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Percy Balemans 📚

@creative-xl8.bsky.social

370 followers 290 following 520 posts

Translator specialising in transcreation & book translations (fiction, non-fiction, exhibition catalogues) | 100% AI-free | English & German into Dutch | Member of NGTV & Auteursbond, Fellow of CIOL https://www.pb-translations.com

www.pb-translations.com

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Percy Balemans 📚 @creative-xl8.bsky.social · 8d

Out now: my fourth thriller translation, and the third one by Catherine Cooper. When you buy a chateau in France to make a fresh start, but the past keeps haunting you... 🏰 👻 😱

Book cover with a picture of a hearth with a burning fire. Chairs on both sides. There's a rug in front of the hearth with a blood stain on it.
Text:
Catherine Cooper
Het chateau
Thriller
Een schitterend kasteel.
Een stel op de rand van de afgrond.
Een geheim dat hoe dan ook uitkomt.

Percy Balemans 📚 @creative-xl8.bsky.social · 22m

Voor wie hem wil lezen/heeft gelezen: zijn boeken zijn in het Nederlands vertaald door Mari Alföldy.

#NoemDeVertaler #boeken

NOS @nieuws.nos.nl · 49m

Nobelprijs voor de Literatuur voor Hongaarse auteur László Krasznahorkai

De prijs wordt ieder jaar toegekend aan de auteur die volgens het comité het opmerkelijkste werk met een idealistische trend heeft geschreven.

nos.nl

Reposted by Percy Balemans 📚

Words Without Borders & WWB Campus @wwborders.bsky.social · 49m

OH WOW! Congratulations to our contributor, László Krasznahorkai, for winning the 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature!!! 😍🥳
wordswithoutborders.org/.../view/lsz...

László Krasznahorkai - Words Without Borders

László Krasznahorkai is the recipient of the 2019 National Book Award for Translated Literature, the 2015 Man Booker International Prize, and the 2013 Best Translated Book Award in Fiction.

wordswithoutborders.org

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The Virologist 🇳🇱🤙 (@Pen_Is_Mighty on Twitter) @thevirologist.bsky.social · 3h

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Percy Balemans 📚 @creative-xl8.bsky.social · 1h

Was told recently by a (technical) translator that "all you need to do" is translate a few pages to train AI, tell it what style to use and voilà!

They also told me they never read fiction. Which I had already guessed...

With "colleagues" like that who needs Big Tech to ruin our profession??

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Percy Balemans 📚 @creative-xl8.bsky.social · 2h

I'm a book translator from the Netherlands translating from English and German into Dutch.

My most recent translation is the thriller The Chateau by British author Catherine Cooper (published last week) and I am currently working on her next thriller.

#TranslatorThursday #BookSky 💙📚

Big Bearded Spookteller @bigbeardybooks.bsky.social · 4h

Thursdays are for Translators!

If you're a translator why not tell us a little bit about yourself, what projects you've on the go, what you've written, any events in the near future, or just drop your bio and links and follow and support each other

#TranslatorThursday #BookSky 💙📚

alt text please

an icon showing a circular translation from one language to another

Reposted by Percy Balemans 📚

Sham Jaff @shamjaff.bsky.social · 1d

It’s a "crisis" when immigrants "take jobs away", but "innovation" when machines do. Funny.

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Percy Balemans 📚 @creative-xl8.bsky.social · 1d

Geen idee, maar het staat nu wel zo in de krant.

Percy Balemans 📚 @creative-xl8.bsky.social · 1d

The only "victims" would be the tech companies and they already have billions. So what exactly is the problem??

The Verge @theverge.com · May 26

Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry

Paul McCartne, Elton John and others signed an open letter.

buff.ly

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Percy Balemans 📚 @creative-xl8.bsky.social · 1d

‪Matthew Inman from The Oatmeal on AI:

"Someone once told me that art is like emotional nutrition.
Art feeds my feelings.
And if that's the case,
consuming AI art is like
eating styrofoam."

Watch the full cartoon:
theoatmeal.com/comics/ai_art

A cartoonist's review of AI art - The Oatmeal

This is a comic about AI art.

theoatmeal.com

Percy Balemans 📚 @creative-xl8.bsky.social · 1d

Taalboekenprijs-winnaar Freek Van de Velde in Trouw: "Ik wilde mensen laten zien dat taal meer is dan zinsontleding, vertalen of andere duffe dingen." 🙄

Nou ja, ik ga maar weer gewoon verder met mijn duffedingenwerk.

Taalboekenprijs-winnaar Freek Van de Velde poetst het imago van taalkunde op: Geen linkse hobby
De Taalboekenprijs gaat dit jaar naar de Vlaamse hoogleraar taalkunde Freek Van de Velde voor zijn alomvattende en toch toegankelijke boek Wat taal verraadt - een kleine geschiedenis van brein tot beschaving
Sandra Kooke, 4 oktober 2025, 11:34
Hoog in de bergen is de taal ingewikkelder dan in een rivierdelta. Mensen die kunnen lezen hebben andere hersenen dan mensen die niet kunnen lezen. Taalvaardige mannen zijn aantrekkelijk voor vrouwen.
Dit zijn zomaar enkele van de vele opmerkelijke inzichten die Freek Van de Velde beschrijft in zijn boek Wat taal verraadt - een kleine geschiedenis van brein tot beschaving. Slechts 200 bladzijden heeft de Vlaamse hoogleraar nodig om het hele veld van de taalkunde uit te leggen. En hij doet dat zo helder en sprankelend, dat hij er de Taalboekenprijs 2025 voor krijgt.
Zwierige toon en humor
De jury van dit initiatief van het Genootschap Onze Taal prijst hem om 'zijn originele invalshoeken, maar ook om de erudiete eloquentie, de zwierige toon en de humoristische accenten'. Zaterdagochtend ontving hij de oorkonde en bijbehorende drieduizend euro in de uitzending van radioprogramma De Taalstaat
De schrijver is er heel erg verguld mee, vertelt hij aan de telefoon. Ik wilde mensen laten zien dat taal meer is dan zinsontleding, vertalen of andere duffe dingen. Taalkunde is een spannend veld met raakvlakken aan filosofie, biologie en antropologie.

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Tom Gauld @tomgauld.bsky.social · 1d

My latest cartoon for @newscientist.com
p.s. My new book of science cartoons 'Physics for Cats' is out this week. Details at www.tomgauld.com

Panel 1
A figure stands at a lectern
"This image illustrates my theory that, presented with a sufficient quantity of intricate formulae, overcomplicated diagrams and impenetrable acronyms, an audience will agree with almost anything."
The screen is completely packed with such things

Panel 2,3,4,5.
Four audience members say enthusiastically: "My thoughts exactly!", "Hear, hear!", "I quite agree!" and "Excellent point!"

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CEATL @ceatl.bsky.social · 1d

We are among 13 organisations representing creators and artists who wrote to the European Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee to preent our views on amendments to the draft report on Copyright and genAI. We thank MEPs who integrated our concerns in their amendments.
www.ceatl.eu/ensuring-the...

Ensuring the protection of creators’ and artists’ rights in the development of genAI: joint voting recommendations

The final implementation package of the AI Act (GPAI Code of Practice, GPAI guidelines, and transparency template) has failed to provide our members with effective and meaningful tools to enforce thei...

www.ceatl.eu

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Herman Vinckers 🇩🇪🇳🇱 @hvinckers.bsky.social · 4d

Nicolien Mizee vandaag in @trouw.nl over #vertalen. 👏🏻

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Auteursbond @auteursbond.bsky.social · 6d

De Auteursbond vraagt met de campagne ‘AI = jatwerk’ aandacht voor de schending van het auteursrecht door techbedrijven.

Kom ook naar de lancering en laat zien: Schrijvers en vertalers accepteren niet dat hun werk wordt gejat!

https://auteursbond.nl/agenda/lancering-campagne-ai-jatwerk/

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Percy Balemans 📚 @creative-xl8.bsky.social · 8d

Out now: my fourth thriller translation, and the third one by Catherine Cooper. When you buy a chateau in France to make a fresh start, but the past keeps haunting you... 🏰 👻 😱

Percy Balemans 📚 @creative-xl8.bsky.social · 8d

Zo, de tuin is weer winterklaar. Geen scheurgras gelukkig, want de neutronenkorrels waren op en ik had al helemaal geen zin om de boel te gaan stipuderen met bavianenprigment.

youtu.be/I-OQzpH9Apc?...

Jacobse & Van Es maken uw tuin winterklaar - Van Kooten en De Bie

YouTube video by Het officiële Koot&Bie-kanaal

youtu.be

Reposted by Percy Balemans 📚

JB_AU @jbau.bsky.social · 10d

This whole section really.

Finally: AI cannot do your job, but an AI salesman can 100% convince your boss to fire you and replace you with an AI that can't do your job, and when the bubble bursts, the money-hemorrhaging "foundation models" will be shut off and we'll lose the AI that can't do your job, and you will be long gone, retrained or retired or "discouraged" and out of the labor market, and no one will do your job.
AI is the asbestos we are shoveling into the walls of our society and our descendants will be digging it out for generations:

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Percy Balemans 📚 @creative-xl8.bsky.social · 9d

Today I received a job with the following instruction:

"Machine (pre-)translation is not permitted"

Glad there are still clients out there who value real, human translation skills.

Happy International Translation Day!

#InternationalTranslationDay #ITD #ITD2025 #translation #xl8

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Percy Balemans 📚 @creative-xl8.bsky.social · 9d

Today I received two fake job offers by email and a phone call from a chatbot telling me I was "the perfect candidate" for a job.

Last week I finally managed to reach a client who wasn't receiving my emails because of their strict email security.

Modern communication is becoming useless...

Percy Balemans 📚 @creative-xl8.bsky.social · 9d

Zo iemand heb ik inderdaad ook eens gehad. En dit soort mensen zijn vaak ook nog de grootste zeikerds, dus die wil je helemaal niet als klant.

Reposted by Percy Balemans 📚

Mary Kenney @marykgames.com · 10d

Even setting aside ethics (but, yknow, THAT) - I just don’t want AI bullshit. I don’t want an AI pop star, movie, book, video game.

Art is a conversation. Why would I stare at a dictionary run through the washing machine when I could read a poem lovingly constructed by someone’s hands?

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Cackling O'Brien, Chief Witch-gineer 🔵 @radobrien.myatproto.social · 10d

ok this breakdown of AI writing indicators is incredible. Huge shout-out to the Wikipedia community for this

Wikipedia:Signs of AI writing - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

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Percy Balemans 📚 @creative-xl8.bsky.social · 10d

AI is built on the backs of overworked, underpaid human beings, most of whom say they avoid using LLMs because they now know how it’s built.

Dr. Damien P. Williams Wants A Better Sociotechnical Paradigm @wolvendamien.bsky.social · 10d

Regular reminder that behind damn near every large-scale "Automated" "AI" system is a team of underpaid and otherwise exploited humans. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

How thousands of ‘overworked, underpaid’ humans train Google’s AI to seem smart

Contracted AI raters describe grueling deadlines, poor pay and opacity around work to make chatbots intelligent

www.theguardian.com

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Sara Horcas-Rufián @sarahorcas.bsky.social · 11d

We should stop using the term "translating" when we are talking about what automatic translation systems can do. What they do is processing texts (to try and replicate it using words from a different language). Translating is a human ability.

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Sonja Drimmer @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · 11d

“AI” isn’t a tool or technology or even a cluster of technologies with a misleading name. It’s the infrastructure at the foundation of a form of capitalism dependent on data brokering. We should be teaching our students about this and not teaching them about “responsible” use.

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