#tt: proposal but in french

[florxdexcerezos]

Olly had spent an age planning his proposal to Lucius. Coordinating the timing of it with when the Eiffel Tower shone brightly in the dark of the night. He had put together a beautiful outfit each for them both to wear to commemorate. Though Lucius seemed rather concerned with attempting to peel it all off of him. "I love you to the moon and back, Lucius." Uttered softly between kisses.

"Want me to take care of you, dear, sweet, husband?" He asked, slipping his hands under Lucius' shirt to feel up his abdomen for a moment before unhooking the buttons of his shirt.

Lucius wanted nothing more than a night alone with his boyfriend. No, his fiancé, now. He still couldn't believe that they all had been able to keep this a secret from him for so long. The most romantic proposal ever and now all he wanted was to thank the love of his life proper.

Unable to keep his hands off his husband-to-be, as they rode the elevator up to their hotel room. Once they reached their hotel room, he pulled him to the bed. "I love you, Olly." He groaned against his lips as he began to work on the button of his beloveds clothing.

. @florxdexcerezos

[lockedtranslation]

Translation techniques / Técnicas de traducción

(español después del salto)

There is a great variety of definitions about what is and isn’t a translation technique. This term is often used interchangeably with procedure or method, which is why it is important to give it a definition and classification. Translation techniques are the choices that the translator makes in order to solve a problem.

Due to the fact that this blog will talk often about translation techniques, I would like to offer a reference framework. I considered the translation techniques presented by Vázquez-Ayora (1977), Vilnay & Darbelnet (1995), Orozco (2014), Harmon (2019) and Molina & Hurtado (2002). Based on these different proposals, and mostly based on the work by Molina & Hurtado (2002), I have created the following table with the translation techniques that are most relevant to the analysis.

Abbreviations:

ST = Source Text

TT = Target Text

TL = Target Language

Note. Adapted from “Translation Techniques Revisited: A Dynamic and Functionalist Approach.” By Molina, L. y Hurtado, A., 2002, Meta, 47 (4), 498-512.

References

Harmon, L. (2019). Translation Strategies, Techniques and Equivalences in Critical Approach. Explorations. 7. 7-16.

Molina, L. & Hurtado, A. (2002). Translation Techniques Revisited: A Dynamic and Functionalist Approach. Meta. 47 (4). 498-512.

Orozco, M. (2014). Propuesta de un catálogo de técnicas de traducción: la toma de decisiones informada ante la elección de equivalentes. Hermeneus. 16. 233-264.

Vázquez-Ayora, G. (1977). Introducción a la Traductología. Curso Básico de Traducción. Gerogetown University.

Vinay, J. & Darbelnet, J. (1995). Comparative Stylistics of French and English. A methodology for translation. Benjamins Translation Library. https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.11

Hay una gran variedad de definiciones sobre qué sí y no es una técnica de traducción. Este término a menudo se intercambia con procedimiento o método, por lo que es importante darle una definición y clasificación. Las técnicas de traducción son las elecciones que toma el traductor para resolver un problema.

Debido a que en este blog se hablará de técnicas de traducción a menudo, me gustaría proporcionar un marco de referencia. Consideré las técnicas de traducción expuestas por Vázquez-Ayora (1977), Vilnay y Darbelnet (1995), Orozco (2014), Harmon (2019) y Molina y Hurtado (2002). Con base en las diferentes propuestas, y mayormente con base en las propuestas de Molina y Hurtado, creé la siguiente tabla con las técnicas de traducción más relevantes al momento de hacer este análisis.

Lista de abreviaturas:

TO = Texto Origen

TM = Texto Meta

LM = Lengua Meta

Nota. Adaptación de “Translation Techniques Revisited: A Dynamic and Functionalist Approach.” By Molina, L. y Hurtado, A., 2002, Meta, 47 (4), 498-512.

Referencias

Harmon, L. (2019). Translation Strategies, Techniques and Equivalences in Critical Approach. Explorations. 7. 7-16.

Molina, L. y Hurtado, A. (2002). Translation Techniques Revisited: A Dynamic and Functionalist Approach. Meta. 47 (4). 498-512.

Orozco, M. (2014). Propuesta de un catálogo de técnicas de traducción: la toma de decisiones informada ante la elección de equivalentes. Hermeneus. 16. 233-264.

Vázquez-Ayora, G. (1977). Introducción a la Traductología. Curso Básico de Traducción. Gerogetown University.

Vinay, J. y Darbelnet, J. (1995). Comparative Stylistics of French and English. A methodology for translation. Benjamins Translation Library. https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.11

[waremyth]

Reunion

I was currently getting ready for a reunion at Francios Dupont, my fiancé is currently trying to get our children dressed, oh right you don't know yet, let me explain

-------------------------------------------------------

I had defeated hawkmoth with dragon, viper, princess honey, chat noir, and lastly bunix, after the defeat we revealed our identities to each other, jagged had adopted us after finding out that my parents had abused me and that Adrien's father was hawkmoth and had isolated Adrien from the outside world other than school, Lukas mother had kicked him out because Julica told her that he was helping a bully and is being one so jagged took full custody of him, when he had adopted Adrien and I we were.... let's say complicated, I didn't like being locked in a room for too long, and hands or voices being raised at me because of the bullying and the abuse, while Adrien didn't like being stuck in a room locked or a house alone, they didn't know till it happened(ill make small one-shots for how they figured it out later) they tried to not do those things just in case, once fagged found out about the bullying and they found out about a couple of scars from the class, jagged moved us to Gotham and we transferred to Gotham high, Adrien and luka had made the sister protection squad aka SPS, after about two weeks of school I had made friends with Damien Wayne the ice prince of Gotham and John Kent, we were unsure about them until a month after, about five months after Damien asked me out on a date and to be his girlfriend and i said yes, then about two weeks later Adrien and John got together and yes they know what had happened to us in Paris, and we know each other's identities, after being together for a year Damien and I had our children twins named Amira and Lilian, about four months after Damien proposed to me, Adrien and Jon where already married and had adopted a meta human child, his name is Dax, Luka and Kagami are also married, Chloe is engaged to Tim, Alix met a girl with white hair down to her shoulders, blue left eye, hazel left eye, loves black clothes, her name is Wendy, Shes very nice, they are currently girlfriends soon more, I still have a problem with hands raised at me but I try my best to block it out when I'm ladybird, now let's continue shall we?

-------------------------------------------------------

I was currently wondering if I should change out of the dress I'm currently wearing a red that fades to black dress that goes down to my feet, with off the shoulder sleeves, you can see some parts of my scars, I heard my door click open so I turned around to see Damien there, "angel you look gorgeous" "really I don't look ugly in this dress" Damien walks over to me and kisses me "Angel you're not ugly, your beautiful" "but my scars..." "show that you went through something bad and out came it" he said then kissed my dimples "also I had found out that Adrien, Jon, Chloe and Tim will be coming, Alix said that they won't be with us today" "will she be-" proposing, yes she is" I smile "They're going to finally make it official" Damien just chuckled and we had set off to my old school with Amira and Lilian, about ten minutes later we reached toe school, and I was nervous, my whole French class will be hear, the worst bullies I have ever had with Lila at the top, I had squeezed Damien's hand for comfort and he squeezed it back just as tight to reassure me, we had started walking in after and saw Adrien, Jon, Chloe, and Tim in the corner, we had decided to go join them after about twenty-thirty minutes I had went to go find myself a drink, when two people I knew all too well came to me "Oh Marinette, why are you hear you aren't apart of this class anymore*Gasps*are you hear to bully me again I'm so sorry if I did something to you" "Mari-slut how could you come here just to bully sweet Lila, you're a monster" about to smack her but someone grabbed her arm, I look over and see Damien glaring at her "TT, what do you think you're doing you my wife you harlots" I then see the twins run up to me saying "Mama" "mom!" I hug the two and look up to see Damien looking at them along with Tim, Jon, and Chloe, Adrien came to me to calm me down and check for any injuries on me, "TT, Tim starts the plan, were going to leave afterward" Tim had nodded and went up to the podium, I was confused, there was a plan? " Everyone can I have your attention please!" everyone stopped talking and look at him "please turn you direction to the screen please" everyone looked at the screen and a video started playing.

Everyone was shocked and horrified to learn this, police officers had come in and is currently escorting Lila to the car, while Damien and her friend and family left the scene.

[head-post]

Swedish parliament split over EU bill on “chat control”

Swedish politicians have reacted strongly to a controversial but government-backed EU proposal to improve the detection and removal of child sexual abuse material in text messages.

The proposal, known in Sweden as the “chat control law”, has received the support of most Swedish parties – with the exception of the Centre Party (Renew Europe) and the Sweden Democrats (SD, ECR) – after a partial adjustment in the Swedish parliament’s justice committee, and will now be sent to the EU affairs committee.

The proposal was presented at EU level in 2022 by Swedish EU Commissioner Ylva Johansson and concerns how internet giants should deal with offensive material online.

The document sat in the Council for months due to opposition from Paris and Berlin, with the main point of contention being what the law could mean for end-to-end encryption – a technology that only identifies the sender and recipient of content.

However, a new compromise sent to COREPER this week may finally break the deadlock, perhaps thanks to French support.

The compromise, seen by Euractiv, eliminates audio links and puts the proposed centralised agency and Commission in charge of assessing how privacy is respected when identifying child sexual abuse material (or CSAM). Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer wrote to the Swedish press agency TT after the breakthrough in the Swedish parliament’s justice committee, saying his government was ready to take the next steps:

We now assess that important steps have been taken.

Read more HERE

[kingreywrites]

The way Plus Est En Vous is literally not correct in French and they had to replace it by "Never doubt yourself" in the dub is hilarious tho

[muiiruii]

when he’s feeling a little out of it

matsuno chifuyu & hanemiya kazutora

fluff ; age up (manga version) ; tenderness in loving another in their presence

a/n: it’s been a while since i’ve written for tokrev please be gentle if i butchered kazu’s characterization TT^TT

matsuno chifuyu had always wondered how just being by your side could put a smile so naturally on his face. when did you become an existence he could not replace? even more so, someone who he could not live without. you were warm like the sun, comforting like the moon, and the stars he tends to gaze at pales miserably in comparison to your presence. everything about you feels like home to him—the faint scent of french lavender, traces of fur, and the occasional taste of honey lemon. wherever you are was wherever he will be. and he would never ask for anything more when he have you by his side, but sometimes, on days where it’s a little blue, he found himself sinking deeper into the comfort of your presence.

“fuyu?”

you could tell he was slightly out of it when he did not catch your first call. it wasn’t the first time this had happened, and even if you weren’t told the reason behind his change in behavior, you still decided to just sit it out with him.

warm hands overlapped his clenched fists, you held onto it tightly as if to thaw the coldness creeping up his veins.

“fuyu, i’m right here with you. always.”

it took a minute or two before his fingers flinched, eyes darted over to your presence beside him.

“i know.”

he would whisper in the most gentle way that would put a smile to your face when you brought his hands up to your cheek—a cute habit he loved whenever you feel a little giddy and shy.

“thank you,” he mumbled under his breath as he pulled you a tad closer, just so he could leave a sweet peck on the tip of your nose.

“for always reminding me that there’s hope.”

you may not quite understood what he meant, but you know deep down, regardless of what will happen, your decision and feelings will never change.

“thank you for always being so gentle with me.”

you giggled at the cheesiness oozing right out of your words but it was worth it. definitely, when the growing hues of pink dusted ever so shyly on his cheeks had you both chuckling at the embarrassment of feeling like two little kids confessing their love for each other again.

no matter how many times the future might change, he will forever have you etched into his heart and hope that the red strings of fate will bring you to him in every timeline he existed.

hanemiya kazutora found himself wondering why just by feeling your fingers combing through his hair had his nerves washed away and his thoughts silenced as calm as a lake. it will always remain a mystery to him, for he had never experienced anything quite like this in his entire life. it was as if you cast a sleeping spell on him whenever you hum softly under your breath; magic overflowing from the tip of your fingers to the end of his toes. that was all you need to do to build back the world that crumbled each time his thoughts intrude a little too much.

“maybe we should just head to the city office right now to update my family registry.”

“did something ha—”

there was a pause, a shift in your gear when you saw the grin tugging the corner of his lips.

“i—is that a proposal?”

you gasped, unsure if the shock was from how out of the blue his question came or the fact that he even considered marriage when you knew about his past and what he had gone through.

“maybe? i’m just blurting my feelings out loud. we can take our time, there’s no rush.”

“are you sure?”

“if it’s for you, i’ll can wait until we are—”

“—i meant with me…as in marriage.”

you gently turned his head up to face you, worried eyes with seriousness knitted in your brows as your lips parted but words stuck at the tip of your tongue.

“and why would i not be sure?”

his large hands cupped your cheeks, a soft smile hanging on his lips when watched your eyes glossed over.

“you are the very reason why i loved to see the sun each morning, the reason why i want to start all over again, why i decided to live for myself again.”

your lips trembled at his words that held the weight you would never be able to truly understand. it was always heavy and it pains you whenever he had his episodes, but all you could do was be present with him.

“instead, i should be the one to ask you. are you sure?”

“always.”

you replied in a heartbeat. one that had his eyes widened for a fraction before they disappeared behind a smile he couldn’t quite hold back.

he wondered, truly, what did he ever do to deserve you in his life after all that he had done in his past. what was god’s plan for him? was this his punishment? to finally experience something so precious that he just know if you were taken away from him, he will never be the same again. and somehow, it made him realized nothing scared him more than losing you.

“so, shall we just do it now?”

you chuckled at the goofiness in his smile when he turned around and had his arms lock around your waist. his cheeks resting ever so naturally on your thigh, and for a split second, you almost gave in at the breathtaking moment that seized your heart.

“maybe after you stop giving chifuyu-kun a hard time by slacking off as his boss.”

oh how you regretted saying that when he climbed onto your lap with a pout ever so obvious on his lips.

“are you saying chifuyu is the reason we can’t get married right now?”

for once, kazutora realized that regardless of how silly his actions or words may seem to others, somehow he couldn’t quite help it when he’s with you. like a dream, he just want you and only you to always be with him and never would he ever let you go (nor hear another man’s name from your lips).

“would you like to repeat that again?”

[nymph-patt]

Jon(24yo) and Damian(21yo) are going to dinner out with the Batfam (civilian clothes on). There's a tons of paparazzis outside the restaurant.

Jon: I'll never get used to this.

Damian: TT

Damian: it's the price to be a Wayne.

Jon: Well... don't be a Wayne. You always can be a Kent.

Damian: *randomly reading the menu* Are you proposing or what?

Jon: Would you said Yes?

Damian: Wouldn't say no.

Jon: good to know.

Batfam: *le gasps*

Damian: I'm going to take the French fries.

[yesmuhammadhasyim-blog]

Purpose of the study: Not all languages have a universal concept of the same object, and this creates problems in translation. This paper aims to examine the semiotic model for equivalence or non-equivalence in translation which attempts to define the semiotic model, to use the model for translation, and to offer the benefits of this model to solving translation’s problem in equivalence and non-equivalence. Methodology: The data of this research are derived from the novel Lelaki Harimau, as the source language and Lhomme Tigre, as the target language. This model is used in the Indonesian novel which has been translated into 14 languages, one of which is in French. The authors use a semiotic approach to analyze the equivalence and non-equivalence in the translation.  Main Findings: This study reveals that the concept of signified in the semiotic theory proposes two models: the first: translation using the same concept in the source text (ST) and target text (TT), which is broadly known as equivalence, the second: translation using different concept between ST and TT, this called non-equivalence. This article not only explores the issue of meaning contextually in translation, but also the use of the semiotic model in translation which shows that the language perspective depends on the relationship between the sign and the object. Applications of this study: The model for this study can be used not only in translation studies at universities but also...

[realestate-dealer]

What Makes Investing In Runwal Gardens a Good decision?

Mumbai real estate has always delivered good prospects in terms of profitability and rent appreciation. It has surpassed many areas in terms of growth, livelihood, demand index, and employment potential. With Mumbai, regions around it such as Dombivli in Thane have also seen growth in upcoming years. Home to multiple corporations and start-up companies, Dombivli offers a great employment opportunity, excellent weather conditions, seamless connectivity, and infrastructure to its residents. With property tariffs at a downfall, this is probably the best time to invest in property in Dombivli. 

Real estate developers in Thane have presented their expertise in Runwal Gardens for people to live a comfortable yet extravagant life. Runwal Gardens is an estate that you would give to the next generation as it seamlessly intertwines convenience, design, and technological innovations amidst a safe and secure environment. It deals with all socio-environmental concerns that modern life proposes to us and adds a sense of balance to your living.

Here is more to know about what makes investing in Runwal Gardens a good decision: 

MODERN INFRASTRUCTURE

Modern homes are in great demand currently. And to this, Runwal Gardens delivers modern infrastructure with airy, spacious, and well-developed residential projects in Dombivli to breathe fresh and relax in a soothing environment. French windows and customizable open floor plans enable maximum natural light and better ventilation in homes. This also makes houses look bigger and welcomes positive energy.  

TOWNSHIP UTILITY

The township utility in Runwal dombivli involves a supermarket, convenience shop, ATM, Creche with a digital eye, Spa & Salon, Laundromat, and co-working spaces. The residents can enjoy the best of retail, high-street, entertainment, multi-dimensional shopping experience, and much more, all under one roof at R-Mall, Dombivli curbing traffic jams or long distance travels for you. This Mall is located within the premises at a five-minute walk from the apartments.

CENTRAL PARK AMENITIES

The amazing Central Park, spread over 11 acres, is the soul of the Runwal project in dombivli. It is a perfect place to relish lush greenery, take up health and fitness activities, meet friends and spend time with your family. This features Central Piazza, Multi Sports Arena, Amphitheatre, Jogging Track, Cycling Track, Natural Water Holding Pond, Yoga Deck, Cultural Event Zone, Kids Play Area, Chess Plaza, Toddler Park, Health Kiosk, Play Ground, Floral Plantation, Gazebo with seating, Skating Rink, Reflexology Garden, Teens Play Area, Seasonal Garden, Pet Zone, Maze Garden, Bonfire Pit, Star Gazing Deck with a telescope, Barbeque Zone, etc. 

THE CLUBHOUSE

Runwal Gardens lets you feel elated up in the air. The Clubhouse, spread over 67,000 sq. ft. has an infinity pool that overlooks the spectacular Central Park and the exquisite surroundings. Made for connoisseurs like you, its membership is on request. You can bask at Gymnasium, Swimming Pool, Tennis Court, Badminton Court, Squash Court, TT Room, Mini Theatre, Cafe, Podcasting Studio, Terrace Lawn, Banquet Hall, Snooker Room, Library Zone, Aqua Gym and many more. People enjoy being in the clubhouse for their evenings and enjoy luxurious amenities provided by Runwal Group. 

GOOD RETURNS

Investing in dombivli new project is a trusted option for real estate investors. It is because of the refined infrastructure. The upcoming plans such as the Kalyan metro rail, a new airport in Navi Mumbai, and the topmost, Airoli-Katai tunnel project are giving way to lift demands for real estate development in Dombivli. With time, these infrastructures will surely change the face of the city. The land value has been increasing gradually over the years in the vicinity. Thus, Runwal Gardens with luxurious amenities and great ease of accessibility is surely an incredible place to invest in. 

Runwal Gardens reflect the personality of the people in the homes they live and this is what makes the demand for it on the rise. Therefore, investing in Runwal Gardens is a good decision. 

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 5.28

585 BC – A solar eclipse occurs, as predicted by the Greek philosopher and scientist Thales, while Alyattes is battling Cyaxares in the Battle of Halys, leading to a truce. This is one of the cardinal dates from which other dates can be calculated. 621 – Battle of Hulao: Li Shimin, the son of the Chinese emperor Gaozu, defeats the numerically superior forces of Dou Jiande near the Hulao Pass (Henan). This victory decides the outcome of the civil war that followed the Sui dynasty's collapse in favour of the Tang dynasty. 1533 – The Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, declares the marriage of King Henry VIII of England to Anne Boleyn valid. 1588 – The Spanish Armada, with 130 ships and 30,000 men, sets sail from Lisbon, Portugal, heading for the English Channel. (It will take until May 30 for all ships to leave port.) 1644 – English Civil War: Bolton Massacre by Royalist troops under the command of James Stanley, 7th Earl of Derby. 1754 – French and Indian War: In the first engagement of the war, Virginia militia under the 22-year-old Lieutenant colonel George Washington defeat a French reconnaissance party in the Battle of Jumonville Glen in what is now Fayette County in southwestern Pennsylvania. 1802 – In Guadeloupe, 400 rebellious slaves, led by Louis Delgrès, blow themselves up rather than submit to Napoleon's troops. 1830 – U.S. President Andrew Jackson signs the Indian Removal Act which denies Native Americans their land rights and forcibly relocates them. 1871 – The Paris Commune falls after two months. 1892 – In San Francisco, John Muir organizes the Sierra Club. 1905 – Russo-Japanese War: The Battle of Tsushima ends with the destruction of the Russian Baltic Fleet by Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō and the Imperial Japanese Navy. 1907 – The first Isle of Man TT race is held. 1918 – The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic and the First Republic of Armenia declare their independence. 1926 – The 28 May 1926 coup d'état: Ditadura Nacional is established in Portugal to suppress the unrest of the First Republic. 1932 – In the Netherlands, construction of the Afsluitdijk is completed and the Zuiderzee bay is converted to the freshwater IJsselmeer. 1934 – Near Callander, Ontario, Canada, the Dionne quintuplets are born to Oliva and Elzire Dionne; they will be the first quintuplets to survive infancy. 1936 – Alan Turing submits On Computable Numbers for publication. 1937 – Volkswagen, the German automobile manufacturer, is founded. 1940 – World War II: Belgium surrenders to Nazi Germany to end the Battle of Belgium. 1940 – World War II: Norwegian, French, Polish and British forces recapture Narvik in Norway. This is the first Allied infantry victory of the War. 1948 – Daniel François Malan is elected as Prime Minister of South Africa. He later goes on to implement Apartheid. 1958 – Cuban Revolution: Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement, heavily reinforced by Frank Pais Militia, overwhelm an army post in El Uvero. 1961 – Peter Benenson's article The Forgotten Prisoners is published in several internationally read newspapers. This will later be thought of as the founding of the human rights organization Amnesty International. 1964 – The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) is founded, with Yasser Arafat elected as it first leader. 1974 – Northern Ireland's power-sharing Sunningdale Agreement collapses following a general strike by loyalists. 1975 – Fifteen West African countries sign the Treaty of Lagos, creating the Economic Community of West African States. 1977 – In Southgate, Kentucky, the Beverly Hills Supper Club is engulfed in fire, killing 165 people inside. 1979 – Konstantinos Karamanlis signs the full treaty of the accession of Greece with the European Economic Community. 1987 – A 18-year-old West German pilot, Mathias Rust, evades Soviet Union air defences and lands a private plane in Red Square in Moscow, Russia. 1991 – The capital city of Addis Ababa falls to the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front, ending both the Derg regime in Ethiopia and the Ethiopian Civil War. 1995 – The 7.0 Mw  Neftegorsk earthquake shakes the former Russian settlement of Neftegorsk with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). Total damage was $64.1–300 million, with 1,989 deaths and 750 injured. The settlement was not rebuilt. 1996 – U.S. President Bill Clinton's former business partners in the Whitewater land deal, Jim McDougal and Susan McDougal, and the Governor of Arkansas, Jim Guy Tucker, are convicted of fraud. 1998 – Nuclear testing: Pakistan responds to a series of nuclear tests by India with five of its own codenamed Chagai-I, prompting the United States, Japan, and other nations to impose economic sanctions. Pakistan celebrates Youm-e-Takbir annually. 1999 – In Milan, Italy, after 22 years of restoration work, Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece The Last Supper is put back on display. 2002 – The last steel girder is removed from the original World Trade Center site. Cleanup duties officially end with closing ceremonies at Ground Zero in Manhattan, New York City. 2003 – Peter Hollingworth resigns as Governor-General of Australia following criticism of his handling of child sexual abuse allegations during his tenure as Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane. 2004 – The Iraqi Governing Council chooses Ayad Allawi, a longtime anti-Saddam Hussein exile, as prime minister of Iraq's interim government. 2008 – The first meeting of the Constituent Assembly of Nepal formally declares Nepal a republic, ending the 240-year reign of the Shah dynasty. 2010 – In West Bengal, India, the Jnaneswari Express train derailment and subsequent collision kills 148 passengers. 2011 – Malta votes on the introduction of divorce; the proposal was approved by 53% of voters, resulting in a law allowing divorce under certain conditions being enacted later in the year. 2016 – Harambe, a gorilla, is shot to death after grabbing a three-year-old boy in its enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden, resulting in widespread criticism and sparking various internet memes. 2017 – Former Formula One driver Takuma Sato wins his first Indianapolis 500, the first Japanese and Asian driver to do so. Double world champion Fernando Alonso retires from an engine issue in his first entry of the event.

[wsmith215]

Facebook’s voice synthesis AI generates speech in 500 milliseconds

Facebook today unveiled a highly efficient, AI text-to-speech (TTS) system that can be hosted in real time using regular processors. It’s currently powering Portal, the company’s brand of smart displays, and it’s available as a service for other apps, like VR, internally at Facebook.

In tandem with a new data collection approach, which leverages a language model for curation, Facebook says the system — which produces a second of audio in 500 milliseconds — enabled it to create a British-accented voice in six months as opposed to over a year for previous voices.

Most modern AI TTS systems require graphics cards, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), or custom-designed AI chips like Google’s tensor processing units (TPUs) to run, train, or both. For instance, a recently detailed Google AI system was trained across 32 TPUs in parallel. Synthesizing a single second of humanlike audio can require outputting as many as 24,000 samples — sometimes even more. And this can be expensive; Google’s latest-generation TPUs cost between $2.40 and $8 per hour in Google Cloud Platform.

TTS systems like Facebook’s promise to deliver high-quality voices without the need for specialized hardware. In fact, Facebook says its system attained a 160 times speedup compared with a baseline, making it fit for computationally constrained devices. Here’s how it sounds:

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“The system … will play an important role in creating and scaling new voice applications that sound more human and expressive,” the company said in a statement. “We’re excited to provide higher-quality audio … so that we can more efficiently continue to bring voice interactions to everyone in our community.”

Components

Facebook’s system has four parts, each of which focuses on a different aspect of speech: a linguistic front-end, a prosody model, an acoustic model, and a neural vocoder.

The front-end converts text into a sequence of linguistic features, such as sentence type and phonemes (units of sound that distinguish one word from another in a language, like p, b, d, and t in the English words pad, pat, bad, and bat). As for the prosody model, it draws on the linguistic features, style, speaker, and language embeddings — i.e., numerical representations that the model can interpret — to predict sentences’ speech-level rhythms and their frame-level fundamental frequencies. (“Frame” refers to a window of time, while “frequency” refers to melody.)

Style embeddings let the system create new voices including “assistant,” “soft,” “fast,” “projected,” and “formal” using only a small amount of additional data on top of an existing training set.  Only 30 to 60 minutes of data is required for each style, claims Facebook — an order of magnitude less than the “hours” of recordings a similar Amazon TTS system takes to produce new styles.

Facebook’s acoustic model leverages a conditional architecture to make predictions based on spectral inputs, or specific frequency-based features. This enables it to focus on information packed into neighboring frames and train a lighter and smaller vocoder, which consists of two components. The first is a submodel that upsamples (i.e., expands) the input feature encodings from frame rate (187 predictions per second) to sample rate (24,000 predictions per second). A second submodel similar to DeepMind’s WaveRNN speech synthesis algorithm generates audio a sample at a time at a rate of 24,000 samples per second.

Performance boost

The vocoder’s autoregressive nature — that is, its requirement that samples be synthesized in sequential order — makes real-time voice synthesis a major challenge. Case in point: An early version of the TTS system took 80 seconds to generate just one second of audio.

The nature of the neural networks at the heart of the system allowed for optimization, fortunately. All models consist of neurons, which are layered, connected functions. Signals from input data travel from layer to layer and slowly “tune” the output by adjusting the strength (weights) of each connection. Neural networks don’t ingest raw pictures, videos, text, or audio, but rather embeddings in the form of multidimensional arrays like scalars (single numbers), vectors (ordered arrays of scalars), and matrices (scalars arranged into one or more columns and one or more rows). A fourth entity type that encapsulates scalars, vectors, and matrices — tensors — adds in descriptions of valid linear transformations (or relations).

With the help of a tool called PyTorch JIT, Facebook engineers migrated from a training-oriented setup in PyTorch, Facebook’s machine learning framework, to a heavily inference-optimized environment. Compiled operators and tensor-level optimizations, including operator fusion and custom operators with approximations for the activation function (mathematical equations that determine the output of a model), led to additional performance gains.

Another technique called unstructured model sparsification reduced the TTS system’s training inference complexity, achieving 96% unstructured sparsity without degrading audio quality (where 4% of the model’s variables, or parameters, are nonzero). Pairing this with optimized sparse matrix operators on the inference model led to a 5 times speed increase.

Blockwise sparsification, where nonzero parameters are restricted to blocks of 16-by-1 and stored in contiguous memory blocks, significantly reduced bandwidth utilization and cache usage. Various custom operators helped attain efficient matrix storage and compute, so that compute was proportional to the number of nonzero blocks in the matrix. And knowledge distillation, a compression technique where a small network (called the student) is taught by a larger trained neural network (called the teacher), was used to train the sparse model, with a denser model as the teacher.

Finally, Facebook engineers distributed heavy operators over multiple processor cores on the same socket, chiefly by enforcing nonzero blocks to be evenly distributed over the parameter matrix during training and segmenting and distributing matrix multiplication among several cores during inference.

Data collection

Modern commercial speech synthesis systems like Facebook’s use data sets that often contain 40,000 sentences or more. To collect sufficient training data, the company’s engineers adopted an approach that relies on a corpus of open domain speech recordings — utterances — and selects lines from large, unstructured data sets. The data sets are filtered by a language model based on their readability criteria, maximizing the phonetic and prosodic diversity present in the corpus while ensuring the language remains natural and readable.

Facebook says this led to fewer annotations and edits for audio recorded by a professional voice actor, as well as improved overall TTS quality; by automatically identifying script lines from a more diverse corpus, the method let engineers scale to new languages rapidly without relying on hand-generated data sets.

Future work

Facebook next plans to use the TTS system and data collection method to add more accents, dialogues, and languages beyond French, German, Italian, and Spanish to its portfolio. It’s also focusing on making the system even more light and efficient than it is currently so that it can run on smaller devices, and it’s exploring features to make Portal’s voice respond with different speaking styles based on context.

Last year, Facebook machine learning engineer Parthath Shah told The Telegraph the company was developing technology capable of detecting people’s emotions through voice, preliminarily by having employees and paid volunteers re-enact conversations. Facebook later disputed this report, but the seed of the idea appears to have germinated internally. In early 2019, company researchers published a paper on the topic of producing different contextual voice styles, as well as a paper that explores the idea of building expressive text-to-speech via a technique called join style analysis.

Here’s a sample:

https://bit.ly/2T9fcgx

“For example, when you’re rushing out the door in the morning and need to know the time, your assistant would match your hurried pace,” Facebook proposed. “When you’re in a quiet place and you’re speaking softly, your AI assistant would reply to you in a quiet voice. And later, when it gets noisy in the kitchen, your assistant would switch to a projected voice so you can hear the call from your mom.”

It’s a step in the direction toward what Amazon accomplished with Whisper Mode, an Alexa feature that responds to whispered speech by whispering back. Amazon’s assistant also recently gained the ability to detect frustration in a customer’s voice as a result of a mistake it made, and apologetically offer an alternative action (i.e., offer to play a different song) — the fruit of emotion recognition and voice synthesis research begun as far back as 2017.

Beyond Amazon, which offers a range of speaking styles (including a “newscaster” style) in Alexa and its Amazon Polly cloud TTS service, Microsoft recently rolled out new voices in several languages within Azure Cognitive Services. Among them are emotion styles like cheerfulness, empathy, and lyrical, which can be adjusted to express different emotions to fit a given context.

“All these advancements are part of our broader efforts in making systems capable of nuanced, natural speech that fits the content and the situation,” said Facebook. “When combined with our cutting-edge research in empathy and conversational AI, this work will play an important role in building truly intelligent, human-level AI assistants for everyone.”

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[kadesummersandcurie]

Stranded Part 2

[NOTE: In this piece there is intense violent and language, if you feel disturbed by this, please don’t read on, otherwise, enjoy!”]

[The song for this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJnrgvivZ1E]

Things at Sanctuary Hills were anything but peaceful. While the Castle was, in name, the main HQ for the Minutemen, Sanctuary Hills was the unofficial HQ due to being the location where the General resided. The Minutemen had, thanks to Kade’s leadership, become a driving force to the Commonwealth again. They’d even secured the pre-war communication towers and restored them to working order so they could have contact with all their settlements. With this new form of communication via Ham-Radio and the communication towers, the Minutemen all over the Commonwealth were freaking the fuck out. There General gone after going on a walk with Dogmeat, insisting that he was fine and didn’t need an escort. At first, Preston and company simply thought that Kade had gotten sidetracked. He was, after all, a capable man, and also extremely curious about the world around him. During his regular walks with Dogmeat, he’d always bring back some little piece of junk, but, always find a use for it in Sanctuary. However, when it was late in the evening and he didn’t come back, everyone began to worry. Then, when a shadowy figure threw a bottle with a note in it over the security gate, Preston’s worst fears were confirmed. They now stood in Kade and Curie’s house, around the dining table, silently considering the badly written note. Preston, Curie, Sturges, Hancock, and a couple of trusted Guards from Sanctuary sat around the table, Mama Murphy sat in a comfortable chair in the corner. “I should've sent a team with him, I should have-” Sturges rested a hand on Preston’s shoulder. “I know buddy, but listen, there’s no reason to think about what we could have done-that can wait until we get him back- let’s just focus on what we need to do now, alright?” Sturges reassured. Hancock crossed his arms, “Damn, if we just knew where he was I’d go over there with my boys and shred those Raiders to bits, ‘sides, who the hell is ‘TT Tireion”?” he asked. No one answered. Curie was beside herself, desperately mulling over the ransom note for any clues as to Kade’s location. She was huddled into a ball-like stance, knees up to her chin, hazel-blue eyes red around the edges from crying, sitting at the head of the table, Kade’s favorite chair. They did not have enough caps for this. They’d spent so much on reparations for the Commonwealth that they only had what was left on reserve, which wasn’t much. Not to mention, the Raiders could hardly count, so they probably wrote down more than they actually wanted. Curie shakily cleared her throat, “Z-zhe letter claims ‘zat they want the payment in front of ‘ze Corvega Assembly Plant, yes? So, it would be assumed he is ‘zere, yes?” she asked, almost begging for her comrades to agree with her. Preston considered the thought, “Raiders are pretty stupid. I wouldn’t put it past them to put the location of where they’re holding the General in their ransom letter.” he said. Curie started to don a hopeful expression, until she saw Preston grimace. “However, I’ve also known some Raiders-not many, but some- to be extremely crafty. I mean, if they were smart enough to observe our General had a habit of walking Dogmeat and catch him when he was most vulnerable, what’s to say it’s not some sort of trick?” Preston said. No one said a word. Curie’s lower lip trembled. She was so, so worried. Her heart cared deeply for Kade, more than anyone before. She could not lose him. He was her rock. While she liked everyone on the settlement, even loved some (like those in the room with her), there was no one else like Kade. No one else she could relate to so perfectly. He had a brilliant mind like hers, a mind that contained pre-war knowledge, just like hers. He was unbelievably kind and patient to those in need, he was passionate about whatever work he was given, and would always care for his friends in the best way he knew how. While her mind was still getting used to the many incredibly intricate details of the human way of life, she knew enough to know that Kade was the most special person to her in the world. There was no one better for the seat of General, or her husband. She needed him back. Now. Hancock spoke up, “Look, yes, they got Kade and that implies that they might know what they’re doing. But, my money is on him being at that Assembly plant. They’re expecting us to think it’s a trick and go somewhere else, but, actually put all their muscle in one obvious spot and hope that their numbers are enough to tank whatever comes.” he turned to everyone in the room. “I’ve dealt with ransoms before. A lot of them. Most of them by raiders. This is how they operate. There’s no point trying to get the caps together. He’s either already dead or beaten to a bloody pulp. Best we can do is storm the place, get Kade, and hope there’s enough stimpacks in the Commonwealth to make him walk again.” Hancock said, his face taking on that of a true leader. This didn’t bode well with Preston, the two began to argue, which led to others butting in, which led to chaos. Curie felt like she could hardly take it. All the worry and sadness made her feel like she was about to explode. Her eyes were malfunctioning for the umpteenth time that day. She was fidgeting with her wedding band excessively. He couldn’t be dead. He couldn’t be. Through the arguing she heard something. A bark. Since when did-. She froze. Dogmeat. “Everyone, please! Silence! Just for a moment!” she cried, everyone stopped, staring at her, listening. The barking came closer and more incessant, it was definitely Dogmeat. Everyone ran out of the house at once, the triggermen guarding the door momentarily taken aback at the sudden rush. His armor was heavily damaged and falling off, but, he looked unharmed, his tongue happily sticking out as he ran into Curie’s anxiously awaiting arms. She hugged and scratched him, murmuring “good boy” and other cooing phrases in French. After planting several light kisses on his head, she realized Kade was not with him, another wave of sadness hitting her like a wall. But then she saw Nick Valentine, everyone’s favorite synth detective, cigarette in hand walking towards them. Curie ran to him, chattering a mile a minute about the ordeal and everything they knew. “Alright alright, slow down, kid. Kade’s missing? That’s a shame, wanted to talk to him about a case I’m workin’. Why don’t you have Dogmeat track Kade like he did with Kellog?” he proposed. Curie lit up like a Christmas tree. “Oh monsieur Valentine you are most helpful! I will fetch some clothing of Kade’s at once!” she chirped, dashing back into the house, and out with his favorite pair of shirt and slacks. Dogmeat began his sniffing, going all over the clothing with his nose until he stopped, sniffed once. Twice. Then let out a victorious bark. The group cheered, then began making themselves busy, making preparations to storm whatever hellhole the Raiders had dragged Kade to. As Curie put on her combat armor and checked her laser rifle in Sanctuary’s armory, Hancock came up behind her. “Hey Frenchie” he greeted. Uncharastically, Curie ignored him, focusing on her preparations. Dogmeat sat loyally at her feet, not taking his eyes off of her as she got ready. He raised the skin where his eyebrow would be, “Uh, Curie?” he questioned, a little more loudly. Curie flinched, “O-oh! My apologies Monsieur Hancock, my mind, it’s, well-very clouded, what is it you need?” she apologized. Hancock chuckled, “Hey I get it, sister. Your hubby is a stand up guy and one hell of a leader. When you guys came to have talks with me, I was surprised as hell at his diplomatic skills. I want him back here too, the Commonwealth needs more men like him.” he said, “and more people that really feel me, you know?” he added, to which Curie smiled. “Thank you, Monsieur Hancock, but, I sense ‘zere is another reason you are talking to me, yes?” she replied. He sighed, fiddling with his tri-cornered hat. “Look, it’s gonna be pretty bad in there, yeah? Kade’s a pretty tough cookie, I’ve seen it, but I don’t think you’re gonna wanna be there for this. He’s gonna be messed up. Bad. Worse than you’ve ever seen. You sure you’re prepared for something like that?” Hancock asked, his black eyes looked at her expectantly. She loaded a microcell into her laser rifle, the one Kade helped her create. She turned to Hancock. “I’ve gathered sufficient data to treat any combat related injury. I am necessary to this operation. My husband needs me now more than ever. I will not fail him.” she whispered the last part, her eyes, forlorn, but determined, staring back at Hancock. Hancock laughed, brandishing his double barrel, “Alrighty Cowgirl, let’s shred some Raider ass.” he said sadistically, Dogmeat barked in agreement. “Love the name of your dog by the way.” Hancock said, whispering “Dogmeat” under his breath and smiling. Curie followed Hancock out of the armory. It was time to get Kade back.

[johnsellph]

Tour de France Date Change

The Tour de France’s dates have been changed with the start pushed back two months, the plan is now to begin in Nice on Saturday 29 August and finish in Paris on Sunday 20 September. The route is unchanged. It’s just that, a date change. It buys time but all talk about the race still feels like it should be in the conditional given the public health crisis caused by Covid-19.

There’s been lots of planning behind the scenes and some ideas like holding it behind a cordon sanitaire or various proposals for moving the dates have leaked out. Race organisers ASO and the French sports ministry would be remiss if they didn’t plan, just as a transport ministry will have scenarios for when the railways reopen, and the education ministry hones plans to reopen schools. Today’s announcement is different as it’s not a leak or a whisper but the date change is formal and it’s part of a coordinated attempt in the sport to reset the calendar with the UCI announcing a wider plan to hold all grand tours and the five Monuments. But again just moving the date is no guarantee the race goes ahead, remember this.

If the Tour de France happens it won’t be the first race since the sport stopped in March. There seems to be a convention that the Tour will only go ahead if there’s been sufficient time for riders to resume training outdoors and then to bank a race or two in August, perhaps a delayed and abbreviated Critérium du Dauphiné, maybe races on the August calendar like the Vuelta a Burgos or the Tour de l’Ain go ahead, or a rescheduled Tour de Pologne happens. Some European federations are preparing for national championships on the weekend before the mooted Tour start.

Pushing back the date by two months is as late as it can get without throwing what’s left of the UCI calendar up in the air as the Tour would end on the day the World Championships start but the UCI can move the men’s TT, slated for the same day, to a slot later in the week and voilà, there’s no more clash… although for now the UCI says its schedule stands. And that’s before we see what happens with the Vuelta a España. The Vuelta is 100% owned these days by ASO but the Spanish tour is not an asset to be left in a cupboard, it is culturally and politically significant in Spain and the plan is to run the Giro d’Italia in October and the Vuelta after which could all just about work weather-wise but dates have yet to be agreed and announced.

The Tour remains the sport’s shop window, it attracts huge audiences and so what is left of the calendar is being fit around it. To illustrate the Tour’s importance, according to market research by Repucom, a “sports measurement” agency, the Tour habitually gets a bigger audience than the rest of the World Tour races combined and by some margin, even the Giro and Vuelta together deliver roughly one third of the audience the Tour gets according to a presentation seen by this blog; another report by Repucom says the Tour can account for 80% of team’s media exposure in the season. It’s for this reason the teams and their owners who might have quarrelled with ASO in the past now appear keen for the Tour to happen.

Less of this

A September Tour would feel quite different. But so do many things already, even a trip to the supermarket feels edgy. Weather-wise September can be pleasant, especially in France’s southern half where the race goes, typically warm but not hot; there’s more chance of a cold front but that can still happen in July and the probability of a snowstorm in the mountains is probably as slim as July (the high passes tend to close in November). Sunflowers would be harvested to leave fields of barren stubble but it’s the roadside fans that would be the big difference, they make the race what it is because millions are on holiday in France in July and estimates say 10-12 million come out to see the publicity caravan and race. Only the end of August is la rentrée in France, “the return” when kids go back to school, factories reopen and office workers are desk-bound again. Perhaps it’s no bad thing in terms of crowd management but it would feel, look and sound a lot more like the Dauphiné than the Tour.

More of this

Above all the big question is the anti-viral measures in place in four months’ time. If the race goes ahead because the public health authorities deem it can and surely it won’t happen like the old times. There would be new health protocols specific to the race. Presumably no team could start a rider with a temperature but can every mechanic and masseur with possible be symptoms be kept out, ditto every TV technician and each reporter? The date change is the easy bit.

Conclusion There have been lots of suggestions and plans aired recently but today is different with the formal date change. But it’s just that, a date change. This buys time for the Tour but everything still feels conditional, there’s no certainty the race will happen yet it’s probably all the sport can do, the rest is up to the public health authorities…the coronavirus and all of us.

A September Tour de France would be strange, the huge roadside crowds that make the race such a festive experience, even on TV, would be absent, leaving the race with a forlorn feel, like visiting a seaside resort out of season. Perhaps that’s helpful with the race distancing itself from the crowds and there will be protocols about hygiene and distancing. The change signals the importance of the Tour with other events slotting around it. For those making a living in the sport, a quiet Tour is better than no Tour and it might help keep several teams afloat but the outlook for many other races and squads remains insecure. Symbolically it also gives people in France something to look forward to.

Tour de France Date Change published first on https://motocrossnationweb.weebly.com/

[revolutionary-pirate]

Hi again! I am now ready for my question. Who do you think is Washington's most important aide? Basic internet searches yield Hamilton as the answer but you might have a different opinion on this matter. Also, is there any mention in his (Washington's) writings whom among his aides he consider the most indispensable to him and the war?

Hi! I’m gonna answer your questions backwards.I am not aware that there is anything in which Washington states which of his aides was the most indispensable to him during the war because he made an effort to be a very impartial person (for the most part. there are a few exceptions) and his relationship with each of them was mostly quite different. He appreciated and valued each of them for the services that they brought to the position and the things that they were able to accomplish, which varied from person to person. Washington was astute in picking out what roles and tasks best matched each of the aides’ personalities and skills. Which leads me to your first question.Of Washington’s aides, saying which one specifically was more important than the others is kinda hard because of the length of the war and how aides came and went, so there were several that were extremely important to him during each phase of the war. And when you consider the wide variety of roles that each of them played, it makes it difficult to say which one was more important than the other of these key aides. I think when it comes down to it, Robert Hanson Harrison, Tench Tilghman, and Alexander Hamilton were his most important Aides. Harrison, Tilghman, and Hamilton stuck with Washington the longest of all the aides (RH for 6 years, TT for 7, and AH for 4) which was invaluable in and of itself, but were not the only things that made them important.Harrison was vital in communicating with Congress, writing letters, making sure the staff ran like a well-oiled machine, running Headquarters when Washington was absent, negotiating prisoner exchanges, and being present at councils and advising Washington on many important matters. There is a quote from James Monroe in which he said “In all the actions in which General Washington commanded, Colonel Harrison was present, near the person of the General, and exposed with him to equal danger. He assisted…in the councils of war, where his opinions were highly respected. He was the faithful depository of the secret councils of the General, of the confidential communications to him from Congress, of the military movements that were intended to be made, and of all those secret councils, on the preservation of which the success of the army, and of the revolution itself, depended…” It’s clear that Harrison was vitally important to Washington. Washington himself said that he would be “distressed beyond Measure” if Harrison left his service.Tilghman was a versatile aide, well-rounded in his skill sets, and the longest serving aide on Washington’s staff. There were many cases in which Tilghman was the only aide residing at headquarters and toiling away at his desk, writing mountains of letters while all the other aides were gone. He was vital and he was dedicated, able to tackle anything Washington chose to throw at him. He was also fluent in French, making Tilghman a very valuable member of his staff when Pierre Penet arrived to discuss a business deal and when communicating with the French in general. That lasted until John Laurens joined the staff and the massive bulk of the letters from the French were translated by him instead while another sizable chunk of them was translated by Hamilton. Tilghman, like Harrison, was also a very good friend of Washington’s and Washington really enjoyed working with him.Hamilton being the main pop up when doing a quick search about the topic does not surprise me, but it’s true that he was definitely one of the most important. In the four years that Hamilton served, he was one of Washington’s go-to men when it came to important political or military missions, played a deep role in Washington’s Intelligence network, worked with Harrison on prisoner exchanges, was fluent and french and served as a translator, and also did his healthy share of letter writing/copying. His ambition and willingness to take the initiative and lead were a stark contrast to Harrison and Tilghman’s temperaments and Washington utilized that by sending him out on those missions with confidence, knowing that Hamilton would be able to get them done. His skills and ambition when it came to diplomacy and navigating the political world to climb his way up the ladder were useful to Washington. And he was certainly a very important asset to the staff.I looked to see what Lefkowitz had to say on the matter and found a couple pages in his conclusion about it and he agrees with my assessment, but he also proposes a 4th: David Humphreys, with whom Washington shared a close relationship with. If I recall correctly, Washington even opened up Mount Vernon for him to live at for a while. I haven’t delved much into David Humphreys yet because he didn’t come on staff until June 23, 1780, and I’m working my way down the list, but when I get to him I’ll see if I come to agree with Lefkowitz’s assessment that Humphreys was one of his most valuable/indispensable staff members for a reason aside from his friendship to Washington because I don’t think that that’s a good enough reason. It’s important, but I’d like something more.

[carsmedd]

AUDI TT: A LIMITED EDITION "20 YEARS" ANNIVERSARY

AUDI TT: A LIMITED EDITION "20 YEARS" ANNIVERSARY

AUDI TT: A LIMITED EDITION "20 YEARS" ANNIVERSARY

AUDI CELEBRATES THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE TT. LAUNCHED IN 1988, THE AUDI TT QUICKLY BECAME AN ICONIC CAR FOR THE RING BRAND. THE AUDI TT 20 YEARS CELEBRATES THIS ANNIVERSARY WITH A LIMITED EDITION OF 999 COPIES, INCLUDING 50 FOR FRANCE IN COUPE OR ROADSTER.

AUDI TT: A LIMITED EDITION "20 YEARS" ANNIVERSARY

Before being marketed, the Audi TT first appeared in 1995 in the form of a concept car at the Tokyo show: Audi TTS Roadster. The Audi TT 20 years echoes this "original TT" with finishes inspired by the style study of the time. Let's focus on this anniversary version that was presented in July 2018 during the restyling of the Audi TT range . At the beginning of the year, the Audi TT 20 Years is once again talking about her, including a video published by the German manufacturer (see end of article). On the program for this limited edition are the "Nano Gray" and "Silver Arrow" shades. The "Nano Gray" being the color of the 1995 TTS Roadster. The Audi TT 20 Years also benefits from Audi rings on its profile, Matrix OLED taillights, exclusive exhaust outlets in stainless steel as well as specific 19 "high-gloss wheels, not to mention the" Black Style Outdoor Pack " Audi exclusive ".

AUDI TT: A LIMITED EDITION "20 YEARS" ANNIVERSARY

Recalling the TTS Roadster, the interior of the Audi TT 20 Years brings out a brown leather upholstery. The latter is supported by yellow stitching. In terms of engine, this version already promised a "future collector" is proposed with the 4-cylinder 2.0 l 45 TFSI of 245 horses for 370 Nm of torque. The quattro all-wheel drive is also topical, as is the S tronic 7 gearbox.

Finally, the Audi TT Coupe 20 Years starts from 64 900 € and, the price of the Audi TT Roadster 20 Years starts at 68 400 €. The French website dedicated to the booking of this anniversary model is already showing a good demand because very few copies are still available today.

AUDI TT: A LIMITED EDITION "20 YEARS" ANNIVERSARY

AUDI TT: A LIMITED EDITION "20 YEARS" ANNIVERSARY

-SIMILAR ITEMS: -Toyota Corolla (2019): everything you need to know -New i10 (2020): Hyundai changes everything on board! -Ferrari: the 812 Spider in Geneva? from Blogger http://bit.ly/2S80Kq8 via IFTTT

[frontstreet1]

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ANKARA, Turkey — The Latest on the killing of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi (all times local):

11:15 p.m.

President Donald Trump is criticizing the Saudi operation that killed journalist Jamal Khashoggi, calling it one of the “worst cover-ups in the history of cover-ups.”

Trump tells reporters in the Oval Office that he’s expecting a full report on the killing soon.

But he says, “They had a very bad original concept” and it was “carried out poorly.”

He calls the events after Khashoggi’s death “the worst cover-up ever.”

Saudi Arabia has claimed Khashoggi, a writer for The Washington Post who wrote critically about Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, died accidentally in a brawl at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2.

But Turkish officials say a 15-men team tortured, killed and dismembered the writer and say Saudi officials had planned the killing for days.

___

10:50 p.m.

Lebanon’s Prime Minister Saad Hariri is scheduled to speak at a high-profile investment conference in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.

Hariri’s appearance, announced Tuesday, was not previously listed on the agenda, and comes as Saudi Arabia is under mounting pressure over the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi officials in Istanbul earlier this month.

Hariri, a dual Lebanese-Saudi citizen, resigned from his post last year during a visit to Saudi Arabia in a speech that many Lebanese suspected was given under duress. Hariri later returned to Lebanon and his post following French mediation.

He has visited Saudi Arabia and has met with the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman since then.

Several Western business leaders and officials withdrew from the Saudi conference after Khashoggi’s killing, the circumstances of which remain under dispute.

___

10 p.m.

The widow of former Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko, who died from radioactive poisoning in 2006, says the death of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi should be a wake-up call about the deadly behavior of authoritarian states.

Marina Litvinenko says her husband’s murder may have led some governments to think “it’s just so easy to kill people” without provoking a strong response.

Alexander Litvinenko, a Russian agent turned Kremlin critic, died in November 2006 after drinking tea laced with polonium-210 at a London hotel. Britain says he was murdered by Russian intelligence, likely with the approval of President Vladimir Putin.

Marina Litvinenko said the death of Khashoggi and the poisoning of ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal in England were evidence that her husband’s death had not deterred governments from seeking to silence their critics.

She said “it’s very important to react (to) any kind of behavior and crime. Because if you will make nothing happen today, you will just be not sure what might happen tomorrow.”

___

8:15 p.m.

The United Nations says Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stands by his earlier call for an independent and transparent investigation into the death of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq reiterated Tuesday that the secretary-general can initiate an investigation if key parties request it or if there is a legislative mandate from a U.N. body.

Saudi Arabia said early Saturday that Khashoggi, a columnist for The Washington Post, was killed during a “fistfight” in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2. an explanation many countries have questioned.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in an interview with state-run Anadolu Agency on Tuesday that “If a request for an international investigation is made … we would cooperate.”

Haq said that did not constitute a formal request from Turkey’s government, which Guterres would need to consider authorizing an international investigation.

___

7:30 p.m.

Turkish state media say investigators found three suitcases, a laptop computer and clothing inside a car belonging to the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.

State television TRT reported that Turkish crime scene investigators inspected the vehicle on Tuesday for possible evidence in the slaying of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Authorities discovered the car at an underground garage on Monday.

Saudi Arabia has said Khashoggi was killed in a fistfight that broke out inside the consulate. Turkey says he was the victim of a planned killing.

Turkish authorities have not found the journalist’s body.

___

7:10 p.m.

Foreign ministers from the G-7 group of industrialized nations say the explanations offered for the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi leave many questions unanswered and those responsible for the death must be held to account.

A joint statement from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States, along with the European Union, condemned Khashoggi’s slaying in the “strongest possible terms.”

They called Saudi Arabia’s confirmation of the writer’s death inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul a first step toward full transparency and accountability.

The statement issued Tuesday reiterated the need for a thorough, credible and prompt investigation done with the full collaboration of Turkish authorities.

The G-7 ministers say Khashoggi’s killing demonstrates the need to project journalists and to reaffirm the right to free expression.

___

6:45 p.m.

The European Union’s top diplomat says the bloc is working with the group of seven most industrialized nations to coordinate a response to the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said Tuesday that “the European Union’s reaction from now on will depend on the next steps that will be taken by the Saudi authorities.”

Mogherini told EU lawmakers that foreign ministers are working with their G7 counterparts on “further steps and statements to be taken together.” She did not go into detail about those steps.

She called on the Saudi’s “to provide all the information they have about the case and to ensure that those responsible are brought to justice.”

Lawmakers described Saudi explanations about Khashoggi’s death as a “cover-up and a “white-wash.”

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6:30 p.m.

Turkish officials say President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has promised family members of slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi that Turkey would do all it can “to shed light on the murder.”

The officials said Erdogan on Tuesday called Khashoggi’s son, Abdullah, to express his condolences, and also spoke with other members of his family.

Erdogan told family members that he was “deeply saddened” by his death and that Turkey would follow up the incident. The officials provided the information on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

Saudi Arabia has said the journalist, a critic of the Saudi royal family, was killed in a fistfight. Erdogan said earlier Tuesday that he was the victim of a “savage murder” that was planned days ahead.

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6:15 p.m.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence says the death of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi “will not go without an American response.”

Pence said CIA Director Gina Haspel is in Turkey reviewing the facts of what Pence called a “brutal murder.” He offered condolences to Khashoggi’s family.

Speaking Tuesday in Washington at an event hosted by The Washington Post, Pence would not elaborate on what a possible U.S. response would be. Khashoggi, a Post contributor, lived in Virginia.

Asked if the U.S. would sanction members of Saudi Arabia’s royal family if they were found to have been complicit, Pence said that’s a decision for President Donald Trump.

He says Trump will make a decision that reflects the values and national security interests of the nation and will “make sure the world knows the truth.”

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6 p.m.

Lawmakers in Spain have rejected proposals to halt arms exports to Saudi Arabia after a debate.

Conservative and ruling Socialist lawmakers argued Tuesday that jobs in the defense industry needed to be protected. They rejected non-binding proposals by far-left and smaller parties calling for a weapon export freeze. The pro-business Citizens party abstained.

Spain chose last month not to risk a $2.1 billion contract for five navy frigates in a job-hungry region when it went ahead with a bomb shipment to Saudi Arabia that members of Pedro Sanchez’s Socialist government had tried to stop.

The prime minister is expected to brief lawmakers on the issue on Wednesday.

Western countries have been rethinking their dealings with the Gulf kingdom amid international uproar over the killing of dissident Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul earlier this month.

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5:30 p.m.

Saudi King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman have received the family of killed journalist Jamal Khashoggi and expressed their condolences.

The royals received the journalist’s son, Salah, and his brother, Sahel, at the Yamama Palace in Riyadh on Tuesday. A friend of the Khashoggi family told The Associated Press that Salah has been under a travel ban since last year. The individual spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing reprisal.

Prince Mohammed has come under mounting pressure, with critics suspecting he ordered the high-profile operation or at least knew about it. Saudi authorities say they have arrested 18 suspects and dismissed senior officials.

The prince appeared briefly at an afternoon panel Tuesday alongside Jordan’s King Abdullah II, but made no public remarks.

–By Aya Batrawy in Riyadh

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4:40 p.m.

The leaders of Sweden and Denmark are reacting after Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saudi Arabia murdered Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi after plotting his death.

Stefan Lofven, Sweden’s acting prime minister, says “it seems very credible that something terrible has happened there, something horrible.”

However, Lofven refrained from commenting further pending more facts, Sweden’s TT news agency reported.

In neighboring Denmark, Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen is summoning the Saudi ambassador and said the meeting would be held “as soon as possible.”

He said, “there are still a lot of unclear questions and I believe it is fair to give the ambassador the possibility to explain himself.”

Samuelsen had earlier said there would be no official Danish participation in an investment conference in Saudi Arabia as “a natural consequence of the actual situation.”

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3:15 p.m.

A U.S. official says CIA Director Gina Haspel is in Turkey to review the case of slain Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi. The official was not authorized to discuss the trip and spoke only on condition of anonymity.

Haspel’s visit Tuesday comes a day after U.S. President Donald Trump said he was not satisfied with Saudi Arabia’s explanation of Khashoggi’s death three weeks ago in the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul.

Saudi Arabia said he was killed in a fistfight, but Turkish officials said the 59-year-old Washington Post columnist was attacked and killed by a 15-man Saudi team.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says he wants Saudi Arabia to allow 18 suspects that it detained for the journalist’s killing to be tried in Turkish courts.

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By Deb Riechmann in Washington, D.C.

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1 p.m.

Turkey’s president has urged Saudi Arabia to reveal who ordered the “savage murder” of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul, and said the 18 Saudis suspected of carrying it out should be tried in Turkish courts.

Addressing lawmakers of his ruling party in Parliament Tuesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says all those responsible for the killing must be punished regardless of rank — from the person who ordered his death to those who carried out the killing.

He asked: “where is the body of Jamal Khashoggi?” For the first time, Erdogan also confirmed that a body double of Khashoggi was used as a decoy after he was killed.

Erdogan’s speech came as skepticism intensified about Saudi Arabia’s account that he died accidentally in its consulate in Istanbul.

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12:40 p.m.

Turkey’s president says Saudi officials started planning to murder Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi days before his death in Saudi Arabia’s Istanbul consulate.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday that the Saudi officials began plotting against Khashoggi in late September, days ahead of his disappearance after he entered the consulate on Oct. 2.

Erdogan’s comments contradicted Saudi accounts that Khashoggi died accidentally in a “fistfight” in the consulate.

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12:25 p.m.

Saudi Arabia says organizers will be signing deals worth $50 billion at the start of a major economic forum in Riyadh.

The Future Investment Initiative forum, which began on Tuesday, is the brainchild of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. It’s aimed at drawing more foreign investment into the kingdom and to help create desperately needed jobs for its youthful population.

The deals will be in manufacturing, transportation and other fields.

Prince Mohammed was not immediately at the forum when it started.

The forum last year proved to be a glitzy affair that drew more international business attention to the kingdom. This year’s event meanwhile has seen business leaders drop out over Khashoggi’s Oct. 2 slaying.

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11:10 a.m.

A high-profile economic forum in Saudi Arabia has begun in Riyadh, the kingdom’s first major event on the world stage since the killing of writer Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul earlier this month.

The Future Investment Initiative forum, which began on Tuesday, is the brainchild of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. It’s aimed at drawing more foreign investment into the kingdom and to help create desperately needed jobs for its youthful population.

Prince Mohammed was not immediately at the forum when it started.

The forum last year proved to be a glitzy affair that drew more international business attention to the kingdom. This year’s event meanwhile has seen many top business leaders and officials drop out over Khashoggi’s Oct. 2 slaying.

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10:35 a.m.

Turkey’s foreign minister says his country would cooperate with international bodies if they were to launch an independent probe into the killing of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi.

In an interview with state-run Anadolu Agency, Mevlut Cavusoglu also said Tuesday that Turkey has not shared evidence concerning his death at the Saudi consulate with any country but added that there may have been “an exchange of views between intelligence organizations.”

Saudi Arabia has said Khashoggi, a critic of the Saudi royal family, was killed Oct. 2 in a “fistfight” with officials sent to encourage him to return to the kingdom. Turkish media and officials say the 59-year-old Washington Post columnist was killed and dismembered by a 15-man Saudi hit squad.

Cavusoglu said: “If a request for an international investigation is made … we would cooperate.”

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10:20 a.m.

The Turkish president is expected to announce details Tuesday of his country’s investigation into the killing of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi, as skepticism intensified about Saudi Arabia’s account that he died accidentally in its consulate in Istanbul.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said he will “go into detail” about a case that has shocked the world and raised suspicions that a Saudi hit squad planned Khashoggi’s killing after he walked into the consulate on Oct. 2, and then attempted to cover it up.

Top Turkish officials have said Turkey would clarify exactly what happened to Khashoggi and a stream of leaks to national and international media has increased pressure on Saudi Arabia, which is hosting a glitzy investment conference this week that many dignitaries have decided to skip because of the scandal. ”

4:31 PM EDT PM EDT

Trump Says Saudi Operation ‘Worst Cover Up Ever’ ANKARA, Turkey — The Latest on the killing of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi (all times local):