Iowa Aviation Weather...en Espanol

The US is in no danger of losing english as the primary language. We'll
all look up one day and forget what all the concern was about.

I truly hope you're right, Bill.

In the meantime, I guess we can stop worrying about the National
Weather Service's budget, as they are clearly flush with money.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

On Wed, 14 Feb 2007 08:08:21 -0800, Jay Honeck wrote
(in article .com):

The US is in no danger of losing english as the primary language. We'll
all look up one day and forget what all the concern was about.

I truly hope you're right, Bill.

In the meantime, I guess we can stop worrying about the National
Weather Service's budget, as they are clearly flush with money.

An interesting question, at that. How much money are we really talking about
here? They have some guy, probably, already on the payroll, or maybe even a
computer translator, that translates the site into Spanish. I bet it doesn't
cost all that much compared to their whole budget. They probably spend more
on wastebaskets every month.

--
Waddling Eagle
World Famous Flight Instructor

C J Campbell wrote:
An interesting question, at that. How much money are we really talking about
here? They have some guy, probably, already on the payroll, or maybe even a
computer translator, that translates the site into Spanish. I bet it doesn't
cost all that much compared to their whole budget. They probably spend more
on wastebaskets every month.


Wait until someone who speaks Lithuanian files a lawsuit.

On Wed, 14 Feb 2007 11:17:34 -0800, ktbr wrote
(in article ):

C J Campbell wrote:
An interesting question, at that. How much money are we really talking
about
here? They have some guy, probably, already on the payroll, or maybe even a
computer translator, that translates the site into Spanish. I bet it
doesn't
cost all that much compared to their whole budget. They probably spend more
on wastebaskets every month.


Wait until someone who speaks Lithuanian files a lawsuit.

I would say that describes a problem with the legal system instead of with
'immigrants' who aren't really immigrants.

--
Waddling Eagle
World Famous Flight Instructor

C J Campbell writes:

An interesting question, at that. How much money are we really talking about
here? They have some guy, probably, already on the payroll, or maybe even a
computer translator, that translates the site into Spanish. I bet it doesn't
cost all that much compared to their whole budget. They probably spend more
on wastebaskets every month.

It is also interesting to note that many translations into Spanish are
abysmal, since many Spanish speakers in the U.S. are incompetent in Spanish
and yet attempt to prepare translations.

--
Transpose mxsmanic and gmail to reach me by e-mail.

An interesting question, at that. How much money are we really talking about
here? They have some guy, probably, already on the payroll, or maybe even a
computer translator, that translates the site into Spanish. I bet it doesn't
cost all that much compared to their whole budget. They probably spend more
on wastebaskets every month.

Your statement shows a remarkably optimistic (okay, ignorant) view of
how our government bureaucracy functions. Here's how it really goes
down:

1. A new Congressional mandate rolls into the National Weather Service
office: ALL DOCUMENTS MUST NOW BE PUBLISHED IN SPANISH.
2. Head of NWS decrees "Thou shalt translate all weather forecasts
into Spanish."
3. NWS meterologists hold meeting (in Las Vegas, in January) to
discuss the issue. All look at one another blankly -- Who amongst us
speaks Spanish? Answer: No one.
4. Report goes back up the chain of command: No one here can predict
the weather in Spanish!"
5. Head of NWS makes a request for additional bilingual staff,
preferably meteorologists. No one even considers a translator.
6. Government bureacrat in another department evaluates request for
more staff, and determines that this must be a Pay Level 13 job, since
it requires a degree in meteorology. Pay Level 13 starts at $34.00
per hour. Starting pay is $70K per year.
7. Spanish-speaking meteorologists are scarce as hen's teeth, and the
search committee fails to find the required 25 new positions.
Therefore, the pay is increased to Pay Level 18, or $56.00 per hour.
Starting pay is now $116K per year.
8. Suddenly, Spanish-speaking weather forecasters are coming out of
the woodwork. The NWS hires 25 new meteorologists, all of them
Spanish-speaking.
9. The Meteorologist's Union files a grievance, since these new hires
are now making more than the weather forecasters who have been there
since TelStar was launched.
10. To placate the union, all NWS forecasters are raised to Pay Level
18.
11. The NWS is now in a budget crunch, and goes to Congress pleading
for more money. No one tells Congress that the budget crunch was
caused by their mandate to translate everything into Spanish.

....And the beat goes on...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

8. Suddenly, Spanish-speaking weather forecasters are coming out of
the woodwork. The NWS hires 25 new meteorologists, all of them
Spanish-speaking.

You missed a step. These Spanish-speaking meteorolgists demand
instruments calibrated in Spanish. A procurement offer goes out to all
instrument makers for instruments that can measure Spanish rain, Spainsh
snow, etc...

Jose
--
Humans are pack animals. Above all things, they have a deep need to
follow something, be it a leader, a creed, or a mob. Whosoever fully
understands this holds the world in his hands.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

"Jay Honeck" wrote:
Does anyone else find it disturbing that the National Weather Service
in the United States is paying out taxpayer money to a government
employee to create a foreign-language web page?

Look folks, what Jay is saying here[1] isn't about Spanish, its about
government excess. Plenty of government abuse of our money is out there
and we shouldn't act like sheep when it happens. Unfortunately I think
Jay missed the target when he used this example.

[1] "What Jay is trying to say" is my deliberate play on the following
dialogue from the movie "The Right Stuff":

"[An argument rages, primarily between Shepard, Glenn, Carpenter and
Cooper]

Scott Carpenter: John's right! Now, whether we like it or not, we're
public figures. Whether we deserve it or not, people are going to look up
to us. We have got a tremendous responsibility here.

Alan Shepard: You cannot tell a pilot what he's doing when he's not
flying!

[Argument continues]

Gus Grissom: Wait a minute, wait a minute!

[turns Glenn toward him]

Gus Grissom: You've got it all wrong, the issue here ain't pussy. The
issue here is monkey.

John Glenn: What?

Gus Grissom: Us. We are the monkey.

Deke Slayton: What Gus is saying is that we're missing the point. What
Gus is saying is that we all heard the rumors that they want to send a
monkey up first. Well, none of us wants to think that they're gonna send
a monkey up to do a man's work. But what Gus is saying is that what
they're trying to do to us is send a man up to do a monkey's work. Us, a
bunch of college-trained chimpanzees!

Gus Grissom: ****in' A, bubba.

Deke Slayton: Alright, so what Gus is saying is that we've got to change
things around here. He's saying that we are pilots. And we know more
about what we need to fly this thing than anybody else. So what we have
to do is to alter the experiment. And what that comes down to is who is
gonna control this thing from here on out.

Gordon Cooper: What Gus is saying here is that we've got to stick
together on this deal."

Shamelessly copied and pasted from:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086197/quotes

On Feb 13, 10:40 am, "Jay Honeck" wrote:
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/forecast/Map...DVN&map.x=121&...

(orhttp://tinyurl.com/39s8j5if that URL wraps...)

Does anyone else find it disturbing that the National Weather Service
in the United States is paying out taxpayer money to a government
employee to create a foreign-language web page?

I do not find it disturbing, for three reasons...
1. I don't live in the US nor am I an expatriate.
2. I understand that Spanish is and will continue to be a reasonably
widely spoken language in many parts of the US. It would I expect be
part of the directive of the NWS that it should make weather
information available to as many people as practical, and that means
Spanish is a good idea.
3. As a web developer (programmer, not design), I can tell you that
provided the site was designed right (and from the outside I'd say
it's likely) the translation is a piece of cake, and even the weather
reports linked to are likely automatically translated as they appear
to be in a largely fixed format and easily translated even via a
simple lookup table. As such, the extra cost involved was likely only
at the stage of developing the website, and probably very minimal
(we're talking only a couple of days extra work), I imagine there is
little or no ongoing translation work required.

On Mon, 12 Feb 2007 13:40:36 -0800, Jay Honeck wrote
(in article .com):


http://www.crh.noaa.gov/forecast/Map...=121&map.y=125


(or http://tinyurl.com/39s8j5 if that URL wraps...)

Does anyone else find it disturbing that the National Weather Service
in the United States is paying out taxpayer money to a government
employee to create a foreign-language web page?

Well, it appears to be a 50/50 split here. Some of us think it is a waste of
money; the rest of us do not. I cannot think of a single decision made by
anyone, in government or out, that everybody will be 100% happy with.

Beyond a certain level, the NWS has to be able to manage its operations as it
sees best. It is never going to make either Jay Honeck or me happy all of the
time -- and both of us are going to be unhappy with different things. And we
are not going to put the content of individual web pages up for a national
referendum.

But, if enough people complain about this horrible waste of money, then there
will be a Congressional investigation, which only costs about $20 million a
day...

So, I guess the question then becomes, just how far do you think people
should go in trying to micro-manage the Weather Service? I have no doubt that
people still call them up to complain about the weather.

--
Waddling Eagle
World Famous Flight Instructor