Grüner Punkt - the Green Dot

It isn't really a dot, but a circle (often black and white, not green) with two yin-and-yang arrows.

This symbol is actually used in the UK, and called "the Green Dot", but will people instantly recognise this name as they do in Germany?

In Germany if packaging has the Green Dot on it, consumers can usually put it in special yellow bags or bins which are collected for free (organised by DSD GmbH), saving them money on waste collection. The dot means the producer has paid a fee for their products to be collected in mainland Europe.

In the UK, this collection system is not used.

Nonetheless, the dot was introduced in the UK in 2001 when Valpak UK Ltd (the UK company which ensures packaging complies with European norms) entered into an agreement with Pro Europe, the umbrella organisation for European packaging and packaging waste recovery and recycling schemes. In the UK, the dot is only for products sold in mainland Europe.

This has recently caused some controversy, partly as people don't know what the dot is:

"The intertwined arrows of the Green Dot appear on a range of products from soap and detergent dispensers to toothpaste tubes and crisp packets.
It is widely believed to signify that the product can be recycled and may encourage environmentally-friendly shoppers to buy it.
However the sign is not a recycling symbol and has no meaning in the UK. Lucy Yates, the National Consumer Council's policy advocate, said: "It should be removed from all packaging in the UK because it's very misleading." Telegraph, 1 September 2008

But it hasn't caused enough controversy to mean that everyone is aware of the Green Dot being used in the UK:
"in Germany there is something called the Green Dot Scheme" (Martin Wheatley, March 18 2008, House of Lords)

"Consumers in the UK are unlikely to know about the PRN system, because local authorities largely undertake the collection of domestic material" (Europe Goes Green Dot brochure from pro Europe, 2007) - the PRN is a Packaging Waste Recovery Note, the commercial side of the Green Dot.

To sum things up, the Green Dot is not yet well recognised in the UK and needs some explanation.

Lolcat / Kitteh

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lolcat
Useful vocab:
lolspeak
cat macro
Im in ur noun, verb-ing ur related noun
subjects: i has dem
I has a noun
Invisible noun
[noun] haz a flavr
My noun, let me show you it/them
adjective] cat is [adjective]
Halp
Nom Nom Nom
I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER?"

Formsprache

Die Verhältnisse der Figuren zueinander und der Figuren zum Raum sind nicht immer eindeutig - eine revolutionär neue Formsprache. link

Mit stilisierten Tieren fand der Künstler zu einer ähnlichen Formsprache wie Mataré im Rheinland. link

Weder Parolen noch Formsprache des Jugendstils haben seinem oeuvre sich eingeprägt. link

Die Architektur ist abgeleitet von der typischen Formsprache des TT, der Vermischung von kurvigen Formen mit scharfkantigen Winkeln link

related concepts: Farbsprache (colour), Bildsprache (imagery)

Possible translations:
design, style, composition, arrangement, compositional style/form

e.g.:

The designers had the task of combining typical Audi design characteristics, of elegance through simple but strong lines, ... link

Leaded and hand painted in the typical Art Nouveau style of swirling flowing lines. link

UK accents and dialects

This site is really excellent:

Sounds Familiar? Accents and Dialects of the UK

Do you call a ‘bread roll’ a cob, batch, bread cake, barm cake or scuffler? How do you pronounce the words cup and plant? And are you sitting or sat at this computer? ... This site captures and celebrates the diversity of spoken English in the second half of the twentieth century.

... You can listen to 71 sound recordings and over 600 short audio clips chosen from two collections of the British Library Sound Archive: the Survey of English Dialects and the Millennium Memory Bank.

random new English words I've learned lately

name tent - a place card shaped like a tent

poolish - a liquid dough starter (Vorteig) made with yeast: keep it in the fridge and mix it with yeastless dough to create new "live" dough.


snaky - treacherous or cruelly deceitful
Nicked! His snaky ways found him out in the end

bundle - collection of legal documents
Bundle of documents - This is the collection of documents that the parties want the Tribunal to look at when deciding the appeal. (ref)