Dr. Demetrios Katos discusses why the study of the Bible and theology are so important, why we bother with arcane and abstruse doctrines of the Trinity, and why we should care about our belief that Jesus is fully God and fully man.

In his third lecture, Dr. Demetrios Katos addresses the ways in which theology is scientific, why we should never say “mere symbol” in Orthodox thought, what we mean by essence and energies, what we mean by a personal God, and how the Bible and other sources are used in theology.

A conversation with Kenneth Kidd from the Orthodox Christian Mission Center about the training OCMC provides on the mission field. You can support this work by going to the OCMC web site.

Fr. Eric Tosi is the General Secretary for the Orthodox Church in America and he talks with us about the logistics of the upcoming All-American Council in Pittsburgh November 10-13. Please note, the main hotel is full but an overflow hotel is available if you plan on attending.

Ancient Faith Radio presents part one of a speech delivered by Professor Alfred Siewers at St. Paul Antiochian Orthodox Church in Emmaus, Pennsylvania. The title of the presentation is "Christianity and Ecology: Lessons on Sustainability from the Early Irish Sea."

Ancient Faith Radio presents part two of a speech delivered by Professor Alfred Siewers at St. Paul Antiochian Orthodox Church in Emmaus, Pennsylvania. The title of the presentation is "Christianity and Ecology: Lessons on Sustainability from the Early Irish Sea."

Bobby Maddex interviews Fr. Roberto Ubertino, the executive director of St. John the Compassionate Mission in Toronto, Ontario, and Dn. Pawel Mucha, the prefect of the mission's Lived Theology School.

In this encore presentation of Ancient Faith Presents, John Maddex talks with Dn. Peter Boulukos, registrar of the St. Stephen's Course in Orthodox Theology. Please note that the St. Stephen's Course has extended the deadline for 2012 applications until September 30. For more information, please call (201) 569–0095.

Bobby Maddex interviews the staff and students of the Lived Theology School in Toronto, Ontario, part of the St. John the Compassionate Mission headed by Fr. Roberto Ubertino and Dn. Pawel Mucha.

In honor of the 75th anniversary of St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary, Bobby Maddex interviews Fr. John Behr, the Dean of the school, about what it means when we talk about an Orthodox theological education and why it is important.

On a new Ancient Faith Presents, Fr. Anthony Michaels, priest at St. John Chrysostom Antiochian Orthodox Church in Fort Wayne, Indiana, speaks at the Fall Diocesan Meeting of the Antiochian Diocese of Toledo. The lecture is titled "Iconography, Iconoclasm, and the Theology of Personhood."

Bobby Maddex interviews Dr. Christoph Schneider, the Academic Director of the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies, about the institute's new MA program that is available via distance learning.

Introducing the new Ancient Faith Blogs site, featuring some of the most popular and widely read blogs in Orthodoxy today. Learn how you can access them and subscribe.

Bobby Maddex interviews Dr. John Burgess, a professor at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, about the graduate school's Eastern Christian Doctor of Ministry Cohort, a new academic offering presented in partnership with Antiochian House of Studies.

Bobby Maddex, the Director of Digital Media for Ancient Faith Ministries, interviews Dr. John Burgess, the James Henry Snowden, professor of Systematic Theology at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.

Fr. Pat discusses the first chapter of Galatians, in which Paul defends himself and his reputation by sharing his conversion experience.

Will we be judged by history? Is a thing wrong because those who are in power say it’s wrong? Fr. Pat looks at Jesus’ words about the Last Judgment from Matthew 25.

What is there about the human being that must be said if we are to take the Last Judgment seriously? Fr. Pat explores this question.

Romans 5:1-11

Fr. Patrick Henry Reardon warns us about three things which impede our ability to walk worthy of the vocation with which we have been called.

Paul tells us in Galatians that if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed. In this homily from 2016, Fr. Pat takes a closer look at Abraham, considering historical fact, theological truth, and moral responsibility. The text is Galatians 3:23-4:5.

Why was the meeting between Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew so important? We're looking at Catholic-Orthodox history in this week's Be the Bee!

Most Christians are not aware that in the latter part of the 16th century, early Lutheran Reformers - close colleagues and followers of Martin Luther - set in motion an eight year contact and correspondence with the (then) Ecumenical Patriarch, Jeremias II of Constantinople. The outcome might have changed the course of Christian history. Kevin Allen speaks with scholar Dr Paraskeve (Eve) Tibbs about this fascinating and largely unknown chapter in post-Reformation history.

We welcome back Kevin Allen to AFR with his inaugural come back podcast which is part 1 of an interview with Fr. Josiah Trenham. They discuss his new book Rock and Sand - An Orthodox Appraisal of the Protestant Reformers and their Teaching, published by New Rome Press. This interview is also available in video format from Patristic Nectar Films.

In part 2 of his interview with Fr. Josiah Trenham, Kevin Allen gets specific on some of the modern day expressions of Reformed teaching and how it differs from the Orthodox Church. Fr. Josiah authored the book Rock and Sand: An Orthodox Appraisal of the Protestant Reformers and Their Theology. Click here to view the video version of this interview.

There sure are a lot -- everything from ZipCars to urinals.

Ex-Wales wing Jess Kavanagh and chair of the Cardiff supporters body CF10 Rugby Trust Lynn Glaister express frustration at the latest WRU row involving the women's game.

Former prop Cerys Hale hopes her ex-Wales team-mates have received their last apology from the WRU after being "let down" again by the governing body.

The Welsh Rugby Union admits serious failings in contract talks with the senior women's team.

Mae Awdurdod Parc Cenedlaethol Eryri wedi pleidleisio o blaid logo newydd sy'n adlewyrchu penderfyniad cynharach i ollwng 'Snowdonia' o'i enw.

Boss Chris Kempczinski says sorry for the outbreak as the burger giant faces flagging sales.

The authority says there was a backlog of planning applications following the incident.

A review into the government's handling of a child poverty strategy has found it has failed.

Further to yesterday's post, this is a list of thoughts prompted by a request from Linkmachinego on the topic of being an anonymous writer and blogger. Maybe not exactly a how-to (since the outcome is not guaranteed) as a post on things I did, things I should have done, and things I learned.

It's not up to me to decide if you "deserve" to be anonymous. My feeling is, if you're starting out as a writer and do not yet feel comfortable writing under your own name, that is your business and not mine. I also think sex workers should consider starting from a position of anonymity and decide later if they want to be out, please don't be naive. Statistics I made up right now show 99 out of 100 people who claim 'if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear' are talking out of their arses.

The items in the list fall into three general categories: internet-based, legal and real-world tips, and interpersonal. Many straddle more than one of these categories. All three are important.

This is written for a general audience because most people who blog now do not have extensive technical knowledge, they just want to write and be read. That's a good thing by the way. If you already know all of this, then great, but many people won't. Don't be sneery about their lack of prior knowledge. Bringing everyone up to speed on the technology is not the goal: clear steps you can use to help protect your identity from being discovered are.

Disclaimer: I'm no longer anonymous so these steps are clearly not airtight. Also there are other sources of information on the Web, some of which are more comprehensive and more current than my advice. I accept no responsibility for any outcome of following this advice. Please don't use it to do illegal or highly sensitive things. Also please don't use pseudonyms to be a dick.

This is also a work in progress. As I remember things or particular details, I'll amend this post. If you have suggestions of things that should be added, let me know.

1. Don't use Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail et al. for your mail.

You will need an email address to do things like register for blog accounts, Facebook, Twitter, and more. This email will have to be something entirely separate from your "real" email addresses. There are a lot of free options out there, but be aware that sending an email from many of them also sends information in the headers that could help identify you.

When I started blogging, I set up an email address for the blog with Hotmail. Don't do this. Someone quickly pointed out the headers revealed where I worked (a very large place with lots of people and even more computers, but still more information than I was comfortable with). They suggested I use Hushmail instead, which I still use. Hushmail has a free option (though the inbox allocation is modest), strips out headers, and worked for me.

A caveat with this: if you are, say, a sex worker working in a place where that is not legal and using Hushmail, you could be vulnerable to them handing over your details to a third party investigating crimes. If you're handling information some governments might consider embarrassing or sensitive, same. Google some alternatives: you're looking for something secure and encrypted.

There are a few common-sense tips you can follow to make it even safer. If you have to bring people you know in real life in on the secret, don't use this email address for communicating with them even if only about matters related to your secret (and don't use your existing addresses for that either). Example: I have one address for press and general interactions, one for things related to my accountant and money, and one for communicating with my agent, publisher, and solicitor. I've also closed and opened new accounts over the years when it seems "too many" people are getting hold of a particular address. Use different passwords for each, don't make these passwords related to your personal information, and so on.

I unwisely left the Hotmail address going, and while I did not use it to send mail, I continued to read things that arrived there. That led to this failed attempt by the Sunday Times to out me. It was an easily dodged attempt but something I would have preferred to avoid.

People can and do register internet domains while staying anonymous but I never did. Some people registered domains for me (people I didn't know in person). This led to a couple of instances of them receiving harassment when the press suspected they were me. In particular Ian Shircore got a bit of unwanted attention this way.

Because all I was ever doing was a straight-up blog, not having a registered domain that I had control over was fine. Your needs may be different. I am not a good source for advice on how to do that. But just in case you might be thinking "who would bother looking there?" read about how faux escort Alexa DiCarlo was unmasked. This is what happens when you don't cover your tracks.

2. Don't use a home internet connection, work internet connection, etc.

Email won't be the only way you might want to communicate with people. You may also want to leave comments on other blogs and so forth. Doing this and other ways of using the Web potentially exposes your IP address, which could be unique and be used to locate you.

Even if you don't leave comments just visiting a site can leave traces behind. Tim Ireland recently used a simple method to confirm his suspicion of who the "Tabloid Troll" twitter account belonged to. By comparing the IP address of someone who clicked on to a link going to the Bloggerheads site with the IP address of an email Dennis Rice sent, a link was made. If you go to the trouble of not using your own connection, also make sure you're not using the same connection for different identities just minutes apart. Don't mix the streams.

The timing of everything as it happened was key to why the papers did not immediately find out who I was. The old blog started in 2003, when most press still had to explain to their audience what a blog actually was. It took a while for people to notice the writing, so the mistakes I made early on (blogging from home and work, using Hotmail) had long been corrected by the time the press became interested.

Today, no writer who aims to stay anonymous should ever assume a grace period like that. It also helped that once the press did become interested, they were so convinced not only that Belle was not really a hooker but also that she was one of their own - a previously published author or even journalist - that they never looked in the right place. If they'd just gone to a London blogmeet and asked a few questions about who had pissed off a lot of people and was fairly promiscuous, they'd have had a plausible shortlist in minutes.

After I moved from Kilburn to Putney, I was no longer using a home internet connection - something I should have done right from the beginning. I started to use internet cafes for posting and other activities as Belle. This offers some security... but be wary of using these places too often if there is a reason to think someone is actively looking for you. It's not perfect.

Also be wary if you are using a laptop or other machine provided by your workplace, or use your own laptop to log in to work servers ("work remotely"). I've not been in that situation and am not in any way an expert on VPNs, but you may want to start reading about it here and do some googling for starters. As a general principle, it's probably wise not to do anything on a work laptop that could get you fired, and don't do anything that could get you fired while also connected to work remotely on your own machine.

3. There is software available that can mask your IP address. There are helpful add-ons that can block tracking software.

I didn't use this when I was anonymous, but if I was starting as an anonymous blogger now, I would download Tor and browse the Web and check email through their tools.

If you do use Tor or other software to mask your IP address, don't then go on tweeting about where your IP address is coming from today! I've seen people do this. Discretion fail.

I also use Ghostery now to block certain tracking scripts from web pages. You will want to look into something similar. Also useful are Adblocker, pop-up blockers, things like that. They are simple to download and use and you might like to use them anyway even if you're not an anonymous blogger. A lot of sites track your movements and you clearly don't want that.

4. Take the usual at-home precautions.

Is your computer password-protected with a password only you know? Do you clear your browser history regularly? Use different passwords for different accounts? Threats to anonymity can come from people close to you. Log out of your blog and email accounts when you're finished using them, every time. Have a secure and remote backup of your writing. Buy a shredder and use it. Standard stuff.

Another thing I would do is install a keystroke logger on your own machine. By doing this I found out in 2004 that someone close to me was spying on me when they were left alone with my computer. In retrospect what I did about it was not the right approach. See also item 7.

5. Be careful what you post.

Are you posting photos? Exif data can tell people, among other things, where and when a picture was taken, what it was taken with, and more. I never had call to use it because I never posted photos or sound, but am told there are loads of tools that can wipe this Exif data from your pictures (here's one).

The content of what you post can be a giveaway as well. Are you linking to people you know in real life? Are you making in-jokes or references to things only a small group of people will know about? Don't do that.

If possible, cover your tracks. Do you have a previous blog under a known name? Are you a contributor to forums where your preferred content and writing style are well-known? Can you edit or delete these things? Good, do that.

Personally, I did not delete everything. Partly this was because the world of British weblogging was so small at the time - a few hundred popular users, maybe a couple thousand people blogging tops? - that I thought the sudden disappearance of my old blog coinciding with the appearance of an unrelated new one might be too much of a coincidence. But I did let the old site go quiet for a bit before deleting it, and edited archived entries.

Keep in mind however that The Wayback Machine means everything you have written on the web that has been indexed still exists. And it's searchable. Someone who already has half an idea where to start looking for you won't have too much trouble finding your writing history. (UPDATE: someone alerted me that it's possible to get your own sites off Wayback by altering the robots.txt file - and even prevent them appearing there in the first place - and to make a formal request for removal using reasons listed here. This does not seem to apply to sites you personally have no control over unless copyright issues are involved.) If you can put one more step between them and you... do it.

6. Resist temptation to let too many people in.

If your writing goes well, people may want to meet you. They could want to buy you drinks, give you free tickets to an opening. Don't say yes. While most people are honest in their intentions, some are not. And even the ones who are may not have taken the security you have to keep your details safe. Remember, no one is as interested in protecting your anonymity as you will be.

Friends and family were almost all unaware of my secret - both the sex work and the writing. Even my best friend (A4 from the books) didn't know. 

I met very few people "as" Belle. There were some who had to meet me: agent, accountant, editor. I never went to the Orion offices until after my identity became known. I met Billie Piper, Lucy Prebble, and a couple of writers during the pre-production of Secret Diary at someone's house, but met almost no one else involved with the show. Paul Duane and Avril MacRory met me and were absolutely discreet. I went to the agent's office a few times but never made an appointment as Belle or in my real name. Most of the staff there had no idea who I was. Of these people who did meet me almost none knew my real name, where I lived, where I was from, my occupation. Only one (the accountant) knew all of that - explained below under point 9. And if I could have gotten away with him never seeing a copy of my passport, I damn well would have done.

The idea was that if people don't know anything they can't inadvertently give it away. I know that all of the people listed above were absolutely trustworthy. I still didn't tell them anything a journalist would have considered useful.

When I started blogging someone once commented that my blog was a "missed opportunity" because it didn't link to an agency website or any way of booking my services. Well, duh. I didn't want clients to meet me through the blog! If you are a sex worker who wants to preserve a level of pseudonymity and link your public profile to your work, Amanda Brooks has the advice you need. Not me.

Other sources like JJ Luna write about how to do things like get and use credit cards not tied to your name and address. I've heard Entropay offer 'virtual' credit cards that are not tied to your credit history, although they can't be used with any system that requires address verification. This could be useful even for people who are not involved in sex work.

Resisting temptation sometimes means turning down something you'd really like to do. The short-term gain of giving up details for a writing prize or some immediate work may not be worth the long-term loss of privacy. I heard about one formerly anonymous blogger who was outed after giving their full name and address to a journalist who asked for it when they entered a competition. File under: how not to stay anonymous.

7. Trust your intuition.

I have to be careful what I say here. In short, my identity became known to a tabloid paper and someone whom I had good reason not to trust (see item 4) gave them a lot of information about me.

When your intuition tells you not to trust someone, LISTEN TO IT. The best security in the world fails if someone props open a door, leaves a letter on the table, or mentally overrides the concern that someone who betrayed you before could do so again. People you don't trust should be ejected from your life firmly and without compromise. A "let them down easy" approach only prolongs any revenge they might carry out and probably makes it worse. The irony is that as a call girl I relied on intuition and having strong personal boundaries all the time... but failed to carry that ability over into my private life. If there is one thing in my life I regret, the failure to act on my intuition is it.

As an aside if you have not read The Gift of Fear already, get it and read it.

See also point 9: if and when you need people to help you keep the secret don't make it people already involved in your private life. Relationships can cloud good judgement in business decisions.

There is a very droll saying "Two people can keep a secret if one of them is dead." It's not wrong. I know, I know. Paranoid. Hard not to be when journos a few years later are digging through the rubbish of folks who met you exactly once when you were sixteen. Them's the breaks.

8. Consider the consequences of success.

If you find yourself being offered book deals or similar, think it through. Simply by publishing anonymously you will become a target. Some people assume all anonymous writers "want" to be found, and the media in particular will jump through some very interesting hurdles to "prove" anything they write about you is in the public interest.

In particular, if you are a sex worker, and especially if you are a sex worker who is visible/bookable through your site, please give careful consideration to moving out of that sphere. Even where sex for money is legal it is still a very stigmatised activity. There are a number of people who do not seem to have realised this, and the loss of a career when they left the "sex-pos" bubble was probably something of a shock. I'm not saying don't do it - but please think long and hard about the potential this has to change your life and whether you are fully prepared to be identified this way forever. For every Diablo Cody there are probably dozens of Melissa Petros. For every Melissa Petro there are probably hundreds more people with a sex industry past who get quietly fired and we don't ever hear from them.

If I knew going in to the first book deal what would happen, I probably would have said no. I'm glad I didn't by the way - but realistically, my life was stressful enough at that point and I did not fully understand what publishing would add to that. Not many bloggers had mainstream books at that point (arguably none in the UK) so I didn't have anyone else's experience to rely on. I really had no idea about what was going to happen. The things people wrote about me then were mainly untrue and usually horrendous. Not a lot has changed even now. I'd be lying if I said that didn't have an emotional effect.

Writing anonymously and being outed has happened often enough that people going into it should consider the consequences. I'm not saying don't do it if you risk something, but be honest with yourself about the worst possible outcome and whether you would be okay with that.

9.  Enlist professional help to get paid and sign contracts.

Having decided to write a book, I needed an agent. The irony of being anonymous was that while I let as few people in on it as possible, at some point I was going to have to take a leap of faith and let in more. Mil Millington emailed me to recommend Patrick Walsh, saying he was one of the few people in London who can be trusted. Mil was right.

Patrick put me on to my accountant (who had experience of clients with, shall we say, unusual sources of income). From there we cooked up a plan so that contracts could be signed without my name ever gracing a piece of paper. Asking someone to keep a secret when there's a paper trail sounds like it should be possible but rarely is. Don't kid yourself, there is no such thing as a unbreakable confidentiality agreement. Asking journalists and reviewers to sign one about your book is like waving a red rag to a bull. What we needed was a few buffers between me and the press.

With Patrick and Michael acting as directors, a company was set up - Bizrealm. I was not on the paperwork as a director so my name never went on file with Companies House. Rather, with the others acting as directors, signing necessary paperwork, etc., Patrick held a share in trust for me off of which dividends were drawn and this is how I got paid. I may have got some of these details wrong, by the way - keep in mind, I don't deal with Bizrealm's day-to-day at all.

There are drawbacks to doing things this way: you pay for someone's time, in this case the accountant, to create and administer the company. You can not avoid tax and lots of it. (Granted, drawing dividends is more tax-efficient, but still.) You have to trust a couple of people ABSOLUTELY. I'd underline this a thousand times if I could. Michael for instance is the one person who always knew, and continues to know, everything about my financial and personal affairs. Even Patrick doesn't know everything.

There are benefits though, as well. Because the money stays mainly in the company and is not paid to me, it gets eked out over time, making tax bills manageable, investment more constant, and keeping me from the temptation to go mad and spend it.

I can't stress enough that you might trust your friends and family to the ends of the earth, but they should not be the people who do this for you. Firstly, because they can be traced to you (they know you in a non-professional way). Secondly, because this is a very stressful setup and you need the people handling it to be on the ball. As great as friends and family are that is probably not the kind of stress you want to add to your relationship. I have heard far too many stories of sex workers and others being betrayed by ex-partners who knew the details of their business dealings to ever think that's a good idea.

So how do you know you can trust these people? We've all heard stories of musicians and other artists getting ripped off by management, right? All I can say is instinct. It would not have been in Patrick's interest to grass me, since as my agent he took a portion of my earnings anyway, and therefore had financial as well as personal interest in protecting that. If he betrayed me he would also have suffered a loss of reputation that potentially outweighed any gain. Also, as most people who know him will agree, he's a really nice and sane human being. Same with Michael.

If this setup sounds weirdly paranoid, let me assure you that journalists absolutely did go to Michael's office and ask to see the Bizrealm paperwork, and Patrick absolutely did have people going through his bins, trying to infiltrate his office as interns, and so on. Without the protection of being a silent partner in the company those attempts to uncover me might have worked.

I communicate with some writers and would-be writers who do not seem to have agents. If you are serious about writing, and if you are serious about staying anonymous, get an agent. Shop around, follow your instinct, and make sure it's someone you can trust. Don't be afraid to dump an agent, lawyer, or anyone else if you don't trust them utterly. They're professionals and shouldn't take it personally.

10. Don't break the (tax) law.

Journalists being interested in your identity is one thing. What you really don't want is the police or worse, the tax man, after you. Pay your taxes and try not to break the law if it can be helped. If you're a sex worker blogging about it, get an accountant who has worked with sex workers before - this is applicable even if you live somewhere sex work is not strictly legal. Remember, Al Capone went down for tax evasion. Don't be like Al. If you are a non-sex-work blogger who is earning money from clickthroughs and affiliates on your site, declare this income.

In summer 2010 the HMRC started a serious fraud investigation of me. It has been almost two years and is only just wrapping up, with the Revenue finally satisfied that not only did I declare (and possibly overdeclare) my income as a call girl, but that there were no other sources of income hidden from them. They have turned my life and financial history upside down to discover next to nothing new about me. This has been an expensive and tedious process. I can't even imagine what it would have been like had I not filed the relevant forms, paid the appropriate taxes, and most of all had an accountant to deal with them!

Bottom line, you may be smart - I'm pretty good with numbers myself - but people whose job it is to know about tax law, negotiating contracts, and so on will be better at that than you are. Let them do it. They are worth every penny.

11. Do interviews with care.

Early interviews were all conducted one of two ways: over email (encrypted) or over an IRC chatroom from an anonymising server (I used xs4all). This was not ideal from their point of view, and I had to coach a lot of people in IRC which most of them had never heard of. But again, it's worth it, since no one in the press will be as interested in protecting your identity as you are. I hope it goes without saying, don't give out your phone number.

12. Know when les jeux sont faits.

In November 2009 - 6 years after I first started blogging anonymously - my identity was revealed.

As has been documented elsewhere, I had a few heads-ups that something was coming, that it was not going to be nice, and that it was not going to go away. We did what we could to put off the inevitable but it became clear I only had one of two choices: let the Mail on Sunday have first crack at running their sordid little tales, or pre-empt them.

While going to the Sunday Times - the same paper that had forcibly outed Zoe Margolis a few years earlier, tried to get my details through that old Hotmail address, and incorrectly fingered Sarah Champion as me - was perhaps not the most sensitive choice, it was for me the right move. Patrick recommended that we contact an interviewer who had not been a Belle-believer: if things were going to be hard, best get that out of the way up front.



So that is that. It's a bit odd how quickly things have changed. When I started blogging I little imagined I would be writing books, much less something like this. Being a kind of elder statesman of blogging (or cantankerous old grump if you prefer) is not an entirely comfortable position and one that is still new to me. But it is also interesting to note how little has changed: things that worked in the early 2000s have value today. The field expanded rapidly but the technology has not yet changed all that much.

As before, these ideas do not constitute a foolproof way to protect your identity. All writers - whether writing under their own names or not - should be aware of the risks they may incur by hitting 'publish'. I hope this post at least goes some way to making people think about how they might be identified, and starts them on a path of taking necessary (and in many cases straightforward) precautions, should they choose to be anonymous.

I went to Australia last month as a guest of the Opera House for the All About Women symposium.  As part of the event, I agreed to do some media appearances on ABC, including the Drum and Q&A.

All About Women was a fantastic day and I feel privileged to have met so many interesting and talented people there, including people I would put in the category of genuine modern heroes. 

As for Q&A… this is the Australian equivalent of Question Time, so I went anticipating a varied panel with a wide variety of opinions jostling to be heard. I was told Tony Jones was a strong moderator, so I went expecting him to rein in the conversation if things went off-piste. This was to be Q & A's first all-woman panel and expectations were high. The topics they circulated beforehand indicated I was in for a grilling while everyone else got softball. I went, not to put too fine a point on it, loaded for bear.

I thought it went pretty well. Opinions differed. Points of view were exchanged. Margaret Thatcher died. All in all, a good night. The producers seemed very pleased with the outcome.

So imagine my surprise, weeks later, that fellow guest Mia Freedman is still flogging her commentary about the appearance as content on her site MamaMia. The topic: should she apologise for continually insulting sex workers?

During the show Mia kept falling back on sloppy, ill-thought, and pat little lines that were easily countered. I found to my surprise a lot of common ground with Germaine Greer, hardly known as a fan of sexual entertainment, on the fact that conditions of labour and not sex per se are the most pressing issue for sex workers worldwide right now. Then in comes Mia with her assumptions about the people who do sex work (men AND women) and the people who hire them (men AND women). With Tony backing her up. So much for the disinterested moderator, eh? Maybe he felt bad for her. I don't know.

Here's the thing. I agree with Mia on this: I don't think she should apologise.

Why not? Because if she did it would be insincere. My first impression when we met backstage was that she was insincere, and damn it, a successful lady editor like her should have the guts to be true to herself and stand by her opinions no matter what they are.

Because the general public needs to see what kinds of uninformed nonsense that sex workers who stick their heads above the parapet get every single day.

Because for every 100 people who visit her site, there is one who is both a parent AND a sex worker, who knows what she is saying is nonsense. Yes, that's right Mia: sex workers raise families too. It's almost as if we're people.

Because she is a magazine editor who cares deeply about hits and attention, and clearly this is delivering on every level.

Because the sort of people who think sex workers should be topics of discussion rather than active participants are fighting a losing battle.

Keep digging, Mia. I ain't gonna stop you. Keep writing off other people simply because they didn't have the privileges you did or didn't make the same choices you did, and you can't accept that. Get it off your chest, lock up your children, whatever you think you need to do. Perhaps you have some issues about sex you want to work out in public, or this wouldn't be the biggest issue on your agenda weeks after the show went to air?

Mia, you have my express permission not to apologise. No, don't thank me… I insist.

It’s been 11-years since I have written about the PowerShell Toolkit that was originally created by the development team in SDL.  Back then I was able to fumble my way through setting it up, editing a few files, and automating the creation of a project in Trados Studio.  In all the time since then it’s … Continue reading Trados Studio – Powershell Trilogy Part 1

Helena Cortés Gabaudan

Existen unos cuantos códigos deontológicos para traductores, pero muy pocos se refieren a la traducción literaria en particular. De entre ellos, uno de los primeros que se encuentra en Internet ni siquiera llega a reunir más de 7 normas, y las que incluye apenas tienen que ver con lo que realmente garantiza la calidad de una traducción literaria; es un mero listado de requisitos básicos del traductor en general y de aspectos legales (vid. el código deontológico del traductor literario redactado por el Consejo Europeo de Asociaciones de Traductores Literarios, ceatl). Ante esta carencia, hemos redactado, entre bromas y veras, un pequeño código personal para traductores literarios noveles, un decálogo que solo se basa en los cientos de horas solitarias, ingratas, desesperantes, pero siempre felices, pasadas frente a los textos de los grandes autores.

DECÁLOGO DEL BUEN TRADUCTOR LITERARIO

1. Humildad (o, lo que otros llaman fidelidad al texto). No trates de ser más brillante que el propio autor; en general, la mayor literalidad posible en fondo y forma es la mejor norma, aunque siempre creando un texto propio y sin caer en la burda copia. Si tienes siempre la tentación de mejorar el original, si te gusta adaptar y añadir cosas de tu cosecha o cortar y simplificar las partes complejas, escribe novelas, pero no traduzcas. Y, en particular, si eres poeta y te encanta traducir poesía, haz un esfuerzo: olvida tu condición por un instante y sé solo traductor. El lector no quiere leer tus versos.

2. Sensatez. Algunos escritores son gente rara, sí, ¡pero no tantos! En general no escriben estupideces ni insensateces. Así pues, si algo te sorprende sobremanera o parece no tener ningún sentido, es casi seguro que te has equivocado. Indaga. Seguro que algo se te está escapando.

3. Sentido estético. Traducir correctamente el contenido de la obra original puede ser relativamente fácil, pero no hay que olvidarse de la forma estética. Analiza a fondo los recursos estilísticos y estéticos empleados por el autor y trata de lograr lo mismo en tu propio idioma. De no ser así, tanto daría hacer un buen resumen del contenido como traducir la obra.

4. Paciencia. Si quieres traducir literatura no puedes tener prisa, es labor interminable de investigación, reescritura, relectura. Una recomendación: cuando hayas acabado de traducir, olvida tu versión en un cajón durante un tiempo suficientemente largo como para borrar de tu mente el original y haz una última lectura sin tener presente más que tu sentido lingüístico y literario: en este momento, y solo en éste, tómate todas las libertades que quieras con el texto hasta que a ti te suene bien, hasta hacerlo completamente tuyo, hasta que deje de ser una traducción y se convierta en tu texto: ganará en fluidez, no sonará a traducción y tendrá un estilo homogéneo.

5. Cultura. Si no tienes cientos de horas de lectura acumulados, si careces de una sólida cultura general y de cierta experiencia vital, si no conoces los clásicos y te aburre cualquier libro que no esté lleno de acción y diálogos, si nunca ganaste un premio de redacción en el colegio ni leías por las noches con una linterna debajo de las sábanas para que no te riñeran, si nunca viajaste a los países cuyas lenguas traduces, en definitiva, si no tienes gusto por la literatura: por favor ¡no te hagas traductor literario! Se gana más con los manuales de autoayuda y los libros de cocina.

6. Naturalidad. Es más importante que la obra suene bien en tu idioma y conseguir un texto natural y fluido, carente de todo artificio, que el que se cuele alguna disculpable metedura de pata. Y el que esté libre de error, que tire la primera piedra.

7. Buena pluma. Si no tienes talento para escribir con gracia y soltura en tu propio idioma no podrás ser nunca un buen traductor literario. Solo el que escribe bien traduce bien.

8. Dominio de tu lengua. Ser bilingüe ayuda mucho, pero no es garantía de buena traducción. Conocer bien la lengua de partida es un requisito técnico tan elemental como saber leer y escribir, pero no aporta nada más. Conocer bien la lengua de llegada, haberse perdido por sus más enrevesados vericuetos, saber jugar con ella, poder burlarse de ella: esa es la condición para ser un buen traductor. Busca a quien domine muy bien la lengua extranjera y tendrás, con suerte, un correcto traductor. Busca quien domine a
fondo su lengua materna y casi seguro que habrás encontrado a un buen traductor.

9. Actualidad. No envejezcas a propósito una traducción para acercarla a la época del autor. Piensa que los lectores contemporáneos del autor pudieron disfrutar de una lectura fluida y natural en el idioma de su tiempo. No castigues a tus lectores con una barrera idiomática artificial que solo provoca distancia. Para que el original siga siendo tan accesible como en su tiempo, cada generación necesita una nueva traducción.

10. Amor. O lo correcto no es igual a lo bueno. Cuántas traducciones hubo más o menos correctas que son perfectamente olvidables, por grises, planas, carentes de toda vida. Tal vez con un excelente adiestramiento se pueda conseguir un número aceptable de correctas traducciones. Pero siempre hubo, hay y habrá muy pocas buenas traducciones. En traducción literaria, traducción correcta no equivale a buena traducción. Porque también hacen falta grandes dosis de empatía. Si a pesar de haber renegado del texto más de mil veces, en el fondo has acabado sintiendo pasión por él y su autor, es señal de que eres un traductor. Si en caso de existir la máquina del tiempo lo que más te gustaría sería tener una entrevista con el clásico al que estás traduciendo, es señal de que eres un traductor. Si lo que más te gusta al llegar a casa es sentarte ante tu libro, y nunca te vas a la cama sin haber traducido al menos unas cuantas líneas —porque ése es el momento que más disfrutas del día— es señal de que eres un traductor. Y es que, además de profesión, hace falta un poco de vocación.

Estos diez mandamientos se encierran en dos: amarás a la literatura sobre todas las cosas y a los textos que traduces como a ti mismo.

Conclusión

Hacer traducciones literarias es lo más parecido a tener hijos: es una gestación larga y complicada, cuanto más se acerca el inexorable plazo de entrega más insoportable y más pesado se vuelve el asunto, hay momentos en que detestas al que te embarcó en aquel lío y te preguntas cómo pudiste aceptar; y llega siempre ese momento de extremo dolor, cuando tienes que sacar fuera como sea la cabeza del infante, en que te juras a ti mismo que nunca volverás a caer en semejante empresa… pero, en general, una vez que el niño ya está fuera y lo miras, solo queda amor incondicional por tan trabajoso producto, pese a los muchos fallos que pueda tener. Y es que ¿hay alguna madre que piense que sus hijos son feos? En resumen, la traducción literaria no es una profesión, no da de comer ni se aprende en la academia: es una vocación y un talento. Si no disfrutas con ella, no la ejerzas.

Fuente: La Linterna del Traductor

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) face new challenges in the global market as customers require more complete and flexible solutions and continue to drastically reduce the number of suppliers. SMEs are trying to address these challenges through cooperation within collaborative enterprise networks (CENs). Human aspects constitute a fundamental issue in these networks as people, as opposed to organizations or Information Technology (IT) systems, cooperate. Since there is a lack of empirical studies on the role of human factors in IT-supported collaborative enterprise networks, this paper addresses the major human aspects encountered in this type of organization. These human aspects include trust issues, knowledge and know-how sharing, coordination and planning activities, and communication and mutual understanding, as well as their influence on the business processes of CENs supported by IT tools. This paper empirically proves that these aspects constitute key factors for the success or the failure of CENs. Two case studies performed on two different CENs in Switzerland are presented and the roles of human factors are identified with respect to the IT support systems. Results show that specific human factors, namely trust and communication and mutual understanding have to be well addressed in order to design and develop adequate software solutions for CENs.

Siemens is well known for ambitious efforts in knowledge management, providing a series of innovative tools and applications within the intranet. References@BT is such a web-based application with currently more than 7,300 registered users from more than 70 countries. Its goal is to support the sharing of knowledge, experiences and best-practices globally within the Building Technologies division. Launched in 2005, References@BT features structured knowledge references, discussion forums, and a basic social networking service. In response to use demand, a new microblogging service, tightly integrated into References@BT, was implemented in March 2009. More than 500 authors have created around 2,600 microblog postings since then. Following a brief introduction into the community platform References@BT, we comprehensively describe the motivation, experiences and advantages for an organization in providing internal microblogging services. We provide detailed microblog usage statistics, analyzing the top ten users regarding postings and followers as well as the top ten topics. In doing so, we aim to shed light on microblogging usage and adoption within a globally distributed organization.

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The user experience of any software or website consists of elements from the conceptual to the concrete level. These elements of user experience assist in the design and development of user interfaces. On the other hand, ontologies provide a framework for computable representation of user interface elements and underlying data. This paper discusses strategies of introducing ontologies at different user interface layers adapted from user experience elements. These layers range from abstract levels (e.g. User needs/Application Objectives) to concrete levels (e.g. Application User Interface) in terms of data representation. The proposed ontological framework enables device independent, semi-automated GUI construction which we will demonstrate at a personal information management example.

Semantic-based technologies have been steadily increasing their relevance in recent years in both the research world and business world. Considering this, the present article discusses the process of design and implementation of a competency management system in information and communication technologies domain utilizing the latest Semantic Web tools and technologies including D2RQ server, TopBraid Composer, OWL 2, SPARQL, SPARQL Rules and common human resources related public vocabularies. In particular, the paper discusses the process of building individual and enterprise competence models in a form of ontology database, as well as different ways of meaningful search and retrieval of expertise data on the Semantic Web. The ontological knowledge base aims at storing the extracted and integrated competences from structured, as well as unstructured sources. By using the illustrative case study of deployment of such a system in the Human Resources sector at the Mihajlo Pupin Institute, this paper shows an example of new approaches to data integration and information management. The proposed approach extends the functionalities of existing enterprise information systems and offers possibilities for development of future Internet services. This allows organizations to express their core competences and talents in a standardized, machine processable and understandable format, and hence, facilitates their integration in the European Research Area and beyond.

Retrieving information or discovering knowledge from a well organized data center in general is requested to be familiar with its schema, structure, and architecture, which against the inherent concept and characteristics of cloud environment. An effective approach to retrieve desired information or to extract useful knowledge is an important issue in the emerging information/knowledge cloud. In this paper, we propose an ontology-based agent generation framework for information retrieval in a flexible, transparent, and easy way on cloud environment. While user submitting a flat-text based request for retrieving information on a cloud environment, the request will be automatically deduced by a Reasoning Agent (RA) based on predefined ontology and reasoning rule, and then be translated to a Mobile Information Retrieving Agent Description File (MIRADF) that is formatted in a proposed Mobile Agent Description Language (MADF). A generating agent, named MIRA-GA, is also implemented to generate a MIRA according to the MIRADF. We also design and implement a prototype to integrate these agents and show an interesting example to demonstrate the feasibility of the architecture.

Project monitoring plays a crucial role in project management, which is a part of every stage of a project's life-cycle. Nevertheless, along with the increasing ratio of outsourcing in many companies' strategic plans, project monitoring has been challenged by geographically dispersed project teams and culturally diverse team members. Furthermore, because of the lack of a uniform standard, data exchange between various project monitoring software becomes an impossible mission. These factors together lead to the issue of ambiguity in project monitoring processes. Ontology is a form of knowledge representation with the purpose of disambiguation. Consequently, in this paper, we propose the framework of an ontology-based real-time project monitoring system (ORPSM), in order to, by means of ontologies, solve the ambiguity issue in project monitoring processes caused by multiple factors. The framework incorporates a series of ontologies for knowledge capture, storage, sharing and term disambiguation in project monitoring processes, and a series of metrics for assisting management of project organizations to better monitor projects. We propose to configure the ORPMS framework in a cloud environment, aiming at providing the project monitoring service to geographically distributed and dynamic project members with great flexibility, scalability and security. A case study is conducted on a prototype of the ORPMS in order to evaluate the framework.

Coup d'envoi de la saison des carnavals à Cologne en Allemagne

Dans la douzième étape, entre Bourg-Saint-Maurice et l’Alpe d’Huez (175,5 km), nouvelle victoire du maillot jaune Geraint Thomas (Sky), qui se comporte de plus en plus en leader. Il s’agissait de la plus belle étape de montagne, avec trois grands cols hors catégorie.

Alpe d’Huez (Isère), envoyé spécial.
Tout de nerfs et de cernes, le peloton s’étirait déjà en lambeaux et nous voyions clairement à travers depuis un moment. Devant, derrière, un peu partout, un dialogue spumescent et ...