…and this is a 
Spiegel gets into the act, too
Category: Creationism
Posted on: September 27, 2007 9:16 AM, by PZ Myers
That movie Expelled is acquiring an international reputation: Spiegel reports on Unfreiwillige Kreationisten-PR: Forscher fühlen sich von Filmemachern missbraucht (if you'd rather, here's the google translation). By the time the film opens, what it will be best known for is that they had to lie to get their interviews.
(They quote me. They get my name wrong. Oh, well, it's part of my grand plan: from now on, every scientist with a weird name you've never heard of before? Just assume it's me. I shall be ubiquitously mysterious.)
Comments
Ah so you're the famous Dr Zachary I have been reading so much about. Now it all makes sense.....
But a mentioning in Der Spiegel, even if it is only in the inferior online version, I bow my head in awe.
Posted by: Umilik | September 27, 2007 9:31 AM
Dr. P.M. Zachary I presume...
I hope that more light is shown on the shenanigans of Ben Stein and his cohorts. If they truly believe that their's is the better moral and intellectual position, then surely they don't need to stoop to such immoral measures to promote it.
Posted by: sdh | September 27, 2007 9:36 AM
I like this translated sentence quite a lot: "The British researcher of Christian fundamentalists from the USA gets violent head wind." I wonder what was meant...
Posted by: Sam Wang | September 27, 2007 9:38 AM
Heh, gotta love these Google translations:
"The biologist Zachary explained, it would have itself also for a film interviewen to leave, expressly for the creationism trommelt. However, then he writes in a Blogeintrag, he probably substantially "more aggressively" over the goals of the film would then have expressed himself."
Though I have to admit, "Creationism trommelt" does have a nice gooey ring to it, kinda like their brains. And if you're going to express your opinion, I'll take doing it on a "Blogeintrag" any day over just a plain old blog.
Posted by: Fernando Magyar | September 27, 2007 9:39 AM
Dishonest scholarship.
Dishonest film-making.
Is anybody surprised?
Posted by: Ben | September 27, 2007 9:41 AM
I just keep thinking 'Expelled' has to be a subconscious acknowledgement of the similarity between their arguements and flatulence.
Posted by: Fnord Prefect | September 27, 2007 9:52 AM
[i]I like this translated sentence quite a lot: "The British researcher of Christian fundamentalists from the USA gets violent head wind." I wonder what was meant...[/i]
That means that he (Dawkins) raised a storm of protest on the side of the creazzicranks.
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But a mentioning in Der Spiegel, even if it is only in the inferior online version, I bow my head in awe.
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Lol, it´s the one and only Newsportal here in Germany (and Austria too!) with a million hits/day.
Get the message out Mr. Meyers !
Posted by: Cameltoast | September 27, 2007 9:58 AM
Um. Expelled is the last word I would pick for a movie title.
Causing people to subconsciously link creationism with enemas is not going to be good for PR.
Posted by: CalGeorge | September 27, 2007 10:00 AM
I emailed them your correct name and they corrected it within minutes. I didn't expect a reaction that fast. Thumbs up!
Posted by: JMX | September 27, 2007 10:07 AM
The translation is not perfect, no, but compare it to the English-as-a-native-tongue writers over on www.fstdt.com
Posted by: Jason Failes | September 27, 2007 10:34 AM
"But a mentioning in Der Spiegel, even if it is only in the inferior online version, I bow my head in awe.
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Lol, it´s the one and only Newsportal here in Germany (and Austria too!) with a million hits/day".
Cameltoe, hope you're not suggesting that quality is determined by popularity. Good grief, if that were the case Die Bildzeitung would have been awarded the Nobel price in literature years ago.
Posted by: Umilik | September 27, 2007 10:38 AM
That's a blog entry, literally.
Posted by: David Marjanović | September 27, 2007 11:01 AM
On the other hand, the "No Intelligence Allowed" part of the title is an excellent slogan for the ID movement.
Posted by: JT | September 27, 2007 11:15 AM
Fantastic Google translation.
"The Atheisten was much to for a long time nicely. Now we raise the voice."
I want to frame that and hang it on my wall.
Posted by: James Stein | September 27, 2007 11:18 AM
"The British researcher of Christian fundamentalists from the USA gets violent head wind."
It is a sailing term. A stong headwind makes it hard to get where you are going. The translation is quite good consdering it is computer generated. I liked: "They do not want to have known that the film the creationism publicised - and are now sourly."
People can do worse - I remember a French woman travel writer writing about going to an island and "being passionated"
Posted by: sailor | September 27, 2007 11:30 AM
(if you'd rather, here's the google translation)
Yes, but then you miss reading about the "Theorie vom Nudelmonster" in the (tabbed) box about halfway down (click on "satire").
Nudelmonster = Flying Spaghetti Monster
On the other hand, in the translation you get to see Richard Sternberg's last name literally translated (Star Mountain).
Wow, laughing at Creationists AND amusing translation gaffes. Does it get any better?
Posted by: Bill Snedden | September 27, 2007 11:46 AM
Haha, I was wondering who or what "Star mountain" was.
I also like "Marks of Mathis". Sounds like a medieval name for some sort of rash - "Oh no! I've got the dreaded Marks of Mathis!"
Posted by: kellbelle1020 | September 27, 2007 11:52 AM
Re #12 David, in "Deutsch", maybe but in "Englisch" (which is the language I was reading in) It has a ring of importance that "blog" sorta lacks. Know what I mean? BTW, Ich spreche kein Deutsches, but I have done some private technical translations in other languages so I am actually rather impressed at the understandability of these computer generated translations.
Posted by: Fernando Magyar | September 27, 2007 11:52 AM
What's the literal translation of "Gottesfürchtigen", as in
"For a long time particularly a culture fight raves between researchers and Gottesfürchtigen in the USA"?
Posted by: NC Paul | September 27, 2007 12:12 PM
Oh and I love this:
Intelligently design:
Fundamentalism in the camouflage dress: Representatives of the academic variant intelligently Design speak not of God, but of a supernatural intelligence behind all things. The creationism was renamed by its trailers in the USA particularly for legal reasons in intelligently Design, since US courts had forbidden several times religious theories at national schools. Under that new label praise trailers their faith as equivalent theory. That leaves scientists however the hair untouched to mountains - for a theory it finally bräuchte the basis of research, proofs and scientific publications.
Posted by: NC Paul | September 27, 2007 12:14 PM
@19: "Gottesfürchtigen" means (literally) people who fear god resp. are afraid of him.
BTW great blog, Prof. Myers
Posted by: Michael | September 27, 2007 12:26 PM
It means "the godfearing".
Posted by: Christian | September 27, 2007 12:40 PM
Yeah...Google's auto-translation system is a bit too "All Your Base"-y to be reliable. I mean, come on. "They do not want to have known that the film the creationism publicised - and are now sourly." WTF?!!
Posted by: J. A. Baker | September 27, 2007 1:14 PM
Dr. Zachary? The only Zachary I know of is Dr Zachary Smith for the TV show, "Lost In Space". Now I am getting an interest pichure of how PZ may act. I also would love to see Dr Smith talk about merkins with Robot and Will Robinson.
Danger!
Danger!
Posted by: Janine | September 27, 2007 1:46 PM
I shall be ubiquitously mysterious.
All honesty, you should add "Ubiquitously Mysterious" to your business cards.
Posted by: Strange Forces | September 27, 2007 4:38 PM
Yeah. And the printer will misspell it.
Posted by: PZ Myers | September 27, 2007 4:55 PM
Rampant films' website has a "contact us" section where there is an email address. I sent an email to ask why the makers of Expelled were not honest with scientists like PZ Meyers about their reasons for interviewing them. I just got a failure notice that the email address is not valid. Are these guys hiding now?
Posted by: Texas Reader | September 27, 2007 5:42 PM
I'm now going to must Google use for Der Speigel tranlationmus. Not only is it a riot to read, and some work to tease out what is actually being written, but it is a computer translation. A very well done translation (for a computer) at that.
Posted by: Ken Mareld | September 27, 2007 6:38 PM
They used to have the address of their L.A.
maildropoffice on their website, until I took a drive by and discovered it to be a generic apartment house, which I posted here.Posted by: Pieter B | September 27, 2007 6:42 PM
I don't know when you're going to stop your whining, PZ. From what you've shown us from these Expelled guys, they didn't lie to you. From both Ass Prod's letter and the Rampant web site, it appears that these people made no secret about the film's content. All they kept from you, perhaps, was their point of view on the topic. And why should they have to share that? As far as the title change, that happens all the time in the film and book businesses. To me, all it looks like you're doing is covering your ass so you look tough in front of your peanut gallery. It also sounds like you're scared stiff of this film and you'll do anything to discredit it. Stand back and listen to yourself for once. You're not fooling anybody.
Posted by: DAC | September 28, 2007 11:16 AM
Then read again.
Posted by: David Marjanović | September 29, 2007 8:56 AM
I told "Spiegel" that they got PZs name wrong. They thanked me for the hint and corrected it
Posted by: Corn | October 2, 2007 8:13 AM