new translation-related podcast produced by Colorado-based translators Eve Bodeux and Corinne McKay. Have a look!

The Winter 2009 issue of Chtenia, "Winter Holidays," is rich with stories of hope, expectation, miracles, and holidays, from authors including Gogol, Dostoyevsky, Kuprin, Ustinova, and Zoshchenko, and with a story by Olga Slavnikova, “Love in Train Car No. 7,” translated by AATIA’s Marian Schwartz.

There are stories of angels, Christmas parties, yolkas, movies, trains, love, and so much more. And of course there are poems, photos, memoirs, and even a bit of history on the origins of Ded Moroz and Snegurochka.

To order this issue for just $12, click here.

The Summer 2008 issue of ATA’s new online version of Source, the Literary Division newsletter, is now available.

Don’t miss Tony Beckwith’s cover-page cartoon and By the Way: My LitSIG column, plus a fascinating look at Computer Game Localization and Literary Translation by Frank Dietz.

Potential contributors to the Fall issue should email submissions to Source Editor Michele Aynesworth.

Well, not exactly, but I wanted to mention Electropedia, the "world’s most comprehensive online electrical and electronic terminology database containing more than 20 000 terms and definitions in English and French organized by subject area, with equivalent terms in various other languages: Arabic, Chinese, German, Japanese, Portuguese, Polish, Russian, Spanish and Swedish".

Here is a sample entry (note that not all entries are available in every language):

EN
    printed circuit     
    this term is in common use with at least three meanings:
a) a generic term to describe a certain technique
b) circuit obtained by printing and comprising printed components, printed wiring, or a combination thereof, all formed in a predetermined design in, or attached to, a surface or surfaces of a common base
c) circuit obtained by printing and comprising printed wiring and conventional components, all arranged in a predetermined design in, or attached to, a surface or surfaces of a common base     
FR
    circuit imprimé     
    terme généralement utilisé avec trois significations possibles au moins:
a) terme générique pour décrire une certaine technique
b) circuit réalisé par impression, comprenant des composants imprimés, un câblage imprimé, ou une combinaison des deux, le tout formé selon un dessin préétabli ou rapporté sur la ou les surface(s) d’un support commun
c) circuit réalisé par impression, comprenant un câblage imprimé et des composants conventionnels, le tout disposé selon un dessin préétabli ou rapporté sur la ou les surface(s) d’un support commun     
DE
    gedruckte Schaltung    
ES
    circuito impreso     
IT
    Circuito stampato     
SV
    tryckta kretsar

Electropedia is published by the International Electrotechnical Commission.

Languagehat reports on the online availability of French lexicographic materials, including the Dictionnaire Littré de la langue francaise.

On the encyclopedia front, www.Larousse.fr has been revamped to allow contributions from readers, a la Wikipedia,but these are clearly identified by a different colour from the official contents of 150,000 articles and 10,000 illustrations or animations, which are verified and updated regularly.

UNESCO has just announced that its first update of the world translation bibliography of Index Translationum for the year 2008 is now online, featuring some 75,000 new entries from Belarus, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Finland, France, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Romania, Slovenia, and Spain.

This edition of Index Translationum contains some 1,800,000 references (from 1979 to now) on all subjects. Offered are all manner of ways to sort the data—many of them surprising and, as often happens with data, difficult to interpret.

A new research report "The Price of Translation" reveals that pricing within the US$12 billion-plus global translation services industry has remained relatively stable in recent years.

For most languages, prices fluctuated by only 10% up or down over a four-year period, according to the report by Common Sense Advisory, Inc., an independent market research firm specializing in the language services industry. The findings came from a detailed online survey completed by nearly 300 language service providers (translation firms) about their pricing structures, processes, and customer bases.

The 112-page report includes average pricing data for the 10 languages with the greatest global economic impact (e.g., French and Chinese), as well as 23 "next-wave languages" used in rapidly developing markets or in countries important to the global supply chain (e.g., Arabic and languages of India).

Note: The full report is available to subscribers only.

Source: Multilingual News, May 28, 2008,

The website Safemanuals.com offers free downloads of thousands of manuals and users guides for domestic appliances, computer hardware, digital cameras, and more, including brands ranging from Acer to Zyxel. This is handy when you cannot find that paper copy of a manual you are sure you put somewhere, but it can also serve as a great resource for translators.

Take, for instance the multilingual manual for an Olivetti ECR 5300 cash register — nice for French, German, Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese, Danish or Swedish translators working on such a subject.

The files are in PDF format, and besides going through a pretty standard CAPTCHA routine, the download is easy. So far, the site has been translated into Spanish and French, with other languages coming "soon". The homepage claims that the site has over 800,000 documents, with more being uploaded.