Mercoledì 16 Gennaio ore 14:05. Ricevo una telefonata da Tamanrasset: Giuliana Fea, partita fine Ottobre alla volta dell'Algeria e del Niger. Mi hanno rubato tutto!! Sono a piedi!! Agadez 10 Gennaio 2002 ore 09:00 del mattino, davanti alla casa della guida Hibraim ( http://www.sahara.it/padovafuoristra...rtecipanti.htm ) della agenzia Taghelmoust ( http://www.sahara.it/padovafuoristra...aha-visita.jpg ) nota qualcosa di sospetto, la guida fa spostare un camion di austriaci dietro l'angolo. Improvvisamente si presenta un nigerino esagitato ed armato di pistola, spara quattro colpi in aria due dei quali non esplodono. Due minuti dopo sparisce con l'auto e tutto il contenuto. A breve inseriro altri dati per il riconoscimento dell'auto. Di rientro dal mio ultimo in Algeria ho raccolto alcune testimonianze: Due auto Tedesche (o austriache) da Djanet entrano nella zona di Orida, vengono fermati, legati i maschi, dopo alcune ore si liberano, riprendono le auto e riescono a fuggire con le compagne shoccate, un bandito riesce a sparare e colpisce alla spalla una dei due, il proiettile non viene estratto a Djanete e l'uomo rientra in aereo. Due Land nel Air di associazioni umanitarie vengono rubate. Giuliana stessa ha raccolto una serie di altri fatti violenti che cercherò di riassumere nei prossimi aggiornamenti. Stefano Laberio Mniozzi

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Here's a 'machine translation' of the above post, from Italian to English, provided by Alta Vista Babelfish (unedited):

16 Wednesdays January hours 14:05. I receive one telephone call from Tamanrasset: Giuliana Fea, left fine October to the time of Algeria and the Niger. They have to me stolen all!! They are on foot!! Agadez 10 January 2002 hours 09:00 of the mattino, of the house of Hibraim guide (http://www.sahara.it/padovafuoristra...rtecipanti.htm) of Taghelmoust agency (http://www.sahara.it/padovafuoristra...aha-visita.jpg) famous something of suspicion, the guide makes to move a truck of Austrians behind the angle. Without warning a nigerino is introduced stirred violently and armed with gun, it shoots four blows in air two of which do not explode. Two minuteren after disappear with the car and all the content. To short inseriro other data for the acknowledgment of the car. Of I re-enter from my last one in Algeria I have collected some testimonies: Two German cars (or Austrians) from Djanet enter in the zone of Orida, come stopped, legacies the males, after some hours get rid, resume the cars and succeed to escape with the shoccate companions, a bandit succeed to talk nonsense and hit to the shoulder one of the two, the bullet does not come extracted to Djanete and the man re-enters in airplane. Two Land in the Air of humanitarian associations comes stolen. Same Giuliana has collected a series of other violent facts that I will try to reassume in the next modernizations. Stefano Laberio Mniozzi

... and the machine used for the translation was obviously a Babbage computer cranked up by a mad lexicographer.

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Roman (UK)
www.polandrover.com

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Roman (UK)

..or written by somebody in serious problems...

PLEASE !!!

This forum has been blissfully clear of ignorant ridicule up till now, let's keep it this way.

I much appreciate both the original post irrespective of language, and also the effort to make it understandable for english speakers.

I'd also like to point out that it took over 25 years to develop the first software to make any kind of semi-sensible translation from one language to another. If anyone has any better, please bring it out to the open, I believe there is a great market for it out there...

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Happy Travels,
Andras

http://fjexpeditions.virtualave.net

please wait, I translate all in good english at the evening. Stefano Laberio Mionozzo pdposta@tin.it www.sahara.it

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Stefano Laberio Minozzi
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We all appreciate that the information is important, but it is not disrespectful to find the result extremely funny!!!!

Seriously, folks, the translation I posted above was provided UNEDITED from Babelfish. Babelfish runs on the Systran translation engine, which is probably the best available at this time for machine translation.

Normally, whenever a machine translation is done, it is necessary for a human to go through and 'touch it up' to eliminate minor errors in syntax and catch single words that the software does not recognize. Because I was not familiar with the exact subject that Mr. Mniozzi was speaking about, I did not make any changes at all to the machine result.

I did not intend the translation to be funny. My intent was to not make any changes (by touching it up) that may have unintentionally changed the meaning or nuance of Mr. Mniozzi's original post.

Had it been a post about a technical subject (e.g. about front forks or something like that) in a language I understand (French, German, etc.) I would have touched it up.

It's actually refering to the bit of news I had about the Germans/Austrains getting nabbed north of Djado on Boxing Day - I didnt realise the guy (we met him in Djanet) got shot tho... That plus the NGO robbries in the Air make it bad news in Niger indeed (and again, after last year's Air raids).
I've also been told that 18 oil company vehicles were stolen from In Amenas in Algeria around the same time - we got a warning on the sat phone of the military operation around Amguid about a week later - but thinking about it I would not be surprised if some of those stolen cars were used to make up the massive caravan of smugglers we saw on New Years Eve.

Oh for the quiet days of the 1980s before they locals resumed their age-old customs..

CS

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<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by andrasz:
PLEASE !!!
This forum has been blissfully clear of ignorant ridicule up till now, let's keep it this way.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

OK, andrasz. You're right. I just couldn't resist, because I couldn't understand a single phrase.

BTW, 25 years ago I was reading the theory of machine translation based on Noam Chomsky's transformational grammar. I am glad to note some things never change.

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Roman (UK)

Bad event happened in Agadez on January 10th 2002: This page would like to help to find out a Toyota car that was stolen last week in Agadez (Niger).
In a little while I hope to add other more detailed news to this page.
On October 20th 2001 Giliana Fea started a long journey to Algeria, Niger, Mali and, finally, Mauritania. During the first part of the journey she was togheter other people with whom she went to Amguid cratere....for more information look the following address 'alla ricerca di un cratere meteoritico' http://micsoffi.supereva.it/ . (A Michele Soffiantini 's report).
After that I have received news from Giuliana only yesterday ( January 16th) by phone from Tamanrasset. She told me " On last January 9th I went to the Taghelmoust agency in Agadez to pick up a guide, called Ibrahim, which had to take me, together a Austrian family with a "lorry", to Gadafoua. At that moment, I noticed some strange behaviours of Ibrahim. Apparently without reason He ordered to park the lorry in a secondary street where It was not possible for me to see it. A second later a black man fired 4 shots of which 2 were not exploded. A few seconds later this man get on my car and He disapeared without leaving any tracks. Nobody did anything as nothing was occured, as the people (a lot of people was there) knew it. Police is resigned to these kind of events. The following days It was impossible to find or to have news of my car. Then I went to Tamanrasset (some friend of mine helped me) and now in Tamanrasset I'm waiting for a way to go back to Italy"We hope you could help us to find this new car. Please, at the moment, look at the photos and in a little while we'll write the data of this car with more details. Please visit: http://www.sahara.it/padovafuoristra...iana/index.htm Stefano Laberio Minozzi

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www.sahara.it
Skype laberio

There's more in these Niger events in ...overland.com/news

Chris S

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Robberies in the GreatGreat Sahara are as old as the sand in it, of course the experience is absolute shocking, [I know], but what can one do ? Arm yourself ?? I think that is unacceptable, my Sahara goeroe always said: "the one that carries the sword, must be able and ready to use it", well, that's not my world, but others think different about that.

In Siwa-Oases Berbers teached me, [in metaphor], that when you want to travel between, A and B, [or A to Z], you have to pay-off the 12 God's in between, everybody wants something, that's their right, it is their territory, you are the 'moving object' in static territories, and the one who moves has to pay the toll, that's what is on the Faraoic coffins, in hieroglyphe's that is, the Farao payed the toll to the 'god's' with consciousness about those fact's, give the right answer and you can pass thrue, give the wrong answer and the 'god's' will stop you, one way or the other.

In the West, we talk about 'Good or Bad', but in the world of 'serious travelling', those over-simpel distinctions don't count.
What count's is : Do you understand the situation you are in/Do you understand the situation where you come from/Do you understand the situation where you going to. That means non-emotional consciousness about the total situation.
I am learning.

Tim

Permanent GPS Chip in cars or bike's.

If one prefers to rationalyse things concerning theft of properties in the Sahara, there is a GPS-Chip on the marked which give's a permanent signal to the satellites, so, in case of theft the vehicle/bike can be re-located [all over the world] within 30 cm sharp.
The GPS-Chip is about 4 by 2 cm big, and very flat, depending on the software you have [this changes per area/country] you can track it down on your own PC or Apple. I do not know the Company name who produces this, [it is quite new], perhaps somebody else now's more.

Tim

I've looked at a couple of these systems. They use GPS technology to establish where they are, so that works anywhere in the world. Unfortunately they use GSM technology to transmit this information, so that bit wouldn't work in the Sahara (GSM = mobile phone).

The blurb constantly refers to GPS, but is generally coy about how the transmission side works. One of them only worked on the mobile phone network in the UK, so if you lost the vehicle in France the system was useless.