Oddities

  • The birds are nesting; time to fell more trees

    Steve WoodsBristol, Oddities, Politics

    The weather is warming up, summer migrant birds are returning to the UK to breed in the trees, shrubs and other traditional nesting sites; and as regular as clockwork, Bristol City Council sends workmen out to destroy those same traditional nesting sites, as witnessed this morning at the junction of Lawrence Hill and Croydon Street.

    three mature trees being felled by city council contractors

    During the few minutes it took me to buy a tin of coffee up the road, the two trunks seen standing in the photo had been felled, joining a previously felled companion. All three felled were – as far as I could see – healthy specimens.

    As regards protecting breeding birds and mitigating harm during the breeding season, Natural England’s advice (PDF, p. 4) is as follows:

    The main mitigation route to reduce the likelihood of harm to breeding birds is to undertake clearance or destruction of any vegetation or structure which may be used as a breeding site outside the bird breeding season when breeding birds are unlikely to be present (based upon habitat features) or where survey work has confirmed their absence. Avoidance of such features is best achieved through timing of work (see below) but may also be possible by temporarily preventing birds from using these features, before they start doing so. Examples include physical exclusion (preventing access to potential nest sites) or use of visual or audible deterrents. Such measures should only be undertaken following the advice of a suitably experienced ecologist, taking account of relevant legislation and welfare considerations.

    The bird breeding season will be dependent upon weather conditions and will vary from year to year, but in general is the period between early March and late August.

    Natural England acts as an adviser to central government on the natural environment, providing practical science-based advice on how best to safeguard England’s natural wealth for the benefit of all.

    By carrying out such works at this time of year, Bristol City Council is not only disregarding the advice given by Natural England, but also its own advice which it gives to community groups (PDF) carrying out conservation works involving trees. Page 2 of this document clearly states in relation to coppicing that this should be carried out between October and February. In the exact words of the guidance (page 2), this

    Should be done during the dormant season and outside the bird nesting season.

    In another city council document (PDF) entitled Tree Management Standards, page 4 clearly states:

    Nesting birds are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act (and other related wildlife law).

    All this is happening in the year when Bristol is allegedly European Green Capital. However, the city council seems more interested in press stunts than in sound environmental practice that protects the environment and wildlife.

    Readers with long-term memories may remember that scrub clearance took place last year nearby at Lawrence Hill roundabout (posts passim).

  • Plastic peregrine

    Steve WoodsBristol, Oddities, Social Media, Tech

    peregrine falcon image
    Peregrine falcon
    Yesterday it was a joy to discover that the peregrine falcons which nested on the old generator house by St Philip’s Bridge were nesting there again (posts passim). Talking to a gentleman on the bridge who’d been watching them through binoculars, it would appear our urban peregrines are also adapting to our urban environment and are also learning to hunt after sunset using the city’s streetlighting.

    A couple of weeks ago, my attention was caught by peregrine calls when walking down Redcliff Street. They weren’t emanating from a falcon at all, but it’s taken your correspondent until now to track down their source. Looking up at the roof of the old, soon to be redeveloped Patterson’s building, I saw the sight below.

    fake peregrine

    Note the electric wire and turntable. It’s a plastic peregrine which looks very realistic to the local gull population. It rotates on its turntable, flaps its wings and also calls like a real falcon from time to time. It won’t fool me again.

    Update 09/04/15: Today I discovered the Redcliff Street plastic peregrine has a brother not far away in the city. He’s called Brian, lives on the roof of At-Bristol and has a Twitter account.

  • Good Friday in Bristol 5

    Steve WoodsBristol, Language, Oddities

    When venturing out onto Stapleton Road earlier today, an unusual sight met my eyes – an open-air church service for Good Friday, the Christian holiday commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his death at Calvary.

    Good Friday service on Stapleton Road

    Seeing the service in progress prompted me to look at the etymology of Good Friday. From whence does it originate.

    According to Wikipedia, the etymology of the term “good” in the context of Good Friday is disputed, with some sources claiming it is from the senses pious, holy of the word “good“, whilst others contend that it is a corruption of “God Friday“. The Oxford English Dictionary supports the first etymology, giving “of a day or season observed as holy by the church” as an archaic sense of good and providing examples of good tide meaning “Christmas” or “Shrove Tuesday” and Good Wednesday meaning the Wednesday in Holy Week.

    In German-speaking countries Good Friday is generally referred as Karfreitag (Kar from Old High German kara ‘bewail‘, ‘grieve‘, ‘mourn‘; Freitag for ‘Friday‘): Mourning Friday. The Kar prefix is an ancestor of the English word care in the sense of cares and woes; and thus mourning. The day is also known as Stiller Freitag (Silent Friday) and Hoher Freitag (High Friday, Holy Friday) in German-speaking countries.

  • Petition to end copyright rustling

    Steve WoodsLanguage, Oddities

    No Peanuts for Translators has posted a petition on Change.org to collect signatures for an end to copyright rustling – the deliberate deprivation of intellectual property rights for translators of literary works. Under copyright, literary translations are considered to be derivative works and their authors are entitled to royalties.

    sheriff with copyright rustler wanted poster

    The text of the petition reads as follows:

    Recent research shows that translators’ copyrights are “rustled” one third of the time in trade and commercial publishing—and eighty percent of the time in university-press publishing.

    Simply put, copyright rustling happens when a book publisher takes something from a translator that rightfully belongs to the translator alone: copyright to his or her work.

    Some of the biggest copyright rustlers in 2014 also happened to be some of the biggest publishers of translations in English—Europa Editions, Atlantyca, New Vessel Press, Gallic Books, Columbia University Press, Skyhorse Publishing, Yale University Press, Bloomsbury, Routledge, and others. (See Copyright “Rustling” in English-Language Translation: How Translators Keep (and Lose) Rights to Their Work—Data from Translations Published in 2014; http://tinyurl.com/lzpz2cm.)**

    Copyright rustling is not inevitable. It is not “standard industry practice.” It is not necessary for the translator-publisher relationship to function nor does it help publishers “afford” to publish translations.

    Let’s cut through the nonsense. Copyright rustling is a symptom of translators’ lack of negotiating power and of publishers’ willingness to exploit that weakness to their own advantage.

    No Peanuts! calls upon all publishers of translations in English:

    * Take copyright off the table. Negotiate fair terms with translators for licensing the use of their copyright, but recognize that the translation belongs to the translator who is allowing you to use it.

    * Take copyright off the table. Recognize translators’ legal and moral rights to their intellectual property.

    * Take copyright off the table. Stop coercing translators by making copyright transfer a take-it-or-leave-it condition of publishing contracts.

    Mutual respect always. Copyright rustling never!

    (Learn more about this issue on the No Peanuts! blog: https://nopeanuts.wordpress.com/resistance/stop-copyright-rustling.) Or write: nopeanuts.fortranslators@gmail.com.

    ———————-
    ** At the close of the campaign, a copy of the petition & signatures will be delivered to the following publishers. If you’d like to contact them directly in the meantime, their addresses are listed in Copyright Rustling: http://tinyurl.com/lzpz2cm. Atlantyca, Bloomsbury, Cambridge University Press, Cistercian Publications, Columbia University Press, Duke University Press, Europa Editions, Fordham University Press, Gallic Books, Glagoslav Publications, Hackett Publishing, HarperCollins, Harvard University Press, Ignatius Press, Karnac Books, New Vessel Press, Palgrave/McMillan, Princeton University Press, Routledge, Rowman & Littlefield, Skyhorse Publishing, Stanford University Press, SUNY Press, Syracuse University Press, University of Chicago Press.

    Sign the petition and help prevent fellow linguists being ripped off.

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