PSFK LogoArticles by Piers Fawkes

Facebook Turns To The Crowd To Translate Its Service

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I just noticed this message from Facebook wondering if I’d like to get involved with translating the Facebook service from English (US) to English (UK) - I guess that’s because I just logged in from the English south coast. Facebook’s new Translations application allows users all over the world to translate Facebook into different languages. Their Application’s About Page reads:

Join our community of translators and make Facebook available in your language.

Add the Translations Application to translate, review, and vote on translations in your language.

Once the translations for your language are complete and their quality has been verified by the community, your language will be launched for all Facebook users. After your language has been launched, you may continue to use the Translations application to translate and vote on translations for new Facebook features.

63 languages are currently open for translation by the Facebook community. Soon, we will be supporting translation for these right-to-left languages: Persian, Arabic, Hebrew, Syriac, Urdu, Yiddish and Divehi.

Faecbook Translations

Pic: Plastic Wrapped Wooden Spoons

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When we saw these ‘wooden utensils’ in Anthropologie on 5th Avenue in New York recently, we wondered if the retailer was engaging in a bit of greenwashing. Sure, the bundle of eight knives, forks and spoons may be made from sustainably grown birch but is it really “sustainable” when they wrap it all in non-biodegrable [...]

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Pic: Remember… These Come From Trees

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This sticker on a paper towel dispenser in a cafe in San Francisco’s Mission reminds the wet-handed that they’re about to use a product made from trees (and therefore they should be considerate). The stickers seem to be part of a “guerrilla public service announcement” orchestrated by Pete Kazanjy, the guy behind TheseComeFromTrees.com. Kazanjy says [...]

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Pic: British Made Coke

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For some US brands like Heinz, Ford or Mars in Britain, the lengthy time they have spent here has bent the public’s perception of them and many people feel that they are national brands in some ways. Coca Cola never seemed to reach that level of mass perception - possibly because they played far more [...]

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Pic: Make Taste Not Waste Ad

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Bodum advertises its sustainable credentials in an ad that points at the trend of making coffee with machines that use little plastic pots.

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Monocle x’s Brands (v Agencies?)

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10 examples of collaboration between Monocle magazine and brands in their July/August 09 issue. The publisher has worked with Taiwan, Lille and Singapore development boards, a property developer in Tokyo plus brands includi Hyundai, Diageo, Absolut and BMW.

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Changing Media: Jackson & The Blogs

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A quick report from the UK where I witnessed another example of the changing face of news gathering and news reporting The first time I heard the news of Michael Jackson’s death was through news reports on the Sky News cable channel here last night. Although they couldn’t confirm what had happened they were reading [...]

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PSFK Conference San Francisco / Global - Update

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For those who made it on Monday 22nd, thanks again for coming by and contributing to the discussion about PSFK’s next major event. The notes below are a a summary take-away I took from the meeting on .
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Event: PSFK Conference San Francisco (or a Good Ideas type event)
The event is designed to create solution and [...]

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Pic: Neda - Face of #iranelection

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A young female student was shot on a protest march in Tehran last Saturday. In a civil movement without any real leadership, this photo and one of her face covered in blood and video of her death has spread across the web as iconic imagery that symbolizes young Iranians’ struggles.
Here is the saddening video of [...]

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Fred Wilson’s Week On Bing

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Over on his blog, venture capitalist Fred Wilson writes a report on his findings of spending a week using Microsoft’s new search engine Bing instead of Google search (so the rest of us don’t have to). Probably the most interesting finding is the under-representation of social media (including blogs) in the Bing rankings:
- Bing’s image [...]

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Spaceport America

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Virgin recently broke ground on the site of their spaceport in New Mexico. In less than 20 months, the company hopes to construct a 3000 ft runway and facilities called Spaceport America to act as the launching pad for Virgin Galactic and other space-bound flights. The BBC has this report on the project that had [...]

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Google Map: When Will Recession End Locally?

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The Sacramento Bee has a Google Map that helps you see which parts of America should come out of recession first - and which last. The map was made with projections from IHS Global Insight that forecasted when each metro area will return to employment levels seen before the recession. You can drill down to [...]

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British Paper Asks The Crowd To Check Over 450,000 Pages Of MPs Expenses

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Over a month ago in the UK, the Daily Telegraph spurred public furor after the broadsheet newspaper released details of parliamentary official’s botched expenses. MPs had apparently submitted expenses for off-limit items including the cleaning of one Member’s moat. The backlash got so intense that the Speaker of the House was forced to resign - [...]

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PSFK’s Only Kindle Subscriber Replies

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Shamus left a message in the comments section of the post where we shared news that in the first 2 weeks of sales of PSFK’s content on Kindle only one person subscribed. Shamus says he’s that one person and says:
This is sad so I am the only person to subscribe. That is just sad. I [...]

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PSFK Conference San Francisco / Global - Your Input Please

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Since we held our PSFK Conference San Francisco in July 2008 things have changed. Of course, we all have economic challenges but in this environment we also have the need and, some would argue, duty to support the progress of ideas that overcome social and green issues.
This year I want to create an event [...]

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